2nd LD writethru: Afghan gov't assessing report on Taliban leader Omar's death

The Afghan government is assessing the report on the death of Taliban reclusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, Sayed Zafar Hashemi, a deputy spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, said here Wednesday at a press conference.

Earlier in the day, media reports and some officials on the condition of anonymity said Omar was dead and he died two or three years ago.

"We have heard media reports about Mullah Omar's death and we are assessing the accuracy of the reports," Hashimi said. "I neither confirm nor reject the report of Mullah Omar's death at the moment," the official added.

Mullah Omar has not been seen since the collapse of his regime by the U.S.-led military invasion in 2001.

Media reports suggested that Omar had died in Pakistan due to illness two years ago, a claim rebuffed by Taliban as groundless.

Mullah Omar's death has been floating amid peace talks between Taliban representatives and the Afghanistan government.

The first round of face-on-face talks between the two sides was held in Pakistan a couple of weeks ago and the second round is expected to be held within days, probably in Islamabad.

A wanted man by the United States, the one-eyed Omar who escaped the biggest Washington military manhunt in the region over the past 14 years has several times been reported dead but no one has seen his coffin nor him alive.

Also on Wednesday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in contact with media dismissed the media report on Omar's death as mere propaganda.

Omar, who established the Taliban Movement in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province in 1994 and announced his Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan after capturing Kabul in 1996, has been leading a bloody insurgency since the collapse of Taliban regime in 2001 to re-establish his fanatic Islamic Emirate in the war- torn central Asian country. Endit