Less than a month after a historic first meeting, representatives of the Taliban and the Afghan government are due to sit down again Friday in Pakistan amid reports that the insurgent group’s supreme leader is dead.
Mullah Mohammad Omar had not been seen publicly in more than a decade and long ago ceased running the Taliban’s day-to-day operations. But the man who ruled Afghanistan before the 2001 U.S.-led invasion was the spiritual guide of the insurgent faction that most strongly supported peace talks with Kabul.
After the Taliban for years vowed not to negotiate with a government it calls a tool of the West, a statement attributed to Omar two weeks ago endorsed the meetings, which many believe represent the best chance for a truce in a decade-plus war that has killed more than 21,000 Afghans (and nearly 2,400 Americans).