RFE/RL
The late Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar lived near a U.S. base in southern Afghanistan for years, a new book claims. Searching For An Enemy, by Dutch journalist and writer Bette Dam, says the fugitive leader never hid in Pakistan as was believed by U.S. and Afghan officials.
Dam spent five years researching and interviewing Taliban members for the biography of the one-eyed militant leader, which was published in Dutch last month. A summary of the findings was published in English by the U.S.-based Zomia think tank.
The Taliban held power in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, when the group was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion, and has waged an antigovernment insurgency since then.
A $10 million bounty was put on Omar's head after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States that killed nearly 3,000 people.
According to Dam, Omar lived in Zabul Province's capital, Qalat, until 2004, when U.S. troops began building Forward Operating Base (FOB) Lagman, just a few minutes' walk from his hideout.
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