Mohammed Omar

Muhammad Umar Mujahid (c. 1950 to 1962 – 23 April 2013), commonly known as Mullah Omar or Muhammad Omar, was an Afghan militant and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. He founded the Taliban, an Islamist militant organization, in 1994 and served as its first supreme leader until his death in 2013. During the Third Afghan Civil War, the Taliban fought the Northern Alliance and took control of most of the country, establishing its first Islamic Emirate. Shortly after the militant group al-Qaeda carried out the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Taliban government was toppled by an American invasion of Afghanistan, prompting Omar to go into hiding. While evading capture by the American-led coalition, he died from tuberculosis in 2013.

Born into a religious family in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Omar was educated at local madrasas. After Afghanistan was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1979, he joined the mujahideen to fight in the Soviet–Afghan War and was trained by Amir Sultan Tarar. Omar served as an important rebel commander during several skirmishes, losing his right eye in an explosion. The Soviets eventually withdrew from the country in 1989 and Afghanistan's Soviet-backed Democratic Republic was toppled in 1992, triggering the Second Afghan Civil War. While initially remaining quiet and focused on continuing his studies, Omar became increasingly discontent with what he perceived as fasād in the country, ultimately prompting him to return to fighting in the Civil War.

In 1994, Omar, along with religious students in Kandahar, formed the Taliban, which emerged victorious against other Afghan factions by 1996. Omar led the Taliban to form a Sunni Islamic theocracy headed by the Supreme Council, known as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which strictly enforced the Sharia. While ruling between 1996 and 2001, the Taliban were widely condemned for committing massacres against civilians, discriminating against religious and ethnic minorities, banning women from school and most employment, and destroying cultural monuments, including the Buddhas of Bamiyan, which Omar personally ordered by a decree.