KABUL, Afghanistan — Mullah Mohammad Omar has never welcomed the public spotlight, preferring to strategize from the shadows both as a guerrilla fighter against the Soviets and as Afghanistan's ruler before the U.S. invasion in 2001.
So it was unusual when the Taliban published an official biography for the first time with a clear message: The one-eyed jihadist is alive, in Afghanistan and very much in charge.
"In the present crucial conditions and regularly being tracked by the enemy, no major change and disruption has been observed in the routine works" of Mullah Omar, it read. He's "still the leader in the present hierarchy."
The 5,000-word document is a salvo in a public-relations battle between the Taliban and the Islamic State, which is pushing to expand its influence into South Asia from its base in Iraq and Syria. Several Taliban factions straddling the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan have recently left the group due to the lack of an inspirational leader.
"This can convince their local commanders in war, to prevent them from abandoning them or joining ISIS," said Waheed Mujhda, a Kabul-based analyst on Taliban affairs who was a senior official in the Taliban's government, referring to the Islamic State.
Mullah Omar is now 55 years old, according to the biography posted on a Taliban website on April 4. He doesn't own a home and has no cash in foreign bank accounts. He regularly reads jihadi publications and international press reports to keep abreast of world affairs, the biography said.
"He is affable and has a special sense of humor as he never considers himself superior to his colleagues whatever their status might have been," it reads. "He treats them cheerfully, cordially, compassionately and with reciprocal reverence. In most of his meetings, he usually speaks about Jihad."
The Taliban is pushing to reassert its control over Afghanistan as the United States reduces its military presence after 14 years of war. The United Nations in February said the group controls four of 373 districts nationwide, with 40 percent of all towns and cities facing a significant threat from insurgents.
Mullah Omar is living in Afghanistan, shifting locations within the country for his safety as he's leading a "big war," said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed. The group denied that the Islamic State is starting to hurt the Taliban, saying it hasn't detected the presence of the Islamic State and doesn't consider it a threat, he said by phone on April 6.
"There is no need and no room for ISIS in Afghanistan to establish their own Islamic state," Mujahed said. "Afghanistan has its own Mujahedeen as we are here to fulfill that Islamic obligation."
Mullah Omar grew up in a religious household in southern Afghanistan and studied in Islamic schools until the Soviet Union invaded in 1978, the biography said. In his early 20s, he abandoned his studies and fought in the mujahedeen. He lost his right eye in a fight with the Russians, it said.
The biography contains details on some of his exploits, none of which could be independently verified. One said he destroyed four Russian military tanks using the only four rocket-propelled grenades left in their arsenal.
In 1997, Mullah Omar invited Osama bin Laden to Afghanistan and refused to give him up even after the Sept. 11 attacks. Since the American invasion, Mullah Omar has been on the run, with the Congressional Research Service saying in 2013 that he led 20,000 militants from Quetta and Karachi, two cities in neighboring Pakistan.
The Taliban had denied several reports in 2011 that said he had died of a heart illness. Mullah Omar had made statements over the past few years, most recently in July when he called on the U.S. and its allies to withdraw all of its troops.
The Taliban has tried to improve its public image. It joined the government last month in condemning the lynching of a woman who fought with a cleric over corruption. It has also repeatedly denied involvment in the killings of 13 travelers on a main highway and abductions of 31 Shiite Afghans, casting suspicion on the Islamic State.
"The biography meant to somehow depict him as a loving and admirable person in the country and the world," Faisal Sami, an Afghan senator, by phone. "It's also meant to strengthen the morale of skeptical soldiers who thought he never existed or had died."
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