Former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is indeed dead, the Afghan Islamist militant group confirmed Thursday.
The acknowledgment, made in a statement released by Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, came a day after Afghanistan’s government announced that the reclusive Islamic cleric had died in April 2013.
The Taliban’s statement, in the Pashto language, called Omar “the late leader of the faithful.”
News of Omar’s death came just weeks after the Afghan government its first face-to-face talks with Taliban representatives in an attempt to work toward a peace process.