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Mullah Omar survived two missile strikes
The leader of Afghanistan`s Taliban movement, Mullah Mohammad Omar, survived a direct US missile strike on his home and fled with his second wife in a taxi, the fugitive`s driver said on Monday.
The leader of Afghanistan's Taliban movement, Mullah Mohammad Omar, survived a direct US missile strike on his home and fled with his second wife in a taxi, the fugitive's driver said on Monday.
He escaped a second, pinpoint attack on the cab a little more than an hour later.
"The missile struck and all of (Omar's) family ran outside in panic, and Mullah Omar asked me to get a taxi," Mohammed Rahim, 35, said.
Mullah Omar, and his ally, Saudi-born Osama Bin Laden, top Washington's most wanted list. Their whereabouts are not known.
The leader of the strict Islamic movement that ruled Afghanistan for six years got into Rahim's vehicle along with his second wife and a number of his children.
"I was really scared. He told me to go to Sangisar. This was at night -- the missile hit the house at 8:55 pm (1625 GMT)," Rahim said.
The journey took about an hour. Sangisar is in Maiwand district, west of Kandahar.
Other associates of the Taliban leader have said Mullah Omar fled the night before the first US bombing directed at his homes -- one in Kandahar city, the other on western outskirts.
Rahim said he was not sure about the casualties in the attack on the larger and newer house, but he had heard that Mullah Omar's stepfather, who is also his uncle, had been killed.
Residents fleeing Kandahar said at the time that Mullah Omar's 10-year-old son was also killed in the airstrike on his house in Sangisar.
Bureau Report
He escaped a second, pinpoint attack on the cab a little more than an hour later.
"The missile struck and all of (Omar's) family ran outside in panic, and Mullah Omar asked me to get a taxi," Mohammed Rahim, 35, said.
Mullah Omar, and his ally, Saudi-born Osama Bin Laden, top Washington's most wanted list. Their whereabouts are not known.
The leader of the strict Islamic movement that ruled Afghanistan for six years got into Rahim's vehicle along with his second wife and a number of his children.
"I was really scared. He told me to go to Sangisar. This was at night -- the missile hit the house at 8:55 pm (1625 GMT)," Rahim said.
The journey took about an hour. Sangisar is in Maiwand district, west of Kandahar.
Other associates of the Taliban leader have said Mullah Omar fled the night before the first US bombing directed at his homes -- one in Kandahar city, the other on western outskirts.
Rahim said he was not sure about the casualties in the attack on the larger and newer house, but he had heard that Mullah Omar's stepfather, who is also his uncle, had been killed.
Residents fleeing Kandahar said at the time that Mullah Omar's 10-year-old son was also killed in the airstrike on his house in Sangisar.
Bureau Report