Afghan intelligence says Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban, was killed two years ago

Afghanistan's main intelligence agency said yesterday that the reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar has been dead for more than two years.

The one-eyed, secretive head of the Taliban hosted Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda in the years leading up to the September 11 attacks and then waged a decade-long insurgency against US troops after the 2001 invasion that ended Taliban rule.

He has not been seen in public since fleeing the invasion over the border into Pakistan.

Rumours of Omar's ill health and even death have regularly surfaced in the past, but the lat-est claims - just two days be-fore fresh peace talks with the insurgents - mark the first such confirmation from the Afghan government.

Abdul Hassib Sediqi, the spokesman for Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, said Omar died in a hospital in the Pakistani city of Karachi in April 2013. "We confirm officially that he is dead," he said.

It was not immediately clear why his death was only being announced now. Neither the Taliban nor Pakistani officials could immediately be reached for comment.