Glance

Most reports have it that Mullah Omar, an ethnic Pashtun, was born into an impoverished family in the town of Nodeh in Afghanistan's southern Uruzgan province, some time between 1959 and 1962. After studying at several Islamic schools, he emerged as a Muslim cleric.

After the Soviet invasion in 1979, he joined the jihad, or holy war, and was appointed a commander of the anti-Soviet Mujahideen guerrillas, losing his right eye to shrapnel in fighting.

In 1996 Omar was named the Amir ul-Moemineen, "Commander of the Faithful", by a group of Islamic scholars made up of Taliban - the once ragtag group of fighters that he helped found in 1994 ostensibly to combat post-war lawlessness.