<p class="title">Taliban founder Mullah Omar lived within walking distance of US bases in Afghanistan for years, according to a new book that suggests embarrassing failures of American intelligence.</p>.<p class="bodytext">US and Afghan leaders believed the one-eyed, fugitive leader fled to and eventually died in Pakistan, but a new biography says Omar was living just three miles from a major US Forward Operating Base in Zabul province, where he died in 2013.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Searching for an Enemy", by Dutch journalist Bette Dam, says the Taliban chief lived as a virtual hermit, refusing visits from his family and filling notebooks with jottings in an imaginary language.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Dam spent more than five years researching the book and interviewed Jabbar Omari, Omar's bodyguard who hid and protected him after the Taliban regime was overthrown.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The author spent years reporting in Afghanistan and also wrote an earlier book about former Afghan president Hamid Karzai.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001 which led to the fall of the Taliban, the US put a $10 million bounty on Omar and he went into hiding in a small compound in the regional capital Qalat, Dam writes.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The family living at the compound were not told of the identity of their mystery guest, but US forces twice almost found him.</p>.<p class="bodytext">At one point, a US patrol approached as Omar and Omari were in the courtyard. Alarmed, the two men ducked behind a wood pile, but the soldiers passed without entering.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A second time, US troops even searched the house but did not uncover the concealed entrance to his secret room.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Omar decided to move when the US started building Forward Operating Base Lagman in 2004, just a few hundred metres from his hideout.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He later moved to a second building but soon afterwards the Pentagon constructed Forward Operating Base Wolverine -- home to 1,000 US troops, and where American and British special forces were sometimes based -- close by.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He dared not move again, Dam says, rarely even going outside and often hiding in tunnels when US planes flew over.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Though he listened to the BBC's evening Pashto-language news broadcasts, even when he learned about the death of al-Qaeda supremo Osama Bin Laden Omar rarely commented on the outside world, the book says.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The book goes on to claim that Omar became ill in 2013, did not see a doctor and refused to travel to Pakistan for treatment, later dying in Zabul.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The allegations sparked mixed reactions, with the Afghan government quick to deny the claims.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We strongly reject this delusional claim and we see it as an effort to create and build an identify for the Taliban and their foreign backers," tweeted Haroon Chakhansuri -- a spokesman for the Afghan presidency.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We have sufficient evidence which shows he lived and died in Pakistan. Period!"</p>.<p class="bodytext">Former CIA director and US military commander in Afghanistan David Petraeus also appeared sceptical, saying the Taliban leader's alleged decision to stay in Afghanistan would have been laden with risk.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We had access, as needed, to anywhere inside Afghanistan, and I would be very surprised if Mullah Omar would have taken the risk that we could come calling some evening," said Petraeus according to the Wall Street Journal.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"I have piles & piles of evidence which shows he lived & died in Pakistan," added Amrullah Saleh, who was head of Afghan intelligence from 2004-2010.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Afghan officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of harbouring Taliban insurgents.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Omar's Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, and has waged an insurgency since then.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Dam's book says Omar delegated effective Taliban leadership after 2001 and appears to have acted as more of a spiritual leader after that. The militants kept his death secret for two years.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The latest account of Omar's life comes as the Taliban and US are holding ongoing peace talks aimed at bringing an end to the nearly 18-year conflict.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The US and Taliban have remained tight-lipped about the most recent round of talks in Doha, which have been ongoing for two weeks, sparking expectations that they may be inching closer to a deal.</p>
<p class="title">Taliban founder Mullah Omar lived within walking distance of US bases in Afghanistan for years, according to a new book that suggests embarrassing failures of American intelligence.</p>.<p class="bodytext">US and Afghan leaders believed the one-eyed, fugitive leader fled to and eventually died in Pakistan, but a new biography says Omar was living just three miles from a major US Forward Operating Base in Zabul province, where he died in 2013.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Searching for an Enemy", by Dutch journalist Bette Dam, says the Taliban chief lived as a virtual hermit, refusing visits from his family and filling notebooks with jottings in an imaginary language.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Dam spent more than five years researching the book and interviewed Jabbar Omari, Omar's bodyguard who hid and protected him after the Taliban regime was overthrown.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The author spent years reporting in Afghanistan and also wrote an earlier book about former Afghan president Hamid Karzai.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001 which led to the fall of the Taliban, the US put a $10 million bounty on Omar and he went into hiding in a small compound in the regional capital Qalat, Dam writes.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The family living at the compound were not told of the identity of their mystery guest, but US forces twice almost found him.</p>.<p class="bodytext">At one point, a US patrol approached as Omar and Omari were in the courtyard. Alarmed, the two men ducked behind a wood pile, but the soldiers passed without entering.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A second time, US troops even searched the house but did not uncover the concealed entrance to his secret room.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Omar decided to move when the US started building Forward Operating Base Lagman in 2004, just a few hundred metres from his hideout.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He later moved to a second building but soon afterwards the Pentagon constructed Forward Operating Base Wolverine -- home to 1,000 US troops, and where American and British special forces were sometimes based -- close by.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He dared not move again, Dam says, rarely even going outside and often hiding in tunnels when US planes flew over.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Though he listened to the BBC's evening Pashto-language news broadcasts, even when he learned about the death of al-Qaeda supremo Osama Bin Laden Omar rarely commented on the outside world, the book says.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The book goes on to claim that Omar became ill in 2013, did not see a doctor and refused to travel to Pakistan for treatment, later dying in Zabul.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The allegations sparked mixed reactions, with the Afghan government quick to deny the claims.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We strongly reject this delusional claim and we see it as an effort to create and build an identify for the Taliban and their foreign backers," tweeted Haroon Chakhansuri -- a spokesman for the Afghan presidency.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We have sufficient evidence which shows he lived and died in Pakistan. Period!"</p>.<p class="bodytext">Former CIA director and US military commander in Afghanistan David Petraeus also appeared sceptical, saying the Taliban leader's alleged decision to stay in Afghanistan would have been laden with risk.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We had access, as needed, to anywhere inside Afghanistan, and I would be very surprised if Mullah Omar would have taken the risk that we could come calling some evening," said Petraeus according to the Wall Street Journal.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"I have piles & piles of evidence which shows he lived & died in Pakistan," added Amrullah Saleh, who was head of Afghan intelligence from 2004-2010.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Afghan officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of harbouring Taliban insurgents.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Omar's Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, and has waged an insurgency since then.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Dam's book says Omar delegated effective Taliban leadership after 2001 and appears to have acted as more of a spiritual leader after that. The militants kept his death secret for two years.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The latest account of Omar's life comes as the Taliban and US are holding ongoing peace talks aimed at bringing an end to the nearly 18-year conflict.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The US and Taliban have remained tight-lipped about the most recent round of talks in Doha, which have been ongoing for two weeks, sparking expectations that they may be inching closer to a deal.</p>