The car of the historical leader of the Taliban was found buried under the earth. She had remained out of sight for 21 years. This vehicle had been used by Mullah Omar to flee and escape American strikes after 9/11. It was discovered in eastern Afghanistan, officials said.
The white Toyota Corolla had been intentionally buried in the garden of a village in Zabul province by Taliban leader Abdul Jabbar Omari. He ordered it to be dug up this week. “This vehicle was buried by the mujahideen (Editor’s note, Taliban fighters), in memory of Omar in 2001, to prevent it from being destroyed”, explained Rahmatullah Hammad, the director of information and culture of the Zabul province. The car “is still in good condition, only the front is a bit damaged”.
A “great historical monument”
Taliban officials released photos of the car being placed in a large hole, partly covered in soil, and dug up by hand with shovels and pickaxes. According to Rahmatullah Hammad, the Taliban intend to hand over the vehicle to the national museum in the capital Kabul, to exhibit it as a “great historical monument”.
The Taliban were formed in Kandahar by Mullah Omar, who led the radical Islamist movement to power in 1996 after a bloody civil war and will impose a radical interpretation of Sharia (Islamic law) on the country. Afghanistan then became a sanctuary for jihadist groups, including Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, the architects of the September 11 attacks.
En fuite de Kandahar
When the Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden, the United States and its allies launched a major military operation in the country and ousted the Islamists from power. Taliban officials said this week that Mullah Omar fled Kandahar in the Toyota Corolla. The historical leader of the movement died in hiding in 2013, although authorities kept his death secret for several years.
After twenty years of attempts to contain a bloody insurgency, Washington and its NATO allies withdrew their last troops from Afghanistan last August, as the Taliban took control of Kabul after a lightning offensive .