#Taliban #dig #getaway #car #belonging #exleader #Mullah #Omar
The car used to attack Taliban founder Mullah Omar by US forces after the September 11, 2001 attacks has been unearthed in eastern Afghanistan, where it lay buried for more than two decades, officials said.
The white Toyota Corolla was buried in a village garden in Zabul province by former Taliban official Abdul Jabbar Omari, who has ordered it to be dug up this week.
“It is still in good condition, only its front is slightly damaged,” Rahmatullah Hammad, director of information and culture of Zabul province, told AFP.
“This vehicle was buried by the mujahideen in 2001 as a memorial to Omar to prevent it from being lost,” he said.
Taliban media officials released images of the car being dug out of its vehicle grave by men using hand shovels.
The Taliban want the car to be displayed in the capital’s national museum as a “great historical monument,” Hammad added.
The Taliban were founded in Kandahar by Mullah Omar, who led the hardline Islamist movement to power in 1996 after a bloody civil war and imposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law on the country.
Afghanistan then became a haven for jihadist groups, including Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, the architects of the September 11 attacks.
When the Taliban refused to extradite bin Laden, the US and its allies launched airstrikes into Afghanistan before invading, ousting the Taliban and installing a new government.
Taliban officials said this week that Mullah Omar fled Kandahar in a Toyota Corolla.
He died in hiding in 2013, although officials kept his death a secret for several years.
After two decades of trying to hold back a bloody insurgency, Washington withdrew its last troops last year as the Taliban swept across the country, seized Kabul and returned to power.
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