Akhtar Mohammad Osmani

Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani or Usmani (died 19 December 2006)^[1] was a senior leader of the Taliban, treasurer for the organization,^[2] and close associate of Osama bin Laden and Mohammed Omar. He was involved in the demolition of the Buddhas of Bamyan^[3] and was considered a potential successor to Mullah Omar.^[4] Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, once referred to him as one of the four most dangerous Taliban members still in Afghanistan.^[5]

Shortly after the 11 September attacks, CIA officer Robert Grenier met him to offer the Taliban the opportunity to give up Osama bin Laden.^[4]

In December 2006, as he was riding in a four-wheel drive vehicle in Helmand Province, Osmani was killed by a smart bomb in a United States Air Force airstrike.^[3] He had been tracked down by a Royal Air Force airplane which monitored his satellite phone.^[2] Spokesmen of the Taliban initially denied his death^[6] and claimed that the bomb had instead killed a Taliban leader called Abdul Zahir.^[7] However, several days later other top Taliban officials confirmed his death.^[8]

Mental health

While Taliban provincial governor in Mazar-e-Sharif, he began seeing Afghan psychiatrist Nader Alemi, the only psychiatrist in northern Afghanistan to speak Pashto, the language of most Taliban. Akhtar only kept a few appointments as he would go off on missions every three months. "I used to treat the Taliban as human beings, same as I would treat my other patients… " said Alemi. "."^[9]

References

 

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• Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani killed in airstrike

1. "Bin Laden's "close associate" killed in southern Afghanistan". Yahoo! News. 23 December 2006. Retrieved 28 December 2006. ^{[dead link]}
2. Smith, Michael (24 December 2006). "Taliban leader 'killed' after RAF tracks phone". London: The Sunday Times. from the original on 27 December 2006. Retrieved 28 December 2006.
3. . Yahoo! News. 23 December 2006. Archived from the original on 30 December 2006. Retrieved 23 December 2006.
4. Grey, Stephen. Key Taliban Leaders in Afghanistan Eliminated, ABC News, 24 July 2008.
5. "Afghanistan: The Broadening Border War". StrategyWorld.com. 28 April 2006. from the original on 3 January 2007. Retrieved 28 December 2006.
6. "U.S.: Top bin Laden associate killed". CNN.com. 23 December 2006. from the original on 25 December 2006. Retrieved 24 December 2006.
7. . Daily Times (Pakistan). 25 December 2006. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 3 February 2008.
8. "Taliban official admits U.S. strike killed military chief". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 27 December 2006. from the original on 3 January 2007. Retrieved 27 December 2006.
9. Tahir Qadiry (26 November 2014). "The Taliban's psychiatrist". BBC News. Mazar-e-Sharif. Retrieved 28 November 2014.