| Taliban leader goes into hiding claim opposition |
Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar has gone into hiding, according to Afghan opposition leaders.
According to CNN, the Northern Alliance claims he fears a US attack and is now communicating with his government once a day by radio.
The Alliance, which controls about 5% of Afghanistan, says they are handing over the information it is gathering to the United States.
Mullah Omar is a reclusive figure whose friendship with Osama bin Laden has brought his country almost complete isolation.
He has vigorously defended him against allegations he masterminded last week's attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
Bin Laden is believed to have at least partially financed the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, from which Mullah Omar emerged as "commander of the faithful".
There are claims each has married daughters of the other - although Taliban officials deny this.
No Western journalist has ever met Mullah Omar, who leaves virtually all contact with the outside world to his foreign minister, Wakil Ahmad Mutawakkil.
He lost the use of his right eye when it was damaged by shrapnel when he was fighting Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers in the 1980s.
Story filed: 16:25 Thursday 20th September 2001
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