Taliban leader 'lived near US bases'

Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar lived within walking distance of US bases in Afghanistan, a new book has claimed.

Bette Dam's The Secret Life of Mullah Omar says the leader never hid in Pakistan as believed by the US.

Instead, he lived in hiding just three miles from a major US Forward Operating Base in his home province of Zabul.

Dutch journalist Ms Dam spent five years researching and interviewing Taliban members for her book.

She managed to speak to Jabbar Omari, the man who effectively became Omar's bodyguard when he went into hiding after the ousting of the Taliban regime in 2001.

Mr Omari hid the Taliban leader until his death from illness in 2013.