Taliban spokesmen in Afghanistan denied Wednesday that the insurgent group’s leader Mullah Mohammed Omar had died, claiming that a phone message and a posting on the Internet were fake.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press that a text message sent to journalists on his behalf was the result of a phone hack.

“He is overseeing operations in the country,” he told the AP. He added that “outsiders must have hacked into Taliban phones.”