It was the middle of the night in Afghanistan Tuesday when local journalists received a text message from a Taliban spokesperson with stunning news: Mullah Omar, the one-eyed leader of the Taliban and former conrade in arms of Osama bin Laden, was dead.
The Taliban’s official website appeared to confirm the news and posted its own announcement on the passing of one of the world’s most wanted men.

But Mullah Omar isn’t dead — at least not as far as U.S. officials know. Another Taliban spokesman quickly contacted members of the media to say Omar is alive and doing fine, thank you. He claimed that both the Taliban’s website and phone network had been hacked by a “cunning enemy” who spread the false report.