Citing unnamed US officials and insurgents in Afghanistan, the newspaper said this represents a change in strategy because until recently, the conduct of the Taleban's war against the US-led coalition had been left to local commanders.

Omar, who heads a Taleban leadership council called the Quetta 'shura', had been focusing on fundraising, religious guidance and strategic advice to fighters, according to the report.

But since the beginning of the year, Omar has ordered a spate of suicide bombings and assassinations in southern and eastern Afghanistan that presage a bloody phase to come in the Afghan war, the paper said.

One target was Ahmed Wali Karzai, the younger brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who survived a gun and rocket attack on his motorcade in eastern Afghanistan on May 18, The Journal said.

However, Qari Sayed Ahmad, a moderate cleric, was gunned down outside his home in Kandahar, in April.

A mid-level Taleban commander in southern Afghanistan said in a telephone interview that the assassination had been carried out on orders from one of Omar's lieutenants, the report noted.

In another unusual attack in mid-May, nearly a dozen suicide bombers struck targets in the provincial capital of Khost in eastern Afghanistan, leaving at least 12 dead, not including the bombers.

US officials say the attack was ordered by the Quetta shura, The Journal pointed out.

According to the Journal, he was referring to plans by the administration of US President Barack Obama to send an additional 21,000 troops to Afghanistan over the next few months. -- AFP