'We'll get Osama one day'

2004-03-14 21:29

Washington - One day after the US military announced a major new sweep against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sought to diminish expectations on Sunday by saying nothing unusual was happening.

"What's going on is a normal activity that takes place. And from time to time, there are sweeps made," Rumsfeld said.

"And I think to hype it or suggest that there's something major going on is probably a misunderstanding. These things tend to ebb and flow."

A US military spokesperson in Afghanistan, Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Hilferty, said on Saturday that American troops were stepping up efforts to find Osama bin Laden and destroy his terrorist network with a major new sweep in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

Asked if the military might be closing in on bin Laden, Rumsfeld replied: "No. That's what I would want to disabuse anyone of. You know, he may be alive and he may not be.

"We don't know if he's alive or dead. He may be in Afghanistan. He may be in Pakistan. He may be someplace else."

Hilferty had said in January that he was "sure" the United States and its allies would catch bin Laden by the end of the year.

But on CNN's Late Edition on Sunday Rumsfeld said: "I don't know if he'll be caught this year. If he's alive, I'm sure he'll be caught eventually. And when, I don't know."

President George W Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, described "an awful lot floating around about Osama bin Laden and where he might be caught or where he might not be caught. But I think it's really not backed up by sound intelligence. People should stop speculating."

Rice said on NBC television's "Meet the Press" that the hunt is "a daily, hourly activity and task, but we will find him when we find him".

In Saturday's announcement of the sweep across southern and eastern Afghanistan involving thousands of troops, the military insisted their net eventually would close on bin Laden.

- AP