Bin Laden 'not in Afghanistan'
2005-06-16 15:48
Kabul - Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar are not in Afghanistan, the US ambassador said on Thursday, a day after a top Taliban commander said the pair were alive and well.
"Mullah Omar is not in Afghanistan. I do not believe that Osama is in Afghanistan," Zalmay Khalilzad told a press conference.
Afghan-American Khalilzad did not say where he thought the pair, who are among the world's most wanted men, were hiding.
US and Afghan officials have previously said they think bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda kingpins are in a mountainous border area that also straddles part of key US ally Pakistan.
Officials in Islamabad refused to comment on Thursday. But when Khalilzad speculated in May that bin Laden could be hiding in Pakistan, the Foreign Office said the US official should share his information so they could act.
Khalilzad, who has been nominated as the new US ambassador to Iraq, said that the hunt for bin Laden would continue.
"Symbolically, it is very important that he is brought to justice," he said, adding that progress had been made in the fight against the Al-Qaeda network, with some of its top leaders arrested and its financial capabilities weakened.
- AFP