'Bin Laden is not here'

2005-07-09 09:40

Kabul - Osama bin Laden is not in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai said, while a purported Taliban spokesperson reiterated a claim that a missing American commando is being held by the rebels and will soon be killed.

Karzai made the comment on Friday at a news conference in the capital, Kabul, but gave no suggestion of where he thinks the al-Qaeda leader may be hiding.

"God knows where he is. ... We don't know. ... He is not in Afghanistan," he said, without elaborating.

His comment came days after Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said bin Laden is not in Pakistan and could be hiding in southeastern Afghanistan.

United States officials have said they believe bin Laden is somewhere in rugged mountains between the two nations.

US military spokesperson Lieutenant Cindy Moore declined to comment on the latest claim that a US Navy Seal soldier has been captured, except to say that "we are continuing to search for him."

The soldier is the last of a four-member US Navy Seal team missing for 11 days in Kunar province, near the Pakistani border. One of the men was rescued and the other two were found dead.

Purported Taliban spokesperson Mullah Latif Hakimi said the soldier is being interrogated and would later be killed.

"Right now the interrogation is taking place of the American who is with us about the American strategy in Afghanistan," he said. "After that ... he will be executed, definitely."

Hakimi has said previously that the Taliban are holding the soldier. But information from him in the past has frequently proven exaggerated or untrue, and his exact tie to the Taliban leadership cannot be independently verified.

The claims by the Taliban follow an unprecedented spate of insurgent violence that has left about 700 people dead and threatened to sabotage three years of progress toward peace. Afghan officials insist the violence will not disrupt landmark legislative elections slated for September.

- AP