France and the United States said on Saturday they could not confirm a report that Osama bin Laden had died and France launched a probe into how a secret document containing the claim was leaked.
Osama bin Laden has a water-borne illness, a Saudi intelligence source told a news agency on Saturday, a report that conflicts with an article in a French newspaper saying that the al Qaeda leader is dead. Officials in the United States, which has made capturing bin Laden a priority in its war on terrorism, were unable to confirm the account. Officials in Pakistan and the US said they could not confirm the account.
Saudi-born Bin Laden was based in Afghanistan until the Taleban government there was overthrown by US-backed forces in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks. Since then, US and Pakistani officials have regularly said they believe he is hiding in the lawless border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan. His last videotaped message was released in late 2004, but several audio tapes have been released this year – the last at the end of June, in which Bin Laden praised Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, who was killed in an American air strike. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters in New York: “No comment, no knowledge,” when asked about the French article. A U.S. intelligence source separately said Washington had no evidence this report was any more credible than earlier rumors of bin Laden’s demise.
Leave Your Comments Below