TEHRAN, 4 November — Iran officially confirmed to AFP yesterday the arrest and deportation of a son of fugitive Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. “About two months ago we arrested some 20 people who had entered Iran illegally, without knowing the son of Bin Laden was among them. Immediately, we sent them back across the (Pakistani) border,” government spokesman Abdullah Ramezanzadeh said.
The Financial Times of London reported on its website late Saturday that Iranian security forces had detained at least one of Bin Laden’s sons after he crossed the border from Afghanistan and handed him over to either the Saudi or Pakistani authorities. US officials have said they are not sure whether Bin Laden is still alive or has been killed in one of the US-led operations in Afghanistan.
Pakistan said it had no information about the report that a son of Bin Laden had been arrested and extradited, possibly to Pakistan. “Well, I haven’t heard of this. I have no idea at all,” said government spokesman Anwar Mahmood in Islamabad, adding that he would look into the matter today.
In another report, according to The Sunday Times, the youngest wife of Bin Laden has been arrested after a gunbattle at her father’s compound in Yemen.
Amal Al-Saddah, Bin Laden’s fifth and favorite wife, who is in her early twenties, has been placed under house arrest and questioned by Yemeni authorities, The Sunday Times said on its front page.
Arab diplomats told the paper that shooting broke out at the family home in Ibb, south of Sanaa, when security forces arrived last month. “She (Al-Saddah) escaped from her hiding place in southern Afghanistan which he (Bin Laden) had made his base, only to find herself closely guarded under house arrest in her father’s compound,” the paper said. (AFP)
