KABUL, 24 February 2004 — Osama Bin Laden is still in Afghanistan and is planning further attacks on American interests, a spokesman from Afghanistan’s ousted Taleban regime said yesterday.
A man identifying himself as Taleban spokesman Mohammed Saiful Adel said Bin Laden’s presence in Afghanistan was confirmed in a leaflet distributed to Taleban leaders in the south of the country.
The statement rubbishes claims by the US military that they are confident of capturing the Al-Qaeda leader by the end of the year.
“The untrue and false propaganda that the Americans have spread about our leaders and authorities — that they will arrest them by the end of the year — is all nonsense,” it says.
“It is part of (US President George W.) Bush’s electoral game so he can win the elections that he has spread these rumors all over the world.
“The leaders of the Islamic movement (Taleban) and the military commanders - and of course our special guest Osama Bin Laden and (Egyptian Al-Qaeda leader) Ayman Al-Zawahiri — are in Afghanistan and are alive, busy planning anti-American operation plans.”
The announcement did not say whether the anti-American attacks Bin Laden is planning will take place on Afghan or foreign soil.
“We give you this special message from our leaders and elders to make sure you are not worried about the false propaganda and to inform you they are safe and sound and busy making plans for attacking Americans, their puppets and slaves,” it says.
Bin Laden’s whereabouts remain a mystery to US and Pakistani forces as they crank up efforts to flush out Al-Qaeda and Taleban rebels hiding near Afghanistan’s eastern frontier, officials said yesterday.
Britain’s Sunday Express weekly reported that the world’s most wanted man was “boxed in” by US and British Special Forces in the rugged Pakistani mountains along the Afghan border. The newspaper said Bin Laden was within a 10 mile by 10 mile area, being monitored by a US spy satellite.
“As far as the reports of Osama Bin Laden’s location, I don’t take much credence in them because if we knew where he was in Afghanistan, we would go get him and if the Pakistanis knew where he was in Pakistan they would go get him,” US military spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said.
“We continue to have rumors over the past two years,” he told a news briefing in Kabul, when asked about speculation that Bin Laden had been spotted.
Pakistani officials dismissed the report that located Bin Laden in mountains north of the Pakistani city of Quetta.
“That area is in Pakistan but there is nothing there, life is absolutely normal - you can go and see,” said Pakistani military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan. “There is no operation being conducted there and there are no foreign troops there.”
The statement from Taleban further said its militia will also launch more vigorous attacks against the 12,000-strong US-led coalition in the country in the Spring, it says.
“We inform Taleban, mujahedeen and sympathizers of the Taleban in Afghanistan that ‘inshallah’ (God willing) in the coming Spring of 2004.... attacks will be strengthened and accelerated against the Americans and the Christians and Jews in coalition with the Americans.”
The Taleban, which still has support in the Pashtun tribal areas of southern and southeastern Afghanistan, was ousted from power in late 2001 by an American-led attack after the administration failed to surrender bin Laden in the wake of the terror attacks in the United States.
Remnants of the regime launch regular attacks against US and international troops in the country as well as soft targets such as aid and reconstruction workers.
On Sunday, a lone assailant fired at a helicopter belonging to a US engineering and reconstruction firm as it took off near the southern city of Kandahar, killing the pilot and seriously injuring two of the passengers.
The Taleban claimed responsibility for this attack.
