‘Osama, Omar In Afghanistan’

JALALABAD, Friday - Suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden is still in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, a US-allied Afghan commander said on Friday. Hazrat Ali, security chief for Nangarhar province, also said fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was still alive but did not say where he may be hiding. “Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden are still alive. Bin Laden is still in the mountains,” Ali told reporters in the provincial capital Jalalabad. A spokesman for the US-led coalition force said he believed both men remained holed up in the country. “We have no reason to think either Mullah Omar or Osama bin laden are outside Afghanistan,” Kenton Keith told reporters in the Pakistani capital Islamabad. US and Afghan forces, including Ali’s men, this month launched two weeks of fierce attacks around Tora Bora south of Jalalabad against the last known stronghold in Afghanistan of bin Laden’s al-Qaeda fighters. The Afghan commanders declared victory on Sunday. While hundreds of al-Qaeda bodies have been found and hundreds more fighters have fled across the mountain border to Pakistan, bin Laden’s whereabouts remain a mystery. Ali did not give the source of his information on bin Laden accused of the September attacks in in the US. AFP Ends