The United States believes al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is alive and hiding around the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, the US counter-terrorism coordinator told the British Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday.
US State Department official Henry Crumpton said Bin Laden was believed to be somewhere in the border area, the region where an alleged US missile attack targeted al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri on Friday.
”We have no intelligence or evidence that indicates that he [Bin Laden] is dead or incapacitated, so our working assumption is that he is still alive,” Crumpton said.
”I should also note, no sign of life from Bin Laden, I think that reflects our collective success,” he said.
He warned the group was still intent on launching further attacks on western countries, like the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
”Al-Qaeda and affiliated groups have a strategic aim of attacking the US homeland — that is their intent, we believe they are working toward that. I think also they intend to attack the UK again, and Europe,” he said.
He added: ”I think and hope al-Qaeda are more concerned about staying alive than plotting the next 9/11.”
Bin Laden has not been heard of since a December 27 2004 audiotape in which he named Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraq’s most wanted man, as al-Qaeda’s leader in the war-torn country.
The air raid on Friday in Damadola, a village in the Bajur tribal agency, targeted al-Qaeda’s deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, US intelligence sources have said, although Washington has not confirmed it launched the attack. At least 18 people were killed.
”I am very confident we will at some point get al-Qaeda’s leadership, and we believe they are in that area,” Crumpton said.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Tuesday that he cannot accept actions like the airstrike, adding that he will bring it up when he visits Washington this week. – AFP
