A brother of a slain Taliban leader said al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was alive and well and that he had received a letter of condolence from him after his brother was killed in May.
”He is alive, active and well,” Haji Mansour Dadullah, a Taliban militant leader, said of Bin Laden.
”He sent me a letter of condolence after the martyrdom of my brother, Mullah Dadullah,” he told al-Jazeera television. It was not clear when the interview was taken.
Mullah Dadullah was killed by United States-led forces. His death was seen as the most serious blow to the Taliban insurgency since the militants’ removal from power in 2001, by a US-led coalition, for harbouring Bin Laden and al-Qaeda militants.
Bin Laden ”told me to follow in the steps of my brother and urged Muslims to follow the steps of Mullah Dadullah because he was a mujahedin”, said Dadullah, who was described by al-Jazeera as a Taliban military leader.
Mullah Dadullah was the main architect behind rising attacks, including suicide raids, against Afghan and Western troops in southern Afghanistan, as well as kidnappings of foreigners and locals and a series of beheadings.
Mullah Dadullah has been replaced by his relatively unknown brother, Mullah Bakht Mohammad.
Dadullah told al-Jazeera that Saudi-born Bin Laden was avoiding media exposure for safety.
”These are just military tactics. He prefers not to appear because if he appeared in the media or met people he might face danger,” he said.
”I urged him not to meet anyone and to stay in hiding and continue to give directives … so that al-Qaeda stays active in Afghanistan and the world,” he said in an interview conducted in an open field in Afghanistan.
US security officials say the word’s most wanted militant leader and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be hiding in the mountainous region along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. — Reuters