Bin Laden had made an appeal for a
safe house, Haji Abdullah, head of the Pashir Wa Agam district, south
of the Afghan town of Jalalabad, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Abdullah said that he was told of
this by a former leader of the ousted Taliban regime.
"Four days ago, I met a former
Taliban leader from Peshawar who told me he had received a fax sent
from a satellite telephone and signed 'the Sheikh', the title used to
denote Osama bin Laden," he recalled.
"The fax said that Bin Laden was
safe and sound, that he had managed to escape an operation led by the
Pakistani army in South Waziristan and that he had found refuge in a
place on the border," added Abdullah.
U.S. military officials have
repeatedly refused to comment on speculation surrounding Bin Laden's
fate.
Al-Qaeda leader has been the target
of one of the most intense manhunts ever conducted since going
underground after the U.S. toppling of Taliban in 2001.
"Another Taliban source told me
that Osama Bin Laden had asked Taliban leaders to meet urgently in
Quetta (in Pakistan) to try to find him a safe place to hide
out," Abdullah said.
'Boxed In'
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The alleged fax said "Bin Laden was safe and sound, that he had managed to escape an operation led by the Pakistani army."
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The U.S. intelligence is likely to be
keeping a close eye on all electronic communications, the BBC News
Online reported.
But the official said he had passed
the information on to Afghan authorities in the region, it added.
U.S. commanders on the trail for Bin
Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar said in January they were
confident that they would snare the duo within a year.
The external Pashto-language service
of Iranian state radio reported Saturday, February 28, quoting an
"informed source" that Bin Laden had been "captured in
a tribal area of Pakistan" weeks ago.
On Sunday, February 22, the British Sunday
Express reported that U.S. and British special forces have
cornered Bin Laden in a mountainous area in northwest Pakistan, near
the Afghanistan border.
