WORLD / Middle East
Bin Laden dies of typhoid - report
(AP)
Updated: 2006-09-24 09:07
PARIS - A leaked French intelligence document raises the possibility
Osama bin Laden died of typhoid, but President Jacques Chirac said
Saturday the report was "in no way whatsoever confirmed" and officials
from Kabul to Washington expressed skepticism about its accuracy.
This is an undated photo of Osama bin Laden, in Afghanistan. President
Jacques Chirac said Saturday Sept. 23, 2006 that information contained in
a leaked intelligence document raising the possibility that Osama bin
Laden may have died of typhoid in Pakistan last month is 'in no way
whatsoever confirmed.' [AP]
There have been numerous reports over the years that bin Laden had been
killed or that he was dangerously ill, but the al-Qaida leader has
periodically released audiotapes appealing to followers and commenting on
current news events.
The regional French newspaper l'Est Republicain printed what it described
as a copy of a confidential document from the DGSE intelligence service
citing an uncorroborated report from a "usually reliable source" who said
Saudi secret services were convinced that bin Laden had died.
The document, dated Thursday, was sent to Chirac and other top French
officials, the newspaper said.
"This information is in no way whatsoever confirmed," Chirac said when
asked about the document. "I have no comment."
Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry offered no details. "I've heard the
reports, but I have no information at all. I have no idea," spokesman
Mansour al-Turki told The Associated Press.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she had "no comment and no
knowledge" about the report, while presidential spokesman Blair Jones
said the White House could not confirm the report's accuracy. But two
U.S. intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because
of the sensitivity of the issue, said U.S. agencies had no information to
suggest bin Laden was dead or dying.
A senior official in Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry said he was very
skeptical of the document, noting past false reports of the death of bin
Laden. He declined to let his name be used because he was not authorized
to discuss the issue publicly.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Tasnim Aslam, called the
information "speculative," saying his government had no information on
bin Laden.
Many people suspect bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders are hiding in
the Pakistani mountains along the border with Afghanistan.
Among previous reports, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said during
the U.S.-led offensive that toppled Afghanistan's Taliban regime in late
2001 that he was "reasonably sure" bin Laden had been killed by U.S.
bombing raids on the Tora Bora caves.
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