The world's most wanted man Osama bin Laden has left Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, the Islamic militia's ambassador to Pakistan said Sunday.
"I don't know where he is; whether he is in other areas of Afghanistan or has left Afghanistan," ambassador Abdul Salam Zaeef was quoted as saying by the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP).
"But I know this much that he is not in the area under our control."
According to AIP, the Taliban claims control of the adjoining provinces of Helmand, Zabul, Uruzgan and Kandahar in south and central Afghanistan.
Zaeef's comments contradicted a British press report Sunday that British and US special forces had cornered bin Laden -- accused of masterminding the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States -- in an 80 square kilometer (30 square mile) area southeast of Kandahar.
British and US commandos have been dropped by helicopter across the southern approach to the area to prevent the Saudi-born dissident escaping to Pakistan, the Sunday Telegraph quoted defense sources as saying -- Islamabad (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
