WASHINGTON: The United States has said it has no idea where top Al Qaeda commanders Osama Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are hiding, a day after a report claimed that the two fugitives were living in the northwest under ISI protection.
“I don’t think we know where they are. If we knew where they were, I think we would have done something about it,” Defence Deputy Secretary William Lynn said in an interview.
Lynn was responding to a CNN report which quoted an unnamed NATO official in Afghanistan as saying that Bin Laden was not hiding in caves, but had been provided a safe shelter by the Inter-Services Intelligence at a secure location inside Pakistan.
“I don’t think so. I think it was either an exaggeration in telling or an exaggeration in the promotion of that. I don’t think we know precisely where Bin Laden is, and I don’t think the report’s accurate,” Lynn said, adding that he had not seen the news report that elements in the ISI were providing shelter to the top Al Qaeda leaders.
“Well, there are elements in the ISI that are engaged in things that are not helping (the war against terrorism). What all of those are, we do not know exactly. So I will not deny or express any concern over news report saying that Bin Laden is being assisted by the elements in the ISI,” Pentagon spokesman David Lapan told reporters.
The CNN in its news report from Kabul quoted a senior NATO official as saying that Osama and his deputy Zawahiri are believed to be hiding close to each other in houses in northwest Pakistan, but are
not together. “Nobody in Al Qaeda is living in a cave,” official was quoted as saying by the CNN.
Pakistan has repeatedly denied protecting members of the Al Qaeda leadership.
