Bin Laden network ‘ruined’

OSAMA BIN LADEN is hiding out with a small core of mainly Arab supporters, and the al-Qaida leader only sends messages by courier because his communications network has been destroyed, senior Pakistani military and intelligence officials said yesterday.

There have been no fresh clues to bin Laden’s whereabouts, but he generally is believed to be in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“In our opinion, the reports on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden are more speculative stories rather than based on accurate intelligence,” said Pakistan army spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan.

Pakistan has deployed some 80,000 troops to its rugged border regions running along Afghanistan, fighting intense battles with al-Qaida-linked militants.

Pakistani officials believe bin Laden may be hiding in Afghanistan, where he is protected by a very small number of people to keep a low profile.

A Pakistani intelligence official in the northwestern city of Peshawar, near the Afghan border, said bin Laden probably is accompanied by “dozens” of mainly Arab supporters. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

In the past, bin Laden would be surrounded by up to 500 people, the intelligence official said, adding that his communications network has been reduced to human couriers, where a message “changes several hands” between its point of origin and final destination.

“This is a very slow and exposed way of communicating,” the official said.

Security forces seized a letter from bin Laden during a raid in Rawalpindi in 2003 in which al-Qaida’s then-No 3 leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed - a suspected planner of the September 11 attacks - was captured. Mohammed is believed to have received the letter via a courier.