Claim bin Laden is dead

PAKISTAN’S president said his intelligence agencies believe Osama bin Laden may be dead, but he added there is no proof.

Other Pakistani officials and a US counter-terrorism official said they thought the al-Qaida chief is alive.

US officials said last night bin Laden is most likely hiding in the lawless regions along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

“We continue to believe bin Laden is alive,” said the US official.

Reports of bin Laden’s death or of near-captures have punctuated his years on the run since the September 11, 2001 attacks, only to be debunked by audio and video recordings. The latest audio messages emerged in March, in which bin Laden referred to the January Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.