Bin Laden 'alive and well'

Osama bin Laden and fugitive Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar are alive and well, a 'Taliban commander' said in a TV interview, adding that he still receives orders from Omar.

Pakistan’s Geo television broadcast the interview with the man it identified as Taliban military commander Mullah Akhtar Usmani, a former Afghan aviation minister.

A black turban shielded the man’s face, making it impossible to recognise him or verify his identity.

He wore a grey jacket, and an AK-47 rifle was propped next to him as he spoke in front of a red-patterned, Afghan-style rug.

In response to a question, the man said he would not specify where bin Laden was hiding.

“Thanks be to God, he is absolutely fine,” he said in the interview broadcast last night.

The man said the Taliban was still organised and senior Taliban leaders held regular consultations. “Our discipline is strong. We have regular meetings. We make programmes,” he said.

He said Omar did not attend the meetings but “decisions come from his side”. He did not say where those meetings take place.

Geo said the interview was recorded last week, but declined to say where.

In Washington, a US intelligence official said: “The belief in the intelligence community is that he (bin Laden) is still in the tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistani border.”

It seemed reasonable to believe that former Taliban officials still gathered to meet, said the official.

A senior journalist at the independent station said the interview was done near the Afghan town of Spinboldak, which is close to the Pakistani border.

The interview was conducted in broken Urdu, Pakistan’s main language and the language in which Geo broadcasts most of its programmes. Most senior Taliban speak Pashtu.

In speaking about Omar, the man referred to the Taliban chief by his self-proclaimed title of “ameerul momineen” – “leader of the faithful”.

“Ameerul momineen is our chief and leader. No one is against him. Our ameerul momineen is alive.

"He is all right. There is no problem. He is not sick. He is my commander. He gives me instructions,” the man said.

Asked whether he has direct contact with Omar, the man said: “I will not say whether I meet with him or not. But he is giving instructions.”

A US-led coalition ousted the Taliban in late 2001, after the regime refused to hand over bin Laden and dismantle al-Qaida bases in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.