Posted on 01/17/2004 6:41:16 PM PST by SolidSupplySide
DUBAI : Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, his right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahiri and Taliban leader Mullah Omar are all in good health, according to a statement purportedly from the Taliban published on a Islamist website.
"The emir of the faithful, Mullar Omar, and sheiks Osama bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri are in good health," said the statement from a body calling itself the Islamic Emirate of the Taliban in Afghanistan .
It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the statement, carried on the website groups.yahoo.com/group/globalislamicmedia/message/291 and signed by "the vanguard of the Mujahedeen victory in Afghanistan ."
It said media reports about a hunt led by Pakistani and US forces against bin Laden, Mullah Omar and Zawahiri, were "just lies aimed at fooling people."
The whereabouts of three fugitives is unknown, although there are suggestions that bin Laden is hiding out in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area.
The hardline Taliban militia, which sheltered bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network, was toppled by a US-led coalition in Afghanistan in November 2001 after the September 11 attacks on the United States .
Earlier this month, the Arab satellite television station Al-Jazeera aired an audiotape attributed to bin Laden in which the Al-Qaeda leader warns Gulf monarchs of a similar fate to captured Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein.
Uh... then why report it?
"A website said Hitler is alive and well and living in Peru."
Give us time. We'll fix that little oversight.
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