Posted on 03/07/2003 8:23:14 AM PST by JohnHuang2
March 7 — Two of Osama bin Laden’s sons have been arrested in southwestern Afghanistan, a Pakistani provincial official said Friday. U.S. counterterrorism officials disputed the claim.
SARDAR SANAULLAH ZEHRI, home minister of the province of Baluchistan in northwestern Pakistan, told the Associated Press that Saad and Hamza bin Laden had been captured in the Rabat area in Afghanistan after a gunbattle that killed seven other al-Qaida fighters.
In a separate interview with Reuters, he said that both bin Laden sons had been injured in the battle, but provided no other details.
U.S. intelligence officials who spoke with NBC News said they had no information to substaniate the report and cautioned that there have been numerous false reports of arrests from the region in recent days.
Another U.S. official told an AP Radio reporter at the White House: “We, in fact, think it’s wrong.”
Zehri declined to identify the military units, but he said that Pakistani forces were not involved in the operation.
“They were allied forces” operating near Rabat in the extreme southeastern tip of Afghanistan where it borders Pakistan and Iran, he said.
Well, maybe it wasn't to wise to take the word of a home minister in Baluchistan.
I wonder which it is.
BS-NBC?
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