Posted on 03/07/2003 1:32:50 PM PST by kattracks
Fri March 7, 2003 03:30 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Friday cast doubt on reports from Pakistan that two sons of Osama bin Laden were wounded and possibly arrested in an operation by U.S. and Afghan troops in Afghanistan."We have no information to substantiate that report," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.
But he said it was "only a matter of time" before bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders are found.
In Pakistan, Sardar Sanaullah Zehri, home minister of the western province of Baluchistan, told Reuters that two sons of Osama bin Laden were wounded and possibly arrested in an operation by U.S. and Afghan troops in the Ribat area of Afghanistan that killed at least nine suspected al Qaeda men.
"We have information that two sons of Osama bin Laden were injured. The people killed belonged to al Qaeda," he said. "We have heard that they (the sons) may have been arrested. But our information may not be 100 percent true," he said.
Fleischer and other U.S. officials disputed the report. "It's not true," said one U.S. official, who asked to remain unidentified.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States was apprehended last week in Pakistan, prompting a swirl of speculation that authorities were closing in on bin Laden.
Rumors erupted on Thursday that bin Laden had been captured, but U.S. officials denied that. One called it "total fantasy."
Mohammed was in U.S. custody at a secret location not in Pakistan or the United States, where interrogators were trying to extract information about any current plots to attack Americans and bin Laden's location.
U.S. officials believe Mohammed played a major role in planning the hijacked plane attacks that killed about 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
"The president's message to all al Qaeda, whether it's Osama bin Laden or any of his other lieutenants, to all al Qaeda, is there is no place to hide," Fleischer said. "They will be caught whatever length of time it takes."
So maybe we don't want to admit they were "wounded and possibly arrested" when they later must report their death. :)
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