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Osama Bin Laden could be in Afghanistan: US commander

KABUL: Osama bin Laden may be sheltering in Afghanistan, while followers of the former ruling Taliban — who once harboured the Al Qaeda leader — appear to be fragmenting, a US commander said on Monday.

Col Gary Cheek, who controls US forces in eastern Afghanistan, said Bin Laden and other key militant leaders could be in his area of responsibility, a swath of the country flanking the rugged Pakistani border.

“Leaders like Hekmatyar, Haqqani, Bin Laden could possibly be in our region, but any information we have on them would be very close-hold (closely guarded) for operational reasons,” Cheek told The Associated Press.

Three years after the US military entered Afghanistan to oust the Taliban and try to kill or capture Bin Laden, American officials say they do not know where the Al Qaeda supremo is.

Cheek said the number of foreign fighters facing his forces was not “significant,” and that most operated near the rugged Pakistani border, the zone most widely touted as a hiding place for bin Laden and his right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahri. Forces loyal to Taliban commanders such as Jalaluddin Haqqani, and to renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar — who has joined the ousted militia in vowing to drive out foreign troops — pose a larger military threat. However, Cheek said insurgent activity in the east had been “sporadic over the past six months and does not appear tied to any specific strategy or agenda”.

“It would appear that the Taliban in particular may be fragmenting and that its central core of leadership is unable to direct coordinated actions,” he said in an e-mailed response to an AP reporter’s questions. “I would guess that there are a lot of things the Taliban and others want to do, but their ability to do those things are limited.” He said most of the leaders he was tracking are local commanders suspected of attacks and bombings.

A roadside bomb killed a US soldier on January 2 in eastern Kunar province, but Cheek suggested criminal activity was a bigger problem in that region, where Hekmatyar loyalists are believed to find sanctuary among sympathetic villagers. ap

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