(voa) – U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is playing down an Afghan Defense Ministry claim that Osama bin Laden has fled to Pakistan.
Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters Thursday the United States does not know where the al-Qaida leader is, or if he is still alive. He said the Pentagon hears many conflicting reports about the Saudi-born fugitive’s whereabouts every day.
The defense secretary’s comments came after a spokesman for Afghanistan’s new defense minister (Mohammed Fahim) said Osama bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan, under protection of a radical Islamic party. The leader of the group (Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman) has denied the allegation.
Mr. Rumsfeld also brushed aside any significance of a videotape released Thursday by Qatar-based al-Jazeerah television of Osama bin Laden urging followers to attack the U.S. economy.
It was not clear where or when the 33-minute tape was made. The al-Qaida leader appears gaunt and calls his group’s work “blessed terrorism.”
The U.S. defense secretary also announced that Taleban and al-Qaida prisoners will be held at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, but said there are no plans to use the site for military trials. The base is on land leased from Cuba long before it fell to communism in 1959.
The Pentagon says the U.S. military has a total of 45 prisoners from the Afghan conflict under its control.
Earlier Thursday, U.S. warplanes bombed a suspected Taliban leadership compound near the town of Ghazni, located on the road between the capital, Kabul, and the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.
