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A senior anti-Taliban opposition figure said he believed fugitive Saudi militant Osama bin Laden was in hiding in southern Afghanistan with the Taliban's spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Dr Abdullah Abdullah, foreign minister of the Northern Alliance which is recognised as Afghanistan's government by the United Nations, said he believed bin Laden and the Taliban's spiritual leader could be found and captured.
"He is as dangerous as he used to be. He has gone into hiding alongside Mullah Omar," Abdullah told a news briefing at the Afghan embassy on Sunday.
Abdullah said bin Laden was "definitely in southern Afghanistan", mostly likely in the southern Kandahar region, with Omar. "They are together."
"This is the first time that Mullah Omar has gone into hiding", he said. The cleric has disappeared from public view before but never from his own followers, Abdullah added.
US President George W Bush has said he wants bin Laden captured "dead or alive" for his alleged role in the devastating September 11 jetliner attacks in New York and Washington which left some 6,800 people dead or missing.
The attacks prompted Bush to declare a "war on terrorism" and order the biggest US military build up since the 1991 Gulf War.
Series of meetings
Abdullah and the Northern Alliance's military chief Muhammad Fahim were in Dushanbe for a series of meetings thought to include the chief of Russia's military staff.
Abdullah described the outcome of the talks as "good", but declined to confirm a meeting with General Anatoly Kvashnin or give details on the substance of his meetings.
The Alliance, gaining in international stature as US-led global pressure increases against the Taliban for protecting bin Laden, controls some five percent of Afghanistan not held by the ruling radical Islamic Taliban militia.
Abdullah, who said he was leaving for Afghanistan straight after the briefing, added that he and Fahim had not held any talks with US officials. But he repeated earlier remarks that the Alliance was in contact with the United States.
The Alliance has stepped up fighting against the Taliban in northern Afghanistan, especially in the Bakhr and Samangan provinces near Mazar-i-Sharif, and Abdullah said this was now their priority.
"Now we have started a small-scale offensive operation in northern Afghanistan. We will continue to do so in the coming days," he said. On Saturday, an Alliance spokesman said the group had killed 50 Taliban troops in the last three days.
Abdullah said the regular Alliance army had 15,000 troops, but that there were many more irregulars joining up.
He said the recent death of Ahmad Shah Masood, the Alliance's long-term charismatic military leader, had not slowed down the Alliance. "The death of Masood made people more angry and determined in the fight against terrorism."
© Reuters
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