International forces recently found a location where fugitive al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is thought to have taken refuge, according to French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie. She said in an interview to be published Tuesday that French troops operating near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan had helped trace bin Laden but did not say where, how wide an area she was referring to or whether he was still there. A ministry spokesman said Alliot-Marie was referring to the discovery of a location where bin Laden was believed to have been "at a certain time" and it was not clear where he was now. "Our men are well established and know the terrain well. Thanks to certain information, they were recently able to make an effective contribution to locating him," Alliot-Marie told Express magazine in an interview released before publication.
Asked whether the man located was definitely bin Laden, she replied: "Everything leads us to think so." She said she could provide no details for reasons of security and confidentiality but added that even his capture would not change matters much because terror networks had become increasingly autonomous. "What she wanted to say was that, with the information they provided, French forces contributed to locating him at a certain time. It is a terrible hunt for a rat on the loose," the ministry spokesman said. |