Afghanistan's Taliban militia has lost all contact with terror suspect Osama bin Laden and has no idea where he is, a Taliban spokesman said today.
"We have no idea of where he is because you see our areas are limited to three or four provinces, so we no longer know where he is," Mr Syed Tayyad Agha said.
"There is no relation now. There is no communication."
Saudi-born bin Laden, accused of masterminding the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, has lived in Afghanistan under the Taliban Islamic militia's protection since 1996.
But the Taliban regime has crumbled since the start of retaliatory US air strikes on October 7th, and it now controls only a few southern provinces and the besieged northern city of Kunduz.
It now claims to rule only its southern stronghold of Kandahar, plus the adjoining provinces of Helmand, Zabul and Uruzgan, which is also claimed by the rival Northern Alliance.
Mr Agha said the militia had no idea about the location of members of bin Laden's alQaeda network in Afghanistan and could not say whether they were in Taliban-controlled provinces.
"We are not sure about their location and numbers. I have no information and I have not seen if there are any al-Qaeda members in Kandahar and provinces (under Taliban control)," he said.
Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan Mr Abdul Salam Zaeef said on Sunday that "Osama is our guest. We will take care of him until the last moment. We don't know where he is."
The Taliban envoy has had a series of confusing remarks attributed to him in recent days concerning the whereabouts of bin Laden.
AFP