TALIBAN: BIN LADEN SHUTTLES BETWEEN CHINA-TAJIK BORDER AND AFGHANI-PAKISTANI BORDER

AKI:

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was hiding in the remote mountains on the Afghani-Pakistani border and moving constantly to avoid detection by intelligence agencies, according to a Taliban sympathiser.

Ahmad Farooq, a Pakistani Pashtun has told the Italian daily, Corriere della Sera, that bin Laden had been moving from village to village in the area from Chitral to the "corridor of Waqan", [alternately Wakhan] the mountainous Hindu Kush region of Pakistan bordering Tajikstan and China. [Area marked with red typeface in the map.]

... "There are always 20 armed men with him, free from satellite telephones so that they did not risk detection by the Americans," he told the newspaper.

"Not far from him there are two other similar groups that move in parallel. Osama passes from one to the other often many times in a week. No-one knows which group he is with at any time."

Farooq said bin Laden had also managed to hide in the Pakistan-China border area of Karakorum, an uninhabited remote area, because it is guarded by Chinese troops.

"He lives like a monk," Farooq said. "His health is not good. He is 50 years old. But he looks much older. He relies continutally on medicine for his weak kidneys and has a breathing apparatus. "He almost died a few years ago from bronchitis that developed into pneumonia."

Farooq conducted the interview in Imam Dheray, in the Swat Valley where there has been widespread bloody conflict between the Pakistani security forces and the fugitive rebel leader and radical cleric, Mullah Fazlullah, and his supporters in recent weeks.

... Farooq gave many details about where bin Laden had been since September 11 2001 - hiding in the Afghan province of Khost until it became too dangerous for him. Then, he said, the al-Qaeda leader moved to the Chitral region, in northern Pakistan.

"I saw him for the last time on 17 September 2003 not far from Dir, my village, " he said. "His caravan was moving slowly. They told me he was not well. They didn't seem worried about being detected by the Americans. "Instead, they were looking for medicines and a warm place for the night. In that area winter arrives early. With the first snow fall the passes are closed at more than 4,000 metres and you have to wait for spring.

"I think they only went to China in summer, when the paths are clear."

A senior official from NATO's security services told the Italian daily's magazine such an account of bin Laden's activities was "quite possible".

He said "We believe he remained in the mountains in the zones of Chitral and Swat. The detail about China was however new."

A FEW SMALL NUKES SHOULD DO THE TRICK.