nasza_maggie
23.09.06, 11:26
'Osama Bin Laden Is Dead'
Updated: 10:11, Saturday September 23, 2006
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has died of typhoid in Pakistan, according to
reports in a regional French newspaper.
The paper quoted one of the country's secret service reports, saying that
Saudi Arabia is convinced that Bin Laden died a month ago.
L'Est Republicain also said a copy of the report was shown to President
Jacques Chirac and the French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.
"According to a usually reliable source, the Saudi services are now convinced
that Osama bin Laden is dead," the document said.
"The information gathered by the Saudis indicates that the head of al Qaeda
was a victim while he was in Pakistan on August 23, 2006, of a very serious
case of typhoid which led to a partial paralysis of his internal organs."
The report, which was stamped with a "confidential defence" label and the
initials of the French secret service, said Saudi Arabia first heard the
information on September 4.
Officials in Chirac's and Villepin's offices have made no immediate comment.
A senior official in Pakistan's interior ministry said: "We have no
information about Osama's death."
Saudi-born Bin Laden was based in Afghanistan until the Taliban government
was overthrown by US-backed forces in 2001.
Since then, US and Pakistani officials have regularly said they believe he is
hiding somewhere on the remote border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.