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Bin Laden, Omar in Pakistan: US

Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar and their top commanders are hiding in Pakistan, posing a "huge challenge" to the security of the country and neighboring Afghanistan, a senior US administration official said on Friday.

"There is no question that the iconic leaders of al-Qaeda -- [Ayman al-] Zawahiri, bin Laden ... are in the tribal areas of Pakistan," the official said at a media briefing.

"We believe that the Taliban's shura [consultation] council leaders led by Mullah Omar reside in Quetta in Pakistan," he said, referring to the capital of rugged Baluchistan Province bordering Afghanistan.

The sanctuaries were not only helping the Taliban fight the insurgency against Afghan President Hamid Karzai's administration, which is backed by US and NATO troops, but also posing a threat to Pakistan and beyond central Asia, the official said.

"There is a threat to the east into [Pakistan], in the west into Afghanistan and there is threat beyond Central Asia to the extent that al-Qaeda has reach," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Just as Mullah Omar is giving strategic direction for the Taliban from Quetta, the al-Qaeda senior leadership is in the FATA [federally administrated tribal areas] doing its planning," he said.

The FATA region of Pakistan borders Afghanistan.

It is among the clearest statements by the US on the location of the al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders.

Pakistan has repeatedly denied the presence of bin Laden or Omar in its territory. Washington has placed multimillion dollar rewards for their heads.

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said that if a US official had information on the whereabouts of the wanted militants he should tell Pakistan.

"If there is any actionable intelligence it should be shared with the government of Pakistan so that they can be neutralized," Sadiq said. "You don't talk to the media if you have information like this."

He said that the US official's assertion was incorrect.

"If he was right, he would claim the bounty money, not speak to the media," he said.

The US official said that the US had seen clear links between the insurgency in Afghanistan and Pakistan through the Pashtun group, an ethnic minority mostly living along the troubled Afghan-Pakistani border.

"We also know that there are very clear Pashtun tribal links up through the FATA, especially in north and south Waziristan, where Pashtuns who live in Pakistan are supporting Pashtuns, who are fighting in Afghanistan.

"In some cases, they are the one and same people -- they live in Pakistan, they commute to the fight, they fight for a while in Afghanistan and retreat back into safe haven inside Waziristan," the official said.

He said that the Taliban and al-Qaeda over the last six months had not only taken up their fight from their "safe haven" west into Afghanistan but also into the east, into the territory of Pakistan itself.

Underscoring concerns over the militant groups' logistical gains was the December assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi, a city where the army has its headquarters, about 11km from the capital Islamabad, he said.

CIA Director Michael Hayden said last month that suspected al-Qaeda militants and allies of Pakistani tribal leader Baitullah Mehsud were behind Bhutto's murder and warned of a "newly active alliance" between Pakistani and international terrorists against President Pervez Musharraf's administration.
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