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CNN Saturday Morning News

Northern Alliance Says bin Laden is in Southern Afghanistan

Aired December 01, 2001 - 11:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to update you now on some developments out of southern Afghanistan. The Northern Alliance says it may know the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.

CNN's Ben Wedeman is in Kabul with the latest on this story.

Ben, what can you tell us?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kyra just a little while ago, Abdullah Abdullah, the Foreign Minister of the Northern Alliance held a press conference in which he indicated that the Northern Alliance has a good idea where Osama bin Laden might be.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDULLAH ABDULLAH, NORTHERN ALLIANCE FOREIGN MINISTER: He's inside Afghanistan. He's still inside Afghanistan and his people are active still, and I think they are planning to move towards the mountainous areas of Qalat, Zabul Province, as well as Kandahar.

So they are making preparations for guerrilla warfare. This is our understanding, and our reading of the situation with the Taliban as well as Osama groups. I believe that some of his lieutenants are in the Tora Bora and some of his followers, but not he, himself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WEDEMAN: And of course, the Tora Bora area is a very mountainous area just south of Jalalabad near the border with Pakistan. It's a very rugged area in which the al Qaeda organization reportedly has set up a number of bases, but -- and there was a good deal of speculation, Kyra, that he could be in that area. But certainly with this statement from Abdullah Abdullah, it will possibly focus the search ever more on the southern part of the country, which is in a very unsettled situation.

The Taliban, it's believed, control three or four provinces, some of them very mountainous as well, and as Abdullah Abdullah said in that press conference, the al Qaeda organization could be taking to the hills, to the mountains in that area to engage in protracted guerrilla warfare. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Now Ben, do you have any idea how Abdullah Abdullah gained this information and what gives him the confidence that he does know where Osama bin Laden is?

WEDEMAN: Well obviously the Northern Alliance has its own sources which we can not check ourselves, and it's worth noting that none of this can be verified. But certainly he was very emphatic in saying that their information would indicate that he is not in the Tora Bora area. So we really have to take that at face value. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Ben Wedeman, thank you so much for that update. Martin.

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