WIRE: 09/23/2001 9:26 am ET

Afghan Taliban Says Bin Laden Is Missing

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, wanted by the United States as a prime suspect in last week's attacks in the United States, is missing, Abul Hai Mutmaen, spokesman for Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, told Reuters Sunday.

Mullah Omar, spiritual leader of the purist Taliban movement that controls Afghanistan, had approved a decision last week by Afghanistan's most senior clerics to recommend that bin Laden be persuaded to leave the country, he said.

"We have still not been able to deliver the clerics' message to him because we could not find him," Mutmaen said by telephone from the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

Asked if the world's most wanted man was still in Afghanistan, he said: "I cannot say."

The United States has threatened to attack Afghanistan if it does not hand bin Laden over for trial.

-- Anonymous, September 23, 2001

Answers

I keep telling you he is right here!

-- Anonymous, September 23, 2001

Sweetie and I have just had a good laugh at that!

-- Anonymous, September 23, 2001