Bin Laden Is Alive, Leading Al-Qaeda, Taliban Says

By Tarek Al-Issawi

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is alive and is still issuing instructions to his commanders in the field, a leading Taliban member said.

Bin Laden sent a condolence message to Haji Mansour Dadullah, who succeeded his late brother as military commander of the Taliban, Dadullah said in an interview aired today by al- Jazeera television. His brother, Mullah Dadullah, was killed in a U.S.-led military operation in Afghanistan last month.

The al-Qaeda leader "is active and in good health, and he continues to carry out his duties,'' Dadullah told the channel.

Dadullah said bin Laden urged him to continue on the path established by his slain brother. The Taliban commander previously said bin Laden was alive in an al-Jazeera interview on April 25. In that interview, he said bin Laden was behind a bomb attack outside a U.S. military base in Afghanistan that killed 23 people as U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney was visiting.

The U.S. accused the Islamist Taliban of sheltering al-Qaeda and bin Laden in Afghanistan. The regime was removed from power in the U.S.-led invasion that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

Troops led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are fighting resurgent Taliban forces in an effort to prevent the group from destabilizing the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Bin Laden "prefers not to appear in public because that might pose a risk for him. We don't want to lose him,'' Dadullah said in the interview, adding that the Taliban is proud to be in the same camp as bin Laden.

The U.S. Department of State is offering up to $25 million for information leading to bin Laden's capture.