The US ambassador to Pakistan said on Monday he did not believe Osama bin Laden was still in operational control of al Qaeda and the militant network was in "serious trouble".
Speaking to reporters in Islamabad, Ryan Crocker contradicted comments in a video interview posted on a website last week in which al Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, said Osama was still leading the group's war on the West. "I think that Osama is no longer the operational head of al Qaeda, because he is hiding deep inside the mountains and he doesn't have contact with the al Qaeda people," he said.
Referring to al-Zawahri, the US Ambassador added: "I don't know if Zawahri is heading al Qaeda or not; what I do know is that al Qaeda is in serious trouble these days." Asked about President Pervez Musharraf's announcement that a senior al Qaeda figure, Abu Hamza Rabia, was killed in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan this month, Crocker echoed comments by other US officials by saying:
"I don't know what happened, but if President Musharraf is saying he is dead, we must trust what Musharraf is saying."
Crocker also said the United States expressed concern that Pakistan had allowed a prominent anti-American militant group to take a role in providing relief to survivors of October 8 earthquake.
"This is not good. Jamat-ud-Daawa is the new name of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba. I think that these groups should not be allowed to join the relief operations. The government of Pakistan should make use of other NGOs. The government of Pakistan is aware of our concerns in this context."
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