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No evidence, says Riyadh

Atul Aneja

Osama report may be a ruse: expert

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia has denied a report appearing in a French daily that its secret services were aware that Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden had died.

The newspaper L'Est Republicain, quoting a French intelligence document, claimed that Osama had died in Pakistan after suffering an acute typhoid infection. The newspaper said the document sourced its information from Saudi Arabian services.

Denying the report, the Saudi Arabian Government said in a statement, "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has no evidence to support recent media reports that Osama bin Laden is dead.

Report termed speculative

"Information that has been reported otherwise is purely speculative and cannot be independently verified," it said.

In its report, the French daily claimed that it had in its possession a copy of the Saudi foreign intelligence service report dated September 21.

This document, it said, had noted, "Saudi services are now convinced that Osama bin Laden is dead." It further said, "The information gathered by the Saudis indicates that the head of Al-Qaeda fell victim, while he was in Pakistan on August 23, 2006, to a very serious case of typhoid that led to a partial paralysis of his internal organs."

The fugitive Al-Qaeda leader's last videotaped message was released in late 2004. However, his audiotapes have shown up regularly, including the one at the end of June. In that tape, Osama praised Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, who was killed in a U.S. air strike.

Reuters reports:

The intelligence report has been met with scepticism from Western and Muslim Governments but may increase a clamour from his followers to show himself on video for the first time in nearly two years.

One theory surrounding the mysterious French leak is that it was designed precisely to flush the Al-Qaeda leader into the open, prompting him to release a new tape that might give a clue to his whereabouts and state of health.

``Western intelligence, the Americans, the Saudis want bin Laden to appear,'' said Diaa Rashwan, an expert on Islamist groups at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo.

``Perhaps they're trying to agitate him to appear by video to try to fix some information about his real location.''

Mr. Rashwan said expectations of an imminent appearance by Osama had mounted.

Mr. Rashwan, however, was in no doubt that Osama's death, whenever it happened, would be announced by Al-Qaeda within days because it would make him an even more powerful symbol and motivator for his supporters.

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