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Bin Laden back underground
as Pakistan sides with U.S.

Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Friday, August 24, 2001

ISLAMABAD Ñ Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden is said to have again gone underground in Afghanistan amid expectations of a U.S. commando strike.

Pakistani sources said that after several television appearances Bin Laden has cut off all communications with the outside world and again moved to a secret location in Afghanistan. The sources said Bin Laden believes that he will be the target of an imminent U.S. strike.

The move by Bin Laden comes as Pakistan has demonstrated increasing cooperation in U.S. efforts to locate the Saudi national, charged with the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in eastern Africa. Bin Laden is also believed to have sponsored the bombing of the USS Cole in Aden last October, in which 17 U.S. sailors were killed.

The Indian Tribune newspaper reports that Bin Laden and 12 of his associates have moved to an undisclosed location after Islamabad allowed United Nations personnel to monitor the border with Afghanistan. The UN has imposed sanctions on Afghanistan in wake of its refusal to capture Bin Laden.

Pakistani sources said U.S. intelligence agents have been monitoring communications in Afghanistan for at least two years in hopes of obtaining Bin Laden's whereabouts. The sources said Pakistan has also cracked down on members of Bin Laden's Al Qaida group who cross from Afghanistan.

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