Omar Safe, Bin Laden's Whereabouts Unknown

Mullah Mohammad Omar, supreme leader of Afghanistan's Taliban militia, was safe on Wednesday after US jets bombed a leadership compound, Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) quoted the former Taliban ambassador as saying in Islamabad.

"No harm was done to Amirul Momineen (Leader of the Faithful)," the private Pakistan-based news agency quoted the Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, as saying.

Neither Omar nor other Taliban officials were in the compound hit by US planes a day earlier, Zaeef was quoted as saying. It was not a leadership compound, he said.

Zaeef's remarks came after US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said US warplanes on Tuesday bombed a compound in southern Afghanistan used by leaders of the Taliban and the al Qaeda group of Osama bin Laden.

"We don't know about his (bin Laden's) whereabouts. He is not in our territory," Zaeef was quoted as saying.

(China Daily November 28, 2001)