Osama Bin Laden is hiding in a remote tribal area along AfghanistanÂ’s 2,413-kilometre border with Pakistan, separated from his top deputy and, in a sign he has to be careful about whom he trusts, surrounded by fellow Arabs, according to US intelligence officials familiar with his pursuit.His No 2, Ayman Al-Zawahri, is hiding in a more settled area along the border, surrounded by Al Qaeda operatives of his Egyptian nationality, they say. Their separation has opened a debate in national security circles in the United States and elsewhere about whether the leaders have split up. Neither man mentions the other by name in public pronouncements, and both headed separate groups before joining forces in 1998.
Al-Zawahri has decided to take a more prominent public role than has Osama, releasing dozens of written and recorded Internet messages, including a video this month urging Muslims to support Iraqi insurgents. On Sunday, Osama was heard in his first new message in three months, purportedly saying the West was at war with Islam and calling on his followers to go to Sudan to fight a proposed UN force in Darfur.
US and Saudi officials, several of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because of the information’s sensitive nature, say the Al-Qaeda leaders have made a strategic security decision to hide in different places from one another. These officials do not yet see evidence of an ideological split. “I don’t think they have the luxury to have a rift,” said Jamal Khashoggi, an adviser to the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Turki Al Faisal. A former reporter and editor, Khashoggi interviewed and travelled with Osama at times between 1987 and 1995. Osama lost his Saudi citizenship in 1994 after governments in Algeria, Egypt and Yemen accused him of financing subversion.