Unconfirmed reports of Osama bin Laden's death

Technorati tags: Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, News, Terrorism

Update (Sept 24, 2006 1744hrs Malaysia Time): Several news reports indicate that there is no evidence to support allegations that Osama bin Laden has dies. Saudi Arabia has made a statement (reported by AFP) stating that they have "has no evidence to support recent media reports that Osama bin Laden is dead". For further background reading, this article from Time magazine may be of interest.

Unconfirmed reports have been making the rounds in the international media about the possible demise of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

The heads-up Walski got was from Bernama, reporting an AFP source, that "World leaders reacted cautiously to a French newspaper report that Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has died, while the French government probed the leak of an intelligence brief cited by the daily".

Reuters, meanwhle, has a similar report - and as with the AFP report, world leaders are keeping a cautious approach to the news, able to neither confirm nor deny the report. As U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters in New York: "No comment, no knowledge," when asked to comment about the French news report.

Al-Jazeera has also reported that "The French defence ministry is investigating the leak of a secret intelligence document that raised the possibility that Osama bin Laden may have died of typhoid." The secret document indicates that bin Laden died in August this year.

While the world will definitely be monitoring this piece of news closely, the death of bin Laden will probably not have much of an effect on the overall Al-Qaeda organization, known to be very resiliant, and adapting to current situations very quickly.

Walski will keep a close eye on this, and post any updates as and when there are any to report.