Bin Laden 'spotted in Afghan mountains'

Al-Qa'ida's leader, Osama bin Laden, was seen in southern Afghanistan days before US forces launched an operation to find him and members of his network, a former Taliban diplomat claimed yesterday.

Amid continuing confusion over reports that two of Bin Laden's sons had been caught after a shootout with Pakistani forces last week, the former Taliban official said the boys' father had been in the same region. Naseer Ahmed Roohi said he had information from "reliable sources" that Bin Laden had been present in the mountains straddling the south-western Afghan provinces of Nimruz and Helmand and Pakistan's Baluchistan region.

"But Bin Laden, along with a few companions, shifted to an unknown area, just days before the US-led operation in the area," Mr Roohi said.

Last week, the interior minister of Baluchistan, Sardar Sanaullah Zehri, said he had been told that two of Bin Laden's sons had been hurt and possibly arrested in an operation on Thursday by US and Afghan troops in Nimruz province close to where the Afghan border meets those of Pakistan and Iran.

While the White House and Pakistan's government said they could not substantiate thereport, US forces in Afghanistan said they had detained seven men in Helmand province on Saturday. The unidentified men were accused of plotting attacks on coalition forces. Mr Roohi said he had unconfirmed reports "a close relative" of Bin Laden was among those held.

President Bush's administration has been warned by the CIA that if war is declared US troops in the Gulf and in Iraq itself face attacks by groups linked to al-Qa'ida. The CIA report is understood to be accompanied by documents detailing the presence of a cell of up to 24 al-Qa'ida operatives based in Baghdad.