SUN OTTAWA BUREAU

CAMP JULIEN, Afghanistan # Osama bin Laden is hiding out in the mountains less than 200 km from Kabul, according to the latest intelligence reports obtained by Sun Media. The leader of al-Qaida, which has recently been reinvented under Fath-e-Islam (Victory of Islam) has been seen in the Koh-I Kandic mountains in the province of Kunar, an ultra-religious conservative region that supports bin Laden and is pro-Taliban.

“Fath-e-Islam’s leader, none other than Osama bin Laden, is very much alive,” says the report.

The number 1 Urdu-language paper in the Pakistani port city of Karachi says bin Laden is living in a Pakistani city 80 km from the Afghanistan border.

But a classified intelligence document produced by the International Security Assistance Force said bin Laden is living with the Guzer tribe, which “would militarily support him.”

“Bin Laden could hardly ask for a better hiding place,” the report reads, pointing out that the mountains northeast of Kabul are covered with evergreens and shrubs, and crisscrossed by smugglers’ trails.

“It’s impossible to access the area where al-Qaida is hiding.”

The document confirms that bin Laden has recently received a visit from a foreign doctor for his kidney problems.

According to the Afghanistan Defence Department, al-Qaida has rebranded itself as Fath-e-Islam, is reorganizing and is operating two training camps in Pakistan.

The department also claims that the terrorist organization is trying to acquire surface-to-air missiles in China to attack the Afghani government.

Bin Laden has been on the run since the U.S.-led coalition against terrorism entered Afghanistan after his operatives flew jetliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Sept. 11, 2001.

Since then he’s issued many video and audio messages warning of more terrorist attacks against the West, and calling on all Muslims to rise up against coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to an Asian news report, al-Qaida has been in touch with a powerful warlord, Gulbudeen Hekmatyar, who has assured his co-operation in attacks on coalition forces.

The volatile commander of the terrorist group Hezb-e-Islami, nicknamed the “Engineer,” is himself in Kunar after returning from self-imposed exile in Iran.