PARIS – There is “a good chance” that Osama bin Laden is dead, French defense minister Alain Richard said Thursday, leaving open the possibility that the al-Qaida leader is alive and in hiding.
Speaking on Europe-1 radio, Richard said there had been no trace of bin Laden for some time and there were three hypotheses as to his whereabouts.
“Either he is still in hiding in a part of Afghanistan near the fighting – though this is not the theory we favor – or he has escaped to Pakistan or he has been killed,” Richard said.
Asked whether the terrorist leader could have been killed, Richard replied: “There is a good chance, yes.”
The Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, said last month he believed bin Laden had died of kidney problems. Others have speculated that bin Laden crossed Afghanistan’s border into Pakistan, or had already been killed by the U.S.-led campaign against Afghanistan that began in October following the Sept. 11 attacks.
France’s defense ministry announced earlier this week that French fighter planes launched air strikes in eastern Afghanistan, the first time France had taken part in coalition air strikes in the region.
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