(AKI) – A top Taliban commander in Pakistan Baitullah Mehsud has rejected reports that al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, and other leaders are hiding in his region. "The al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, and the Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, are not in our territory," he said in an interview broadcast by the Arabic satellite television network, Al Jazeera.The pro-Taliban leader who is based in Pakistan's tribal area of South Waziristan denied hosting the Saudi leader in local villages, as US intelligence officials suspect. "Both are among the great figures of the Mujahadeen who fight for Allah and all Muslims love them for fighting against the Americans. We are proud of them and if they came to us to ask our help, we would be available but they are not here now."
Mehsud also rejected claims by the government in Islamabad that he was responsible for the assassination in December of Pakistan People's Party leader, Benazir Bhutto. "It wasn't us who killed Bhutto," he said. "If she had attacked us, we would have done it but that didn't happen."
The pro-Taliban leader confirmed that he was helping his Afghan colleagues and that a group of his men were fighting with them against NATO troops in Afghanistan.