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A picture of the head of the al-Qaeda terror network, Osama bin Laden. The United States faces growing threats on multiple fronts with Al-Qaeda still the top danger, but Iran on the rise and on course to produce nuclear weapons early in the next decade, US intelligence chiefs said Tuesday. [AFP]
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Osama bin Laden, if he's alive, celebrated his 50th birthday on Saturday, and his friends in the Taliban prayed for his long life.
The al Qaeda leader's long silence since the September 11, 2001 attacks has fuelled speculation that the world's most-wanted fugitive may have died, though many in the international intelligence community reckon Islamist militant Web sites would circulate word of his death.
"He is alive. I am 100 percent sure," Taliban spokesman Mullah Hayatullah Khan told reporters, adding that senior leaders were in touch with bin Laden.
Khan said special prayers were offered by Taliban fighters in camps in Afghanistan to mark bin Laden's birth on March 10, 1957, in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah.
"We prayed that Allah may give him 200 years to live," Khan said.
"And we offered collective and long prayers for him because he is a great mujahid (holy warrior)."
The most recent videotape of bin Laden was released in late 2004.
But a long silence since then has fuelled rumours that bin Laden is unwell, or dead, though the United States fears that the al Qaeda network he founded is rebuilding its base in Pakistani tribal lands, and has forged ties with affiliates in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
Dead or alive, bin Laden isreveredby some as the symbolic leader of a global jihad, or holy war, against the United States, following the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington that killed more than 3,000 people.
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(AP)
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如果奧薩馬·本·拉登還活著的話，他已于上周六年滿50周歲。當(dāng)天，他在塔利班組織中的朋友們?yōu)樗矶\，祝愿他長(zhǎng)命百歲。
這位基地組織領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人自9·11之后一直“銷聲匿跡”，因此很多人猜測(cè)這位世界上最"有價(jià)值"的逃犯可能已經(jīng)不在人世，但國(guó)際情報(bào)組織的很多人則認(rèn)為如果拉登已經(jīng)死亡，伊斯蘭軍事網(wǎng)站上會(huì)發(fā)布這個(gè)消息。
塔利班組織發(fā)言人毛拉·哈亞圖拉·可汗接受記者采訪時(shí)說(shuō)：“我可以百分之百的肯定，他還活著?！睋?jù)他透露，塔利班的高級(jí)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人們一直與拉登保持著聯(lián)系。
可汗說(shuō)，本·拉登于1957年3月10日出生于沙特阿拉伯的城市吉達(dá)，為了慶祝他50周歲生日，塔利班組織的成員們?cè)诘靥幇⒏缓沟能姞I(yíng)為他舉行了特殊的祈禱。
可汗說(shuō)：“我們向真主阿拉祈禱，賜予他200年的生命。”
“我們?yōu)樗w祈禱了很久，因?yàn)樗且幻麄ゴ蟮氖?zhàn)勇士?！?/font>
本·拉登最近一次在錄像中露面是在2004年底。
但從那之后，他一直未露面，由此引起了有關(guān)他身患重病和死亡的謠言。但美國(guó)仍然擔(dān)心拉登建立的基地組織網(wǎng)絡(luò)會(huì)在巴基斯坦的部落地區(qū)重建恐怖訓(xùn)練基地，而且擔(dān)心其已進(jìn)一步加強(qiáng)了與歐洲、北非和中東地區(qū)成員的聯(lián)系。
無(wú)論拉登如今是生還是死，自從9·11恐怖襲擊之后，他就被一些人尊為全球圣戰(zhàn)的精神領(lǐng)袖。2001年9月11日，他對(duì)美國(guó)的紐約和華盛頓發(fā)動(dòng)的恐怖襲擊造成了3000多人死亡。
（ 英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津姍姍編輯）
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