ISLAMABAD: The world's most wanted man Osama Bin Laden is hiding in the Karakorams and top US security officials are devising plans to hunt for the Al Qaeda chief, media reports here said on Tuesday.
Quoting the Arabic television network Al-Arabiya, the Daily Times newspaper reported that during the past few days US security and military officials held a top-level meeting at a military base in Qatar's capital Doha to plan an operation to hunt for Osama.
According to the Dubai-based network, US commander in Iraq General David Petraeus and US ambassador to Islamabad Anne Patterson attended the meeting.
Last week, Petraeus testified before a US Congressional committee about security in Iraq and warned that members of Al Qaeda based in Pakistan's Tribal Areas were planning a new attack on the US.
The Daly Times, quoting the news channel, said the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has located Osama in the "rooftop of the world", the area of Pakistan that borders Afghanistan to the west, in particular the chain of mountains of Afghan province of Nurestan and China to the north.
The report said support for Al Qaeda is broadening, not only among the Afghan Taliban and Pakistani tribes that deny Osama's presence in the area, but also fundamentalists including the Muslim Brotherhood that has changed its strategy.
Muslim Brotherhood leader Mahdi Akef has called Osama "a mujahid that sincerely fights against foreign occupation in order to be closer to Allah". In an interview published on the Arab website, Elaph, Akef said he supported the activities of Al Qaeda against occupiers and not those against the people.
