A top Taliban commander said in a newly released video interview that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is alive and well.
“All praise be to Allah, he is extremely healthy and active,” the commander, Mansour Dadullah, said in the interview, according to a transcript of the video’s English subtitles released Tuesday by IntelCenter, which monitors extremist publications.
Dadullah, whose brother Mullah Dadullah was also a top Taliban commander and was killed earlier this year, said he had been contacted by bin Laden, according to Agence France-Presse.
“I received a message from him in which he advised me that I ‘must follow Mullah Dadullah and continue the same activities so that the mujahedeen may not weaken,’” he said in the interview.
Bin Laden has appeared in a number of video and audio clips since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but has not been heard from since May 2006.
An Internet video showing bin Laden was posted on July 15, but the Washington-based SITE Intelligence Group said the footage was old.
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