WAUKEGAN (USA), Nov 16: Osama bin Laden is still in Afghanistan, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Friday during a visit to a military base here.

“There isn’t any reason to believe he’s in Pakistan,” Rumsfeld said while talking to reporters. “There is every reason to believe he’s in Afghanistan ... There are lots of places (Osama) bin Laden could go.”

An Iranian radio reported on Friday that Osama and Taliban leader Mullah Omar had fled by road into a tribal region in Pakistan. The station, which broadcasts in Dari, an Afghan tongue similar to Farsi, attributed the details to an informed Afghan source contacted by telephone.

“Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden have almost certainly fled Afghanistan to Manatiq-i-Azad (Pakistan’s tribal areas), in order to save their lives,” reported the Iranian radio station in the northeastern city of Mashhad.

special forces: US special forces on the ground in Afghanistan are engaged in combat and are killing Taliban troops, Rumsfeld said here on Friday.

“They are killing Taliban,” said Rumsfeld, adding that no US troops had been killed.

“We are closely connected to forces who are attacking or retreating and they are participating,” in fighting, said Rumsfeld on a visit to a military base here without specifying where the combat was taking place.—AFP