DUBAI, Sept 18: Osama bin Laden is running the “war” against the United States from a cave, a press report said on Thursday, quoting a source it said was the chief of training for the Al Qaeda network.

“Al Qaeda is everywhere around the world and in strength,” claimed Abu Mohamed al Ablaj in an e-mail interview published on Friday by Al Majallah, a Saudi-owned weekly.

“(Osama) bin Laden is leading it from a cave, the same cave from where the orders went out to destroy the citadel of the Pentagon and which the Pentagon has not been able to destroy,” he said.

“Abu Abdullah (Osama) enjoys full freedom of movement. He directs the fighting against the evil administration in Satan’s Black House from his cave.

“He swears to die fighting for God. Like any mujahideen, he cannot imagine dying in his bed,” added Al Ablaj, a nom de guerrre.

The world’s most wanted man popped up on the Al Jazeera Qatari television station on the eve of the second anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks in the United States.

In a video believed to have been recorded last April or May, Osama and his top lieutenant, Ayman Zawahiri, both looking aged and thin, were shown walking through a rocky valley, probably in Afghanistan, carrying Kalashnikov rifles.—AFP