KABUL, July 6: Afghanistan said on Wednesday that senior Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders were hiding in Pakistan’s tribal areas, the latest salvo in a row between the two neighbours over their success in the so-called “war on terror”.

The comments by Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal came a day after Pakistan’s interior minister was quoted as saying that Osama bin Laden and other key militants may be in southern Afghanistan.

“We believe that the senior Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders are still hiding in the tribal belt of Pakistan’s federally controlled tribal area,” Mr Mashal said.

US and Afghan officials have long said they think Osama and other Al Qaeda kingpins have been hiding out in the mountains on the frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Pakistan’s interior minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao reportedly told state media on Tuesday that Osama, his deputy Ayman Al-Zawahiri and fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar might be in troubled southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban have stepped up attacks.

However on Wednesday, he said Pakistan did “not have any evidence about Osama’s presence anywhere” and that he had been misquoted.

“I had said that there could be the possibility of his presence in areas under Taliban influence,” he told the APP. “I had not particularly mentioned ... any specific area.”

SURRENDER: Fourteen Taliban rebels linked to a commander who is on a US list of most wanted militants have surrendered as part of an Afghan government amnesty, a governor said on Wednesday.