WASHINGTON, April 17: US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday dismissed a report that a US decision not to put ground troops at Tora Bora last year let Osama bin Laden escape.

Rumsfeld bridled when asked whether US Afghanistan war commander Army Gen. Tommy Franks had made a major mistake in his approach to the Tora Bora campaign, as alleged by unnamed US government sources in a Washington Post story.

“My view of the whole thing is that until the lessons learned are known and have been developed — they’re still being worked on — I wouldn’t be able to answer a question like that, and it impresses me that others can from their pinnacles of relatively modest knowledge,” Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon briefing.

Rumsfeld said he never has had any conclusive evidence of the whereabouts of Osama.

“We have seen repeated speculation about his possible location,” Rumsfeld said. “But it has obviously not been verifiable. Had it been verifiable, one would have thought that someone might have done something about it.”

Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, defended Franks’ performance, saying he had done a “fine job,” while Rumsfeld dismissed the report as “speculation”.

The Post said the Bush administration concluded that bin Laden was at Tora Bora when US aircraft began bombing on Nov. 30 but escaped because US ground troops were not sent to pursue the al Qaeda leader.

Intelligence officials have what they consider to be decisive evidence, gleaned from interrogations and intercepted communications, that Osama was inside the Tora Bora complex when the battle began, but escaped in the first 10 days of December, the Post said.—Reuters