Taliban: Bin Laden overseeing Iraq, Afghanistan ops

Taliban: Bin Laden overseeing Iraq, Afghanistan ops
Mullah says al-Qaida leader ordered attack on Cheney at Bagram base

Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is orchestrating militants' operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a senior commander of Afghan Islamist group Taliban said in remarks broadcast on Wednesday.

Bin Laden has not made any video statements for many months raising speculation that he might have died.

"He is drawing plans in Iraq and Afghanistan ... Praise God he is alive," Mullah Dadullah told Al Jazeera television.

In September, a French newspaper quoted French foreign intelligence service as saying the Saudi intelligence were convinced bin Laden had died of typhoid in Pakistan in August.

Dadullah said bin Laden ordered the attack on February 27 at the U.S. Bagram base during a visit by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney to Afghanistan.

"Do you remember the martyrdom operation inside the Bagram base which targeted a senior American official ... this operation was the result of blessed plans put by him," Dadullah said. Jazeera said the U.S. official Dadullah was referring to was Cheney.

"He (bin Laden) guided us through it," he said, adding that no Afghan would have been able to penetrate the base if it was not for the world's most wanted militant.

About 14 people were killed, including one American and one South Korean soldier in the suicide bombing which militants said targeted Cheney. A U.S. official then said Cheney was about half a mile away on the base and was not in danger.

The Taliban were toppled in 2001 by a U.S.-led coalition for refusing to hand over leaders of al Qaeda after the group's September 11 attacks on U.S. cities.

Dadullah did not give further details about the role bin Laden was playing in operations in the two countries where the United States deploys troops.