US military denies "bin Laden ill" report
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-09-15 13:40

The U.S. military in Afghanistan denied on Wednesday that one of its officers had told reporters Osama bin Laden was seeking medical attention, Reuters reported.

The London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat, citing U.S. Colonel Don McGraw in a briefing with reporters in Kabul, said on Wednesday that the al Qaeda leader was in poor health and was trying to obtain medical attention.

But a U.S. military spokeswoman in Kabul said McGraw had not said that.

Saudi-born Osama bin Laden speaks in Afghanistan in this May 26, 1998 file photo.[Reuters/file]

"Colonel McGraw did not say Osama bin Laden was trying to get medical attention," said the spokeswoman, Lieutenant Cindy Moore.

"We're working with the editor to correct the record," she said of the al Hayat report.

McGraw had been asked by a reporter about an Arabic Web site report several weeks ago saying bin Laden had been wounded. McGraw said he had seen the report, which security experts said lacked credibility, but had no information, Moore said.

He was then asked about old reports that bin Laden had suffered from a kidney ailment and McGraw had said bin Laden might have, in the past, sought treatment but he didn't know about now, Moore said.

Moore said McGraw had presented the reporters with no new report about bin Laden.

The Saudi-born militant is believed to have taken refuge somewhere on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan after eluding U.S. troops and their Afghan allies who toppled the Taliban government that had hosted him in 2001.

The United States holds al Qaeda responsible for many attacks, including the suicide hijack assaults on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001.

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