Laden 'alive', may attack US, UK

US authorities believe that Osama may take leadership of Al-Qaeda, which may be planning to attack the West.

US authorities believe that Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is alive and is still around.

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"We have no intelligence or evidence to indicate that he is dead or incapacitated, so our working assumption is that he is still alive," US counter-terrorism ambassador Henry Crumpton said on Tuesday.

Al Qaeda retains the aim of attacking the US and Britain, he added.

"I am very confident that he will get Al-Qaeda's leadership at some point," said Crumpton, noting that Osama and his associates were believed to be in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"We should also note that no sign of life from bin Laden reflects our collective success," he added.

However, Crumpton repeatedly warned that Al-Qaeda and the affiliated groups had a strategic aim of attacking the US.