THE US will launch a new effort to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, who is believed to be hiding along the mountainous Afghan-Pakistani border, US national security adviser James Jones says. Asked in an interview if the administration planned a fresh attempt to go after al-Qaeda's leader, Mr Jones said: "I think so."
The latest intelligence reports suggested Bin Laden was "somewhere inside north Waziristan, sometimes on the Pakistani side of the border, sometimes on the Afghan side of the border, hiding in very, very rough mountainous area, generally ungoverned," he told CNN's State of the Union program.
"We're going to have to get after that to make sure a very important symbol of what al-Qaeda stands for is once again on the run or captured," said Mr Jones, a retired marine general.
Al-Qaeda was plotting more attacks against US and other Western targets and the United Stated needed to ensure those plots did not "become a reality", he said.
Mr Jones said the US was working closely with Islamabad to disrupt militant networks inside Pakistan's borders.
However, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said in another interview that Washington did not know where the al-Qaeda leader was and had lacked reliable information on his whereabouts for years.
A Senate report released last week said Bin Laden was "within the grasp" of American forces in late 2001 but escaped because then-defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld rejected calls for reinforcements.
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