The US has had no reliable information on the whereabouts of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in years, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has admitted.
Mr Gates told ABC News in remarks being broadcast on Sunday: "Well, we don't know for a fact where Osama Bin Laden is. If we did, we'd go get him."
A Taliban detainee in Pakistan told the BBC last week that he had information Bin Laden was in Afghanistan this year.
However, Mr Gates said he could not confirm that information.
When asked by ABC's This Week programme when the US last had any good intelligence on the whereabouts of the al-Qaeda leader, Mr Gates said: "I think it's been years."
He could not confirm the details of the Taliban detainee, who claimed to have met Osama Bin Laden numerous times before 9/11.
The detainee said that in January or February he met a trusted contact who had seen Bin Laden about 15 to 20 days earlier in Afghanistan.
Bin Laden had previously been thought to be on the Pakistan side of the border with Afghanistan.
But the detainee said that militants were avoiding Pakistani territory because of the risk of US drone attacks.
The detainee said Bin Laden was well.
Good thing we didn't really want him, eh? Killing this guy really ought to be some kind of priority for the 35,000 troops we're sending to Afghanistan.
By: Brant
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