White House claims ignorance about bin Laden's survival

Washington, Nov.20 : The suspense over al-Qaeda chief Osama-bin-Laden being alive still remains here, with the United States denying having any information about his death.

The United States has no information that Osama bin Laden has died despite his continuing silence, the White House was quoted by The Nation as saying on Wednesday after the broadcast of a new message from al-Qaeda's number two Ayman Zawahiri.

"I would have to refer you to the intelligence community for that. I do not believe that we have any intelligence that suggests that he is not living," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino when asked if the new message from Ayman Zawahiri raised any new questions about the fate of the terrorist network's number one.

Perino dismissed Zawahiri's verbal broadside against the US president-elect Barack Obama as "more despicable and pathetic comments by al-Qaeda terrorists."

Zawahiri, in an Internet audio message released on Wednesday, had ridiculed Obama as a house negro and cautioned him against sending more troops to Afghanistan.

She termed the Al-Qaeda as "totally irrational".

"They attack everything and anything that is American. And so they just look for targets of opportunity, both verbally and physically, and that is why we have to stop them," Perino was quoted to be saying by the Nation.

ANI