Pakistani officials: Osama bin Laden isolated, communications shattered

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Osama bin Laden is hiding out with a small core of mainly Arab supporters, and the al-Qaida leader now only sends messages by courier because his communications network has been destroyed, senior Pakistani military and intelligence officials said Sunday.

There are no fresh clues to bin Laden's whereabouts, but he generally is believed to be in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Security officials in Pakistan also believe bin Laden's communications network has been destroyed.

"For a very long time there are no intercepts about Osama bin Laden giving instructions to his regional commanders, either through radio, telephone, satellite phone or the Internet," a senior security official said on condition of anonymity.

Pakistani officials say more than 700 al-Qaida suspects have been arrested.

Officials also say that information gleaned from al-Qaida has led to the arrests of militants outside Pakistan and helped prevent terrorist attacks abroad.

"The arrest of Naeem Noor Khan led to the arrest of a big gang ... ahead of the British elections," Sultan said, claiming that the people arrested in Britain planned to attack Heathrow Airport.

Last year, intelligence agents arrested Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, 25, an alleged Pakistani computer expert for al-Qaida. A reported tip-off from Khan led to the arrest of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian on the FBI's most-wanted list for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa that killed more than 200 people.

There were media reports that Mohammed Sidique Khan -- one of the suspected bombers in the deadly July 7 explosions in London -- may have had ties with members of an alleged terrorist cell that matched information from Noor Khan's computer.

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Associated Press reporter Riaz Khan in Peshawar contributed to this report.