COMPLETE COVERAGE | FRONT LINES | AMERICA AT HOME | INTERACTIVES »

Ben Wedeman: The search for bin Laden

CNN's Ben Wedeman

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A leading official of the opposition Northern Alliance said he believes Osama bin Laden remains somewhere in southern Afghanistan.

CNN's Ben Wedeman is in the Afghan capital of Kabul, where leaders of the Northern Alliance talked to reporters Saturday. He filed the following report:

WEDEMAN: A senior Northern Alliance official says the alliance knows where Osama bin Laden is and where he isn't. Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah told a press conference in Kabul on Saturday that Osama bin Laden is somewhere in southern Afghanistan in one of the three or four southern provinces still under Taliban control.

CNN.COM SPECIAL REPORT  CNN NewsPass Video  Agencies reportedly got hijack tips in 1998  MORE STORIES Intelligence intercept led to Buffalo suspects Report cites warnings before 9/11  EXTRA INFORMATION Timeline: Who Knew What and When? Interactive: Terror Investigation Terror Warnings System Most wanted terrorists What looks suspicious? In-Depth: America Remembers In-Depth: Terror on Tape In-Depth: How prepared is your city?  RESOURCES On the Scene: Barbara Starr: Al Qaeda hunt expands? On the Scene: Peter Bergen: Getting al Qaeda to talk

He said that according to the information that the alliance has, the al Qaeda organization and the Taliban are preparing to wage guerrilla warfare from the mountains of that rugged area.

Abdullah pinpointed those areas as including the town of Qalat, the Zabol province and the city of Kandahar.

Meanwhile he says that the alliance does not believe that bin Laden is in the Tora Bora area, also a very rugged, mountainous area -- near Jalalabad -- near the border with Pakistan.

He did say that he believed some of bin Laden's lieutenants were in the Tora Bora region.

This certainly does narrow down the hunt for bin Laden to a much smaller area.