Kabul: Afghanistan on Sunday backed a senior US official's claim that Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden was operating from Pakistan.
The US official said that Bin Laden, his deputy Ayman Al Zawahiri and Taliban chief Mullah Omar were working from Pakistani areas near the border with Afghanistan.
Pakistan has rejected the charge, but a spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai welcomed it.
"We are glad that finally a high-ranking American official confirmed this matter," said spokesman Humayun Hamidzada.
"The government of Afghanistan has said for years the administration centres, havens and regrouping bases of the enemies of Afghanistan and Taliban are outside Afghanistan," he said.
Hamidzada said the problem had to be dealt with at source.
"Certainly, the war in Afghanistan should continue, but the war should be taken to the source of terrorism where it is. We are not naming any country," he said.
