Taliban chief says Bin Laden alive: video

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A top Taliban commander said Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden is alive and well, according to US-based analysts monitoring extremist publications.

"All praise be to Allah, he is extremely healthy and active," the commander Mansour Dadullah said in a video interview, according to a transcript of the video's English subtitled translation, released Tuesday by the analyst IntelCenter.

Dadullah, whose brother Mullah Dadullah was also a top commander in the Afghanistan-based militants and was killed this year, said he had been contacted by Bin Laden, the man blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

"I received a message from him in which he advised me 'I must follow Mullah Dadullah and continue the same activities so that the mujahideen (Islamic fighters) may not weaken," he said, according to the transcript.

The video is dated June 15, 2007, IntelCenter said.

After the attacks the United States led an invasion of Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime allied with Al-Qaeda and believed the Saudi-born Bin Laden was hiding there. But after pounding the mountains where his den was thought to be, US-led forces failed to find him.