Bin Laden has fled to Kashmir: Italian television
( 2001-12-22 09:35 ) (7 )

Osama bin Laden, wanted by the West for the September 11 attacks, has fled to Kashmir with the help of Pakistan's secret services, an Italian television station reported Friday in Rome.

An unidentified informer who appeared on RaiTre public television, his back to the camera, said bin Laden had left his secret base in the Tora Bora mountain area in eastern Afghanistan, December 12.

The informer, carrying documents said to belong to the Pakistani secret services, also said 2,000 men belonging to bin Laden's al-Qaeda network had succeeded in fleeing Afghanistan to various places including Kashmir and the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya.

US President George W. Bush said earlier Friday that he does not know the location of the Saudi-born bin Laden, while a US-allied Afghan commander said he was still in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan.