A picture of the head of the al-Qaeda terror network, Osama bin Laden. The United States faces growing threats on multiple fronts with Al-Qaeda still the top danger, but Iran on the rise and on course to produce nuclear weapons early in the next decade, US intelligence chiefs said Tuesday. [AFP] Osama bin Laden, if he's alive, celebrated his 50th birthday on Saturday, and his friends in the Taliban prayed for his long life. The al Qaeda leader's long silence since the September 11, 2001 attacks has fuelled speculation that the world's most-wanted fugitive may have died, though many in the international intelligence community reckon Islamist militant Web sites would circulate word of his death. "He is alive. I am 100 percent sure," Taliban spokesman Mullah Hayatullah Khan told reporters, adding that senior leaders were in touch with bin Laden. Khan said special prayers were offered by Taliban fighters in camps in Afghanistan to mark bin Laden's birth on March 10, 1957, in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah. "We prayed that Allah may give him 200 years to live," Khan said. "And we offered collective and long prayers for him because he is a great mujahid (holy warrior)." The most recent videotape of bin Laden was released in late 2004. But a long silence since then has fuelled rumours that bin Laden is unwell, or dead, though the United States fears that the al Qaeda network he founded is rebuilding its base in Pakistani tribal lands, and has forged ties with affiliates in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Dead or alive, bin Laden is revered by some as the symbolic leader of a global jihad, or holy war, against the United States, following the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington that killed more than 3,000 people. 点击查看更多双语新闻 (AP)

如果奥萨马·本·拉登还活着的话，他已于上周六年满50周岁。当天，他在塔利班组织中的朋友们为他祈祷，祝愿他长命百岁。 这位基地组织领导人自9·11之后一直“销声匿迹”，因此很多人猜测这位世界上最"有价值"的逃犯可能已经不在人世，但国际情报组织的很多人则认为如果拉登已经死亡，伊斯兰军事网站上会发布这个消息。 塔利班组织发言人毛拉·哈亚图拉·可汗接受记者采访时说：“我可以百分之百的肯定，他还活着。”据他透露，塔利班的高级领导人们一直与拉登保持着联系。 可汗说，本·拉登于1957年3月10日出生于沙特阿拉伯的城市吉达，为了庆祝他50周岁生日，塔利班组织的成员们在地处阿富汗的军营为他举行了特殊的祈祷。 可汗说：“我们向真主阿拉祈祷，赐予他200年的生命。” “我们为他集体祈祷了很久，因为他是一名伟大的圣战勇士。” 本·拉登最近一次在录像中露面是在2004年底。 但从那之后，他一直未露面，由此引起了有关他身患重病和死亡的谣言。但美国仍然担心拉登建立的基地组织网络会在巴基斯坦的部落地区重建恐怖训练基地，而且担心其已进一步加强了与欧洲、北非和中东地区成员的联系。 无论拉登如今是生还是死，自从9·11恐怖袭击之后，他就被一些人尊为全球圣战的精神领袖。2001年9月11日，他对美国的纽约和华盛顿发动的恐怖袭击造成了3000多人死亡。 （ 英语点津姗姗编辑）