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Paris: France and the United States said yesterday they could not confirm a leaked secret document that said Osama Bin Laden had died.
The French regional daily L'Est Republican, published in Nancy, quoted a document from France's DGSE foreign intelligence service as saying the Saudi secret services were convinced the Al Qaida leader had died of typhoid in Pakistan in late August.
President Jacques Chirac told reporters Bin Laden's death "has not been confirmed in any way whatsoever, and so I have no comment to make".
The Saudi Interior Ministry was not available for comment and officials in the United States were also unable to confirm the account.
"We don't have any confirmation of that report," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. The French newspaper printed what it said was a copy of the report.
"The information gathered by the Saudis indicates that the head of Al Qaida fell victim, while he was in Pakistan on August 23, 2006, to a very serious case of typhoid that led to a partial paralysis of his internal organs," the report said.
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