Osama bin¹ Laden² is alive and well and living comfortably in a house in the north-west of Pakistan protected by local people and elements of the country's intelligence services, according to a senior NATO official.

北约组织一位高级官员日前表示，奥萨马•本•拉登不仅还活着，而且身体健康，过得相当滋润。他目前居住在巴基斯言西北部的一处住所，并受到当地民众和一伙巴基斯坦情报特工的保护。

The image made from video broadcast on Sunday, Oct 7, 2001 shows Osama bin Laden at an undisclosed location.

The latest assessment³ contradicts（反驳，否定） the belief that the al-Qaeda leader is roughing it in underground bunkers（沙坑，燃料） as he dodged⁴（躲避） CIA drones hunting him from the air.

"Nobody in al-Qaeda is living in a cave," according to an unnamed NATO official quoted by CNN.

He added that Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's second in command, was also living in a house close by somewhere in the country's mountainous border regions.

Pakistani officials on Monday repeated their long standing⁵ denials that the Saudi-born terrorist mastermind was being given safe haven⁶.

However, the NATO official said bin Laden was thought to have ranged from the mountainous Chitral area near the Chinese border, to the Kurram Valley which borders Afghanistan's Tora Bora, one of the Taliban strongholds during the US invasion in 2001.

North Waziristan, in particular, has become a nexus⁷（关系，连结） for Afghan, Pakistani and Arab militants⁸ as they plot attacks against NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan.

Earlier this month a leaked White House report accused its ally Pakistan of playing a double game by avoiding "military engagements that would put it in direct conflict with Afghan Taliban or al-Qaeda forces in North Waziristan".

A senior Pakistani security official denied that bin Laden was being protected and said the latest allegations were designed to heap pressure on Islamabad ahead of talks in Washington this week that would focus on strengthening co-operation between the two countries.

"Every time something important is happening then things like this keep creeping out（渗出，漏出） ," he said. "If it's not bin Laden it's something else."