Osama probably alive, says brother

The brother of Osama bin Laden said today he thought he was alive after suggestions that the terrorist could have died in Afghanistan.

Yeslam Binladin, who spells his name differently from his brother, said that he was too well-known to have died without it becoming known. "I do not know if he is alive. If he is dead, I think that he is so well known that someone would know and say," said the Swiss-based financier, who has had no contact with his brother for 20 years.

The financier, one of Bin Laden's 53 brothers and sisters, also dismissed suggestions that he had been able to use a fortune inherited from his father to finance the attacks.

He said the family needed written permission from the Saudi king to gain access to the capital and that his brother's share had been frozen by royal order in 1994.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Bin Laden's fighters are lying low and disguising themselves by trimming their beards, intelligence sources say. US forces engaged remnants of al Qaeda last night near Kandahar with dozens killed and captured and one American serviceman wounded.