PARIS, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Osama bin Laden is dead, according to Saudi intelligence sources cited by a French newspaper quoting French intelligence sources.
The paper says a document was leaked to them by French intelligence.
The news of the death of al-Qaida's chief was reported in the Saturday edition of l'Est Republicain, a respected regional daily. The French paper cites a memo they claim was obtained from the French counter-espionage agency, the Direction Générale des Services Extérieurs, or the DGSE.
The world's most wanted terrorist, according to the French newspaper, is believed to have died last August 23 as a result of typhoid fever while in Pakistan.
The report of bin Laden's death was however not confirmed by official sources.
But a Saudi intelligence source told United Press International: "We are not saying he is dead, but there is a lot of truth in the report." The Saudi source, who spoke on condition that his name not be revealed, confirmed that according to Saudi Arabian intelligence "bin Laden was very ill these past few weeks."
The Saudi intelligence source told UPI "There is no way we can prove that bin Laden is dead until we can see the body." But, he added, "A good portion of what is in the report is true."
For the moment, the source went on to say, "We do not confirm (the death). "We don't know."
Making the report all the more credible is the choice by the person or persons in French intelligence of where to leak the report, the regional L'Est Republicain, rather than one of the larger Paris-based dailies.
"There is a history with that paper," said the Saudi source.
The information is based on what the newspaper calls "a usually reliable source," stating that Saudi intelligence sources "are convinced" of bin Laden's death.
