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Prodigy, 21, about to become doctor
PARIS, March 15 (UPI) -- Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has eluded capture many times in Afghanistan, a top French defense official said Monday.
"Our men were not very far," Gen. Henri Bentegeat, France's chief of defense staff, told Europe 1 radio in an interview. "On several occasions, I even think he slipped out of a net that was quite well closed."
He did not specify when the searches occurred.
U.S.-led forces are searching for bin Laden and his al-Qaida and Taliban allies in the porous border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Bin Laden and al-Qaida were blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the United States and eluded capture despite the U.S.-led war that ousted his Taliban patrons.
Bentegeat said capturing bin Laden was unlikely to end al-Qaida.
It "is a hydra with many heads," he said. "If we catch one head, there will be others."
The general also said al-Qaida was probably behind last week's bombings in Madrid that killed some 200 people.
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