KABUL (Reuters) - Mystery surrounded the fate of the guerrilla leading the fight against Afghanistan's Taliban on Tuesday, with those close to him insisting that he survived a suicide bomb attack despite persistent reports of his death. (Read photo caption below)
With the Taliban themselves denying any role in Sunday's bomb attack on Ahmad Shah Masood, neighbors who remain wary of their purist Islamic rule in Afghanistan and influence in the region planned to meet in Dushanbe, capital of Tajikistan.
Iran's state-run television, which announced plans for the meeting, gave no date but said the talks would begin soon.
U.S. officials said on Monday that intelligence reports indicated Masood, who first made his name fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, was dead, despite repeated denials from members of his alliance at home and abroad.
``We believe he's dead,'' one U.S. official told Reuters in Washington on condition of anonymity. ``Intelligence reports from the region and elsewhere say he's dead.''
But officially, U.S. officials stressed that his fate remained unclear and pointed to conflicting reports of both his condition and his whereabouts.
Ahmed Wali Masood, Masood's brother and spokesman in London, told CNN on Tuesday that the guerrilla commander received serious injuries in the attack inside Afghanistan and was taken to a Tajikistan hospital where he was in a stable condition.
Ahmed Wali Masood told CNN that his brother suffered serious injury to his right leg, that two pieces of shrapnel lodged in his head, that his face was burned and his fingers were injured.
The attack left his brother unconscious for 10 to 15 hours, fueling speculation about his death, he added.
``Now he can communicate, but of course not frequently. He can communicate from time to time. He's in a much, much better situation right now,'' he told CNN television.
In recent years, Masood has led the opposition fight against the Taliban, which controls 95 percent of Afghanistan but has been unable to dislodge his forces from the north.
A secretary for Masood told Reuters from the opposition stronghold in the Panjsher valley that two men posing as Arab journalists were in Masood's office for an interview when one of them, who had attached explosives to his body, blew himself up.
PHOTO CAPTION:
U.S. officials believe that Ahmad Shah Masood , the guerrilla commander leading the fight against Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, died in an explosion on September 9, 2001, despite assertions from his aides that he survived the assassination attempt. The forces led by Masood, shown April 4, control about 5 percent of Afghanistan and are locked in fighting with the Taliban north of the capital. (Xavier Lhospice/Reuters)