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Pentagon: Bin Laden's whereabouts 'anybody's guess'

A captured al Qaeda soldier covers his face with bandaged hand.

(CNN) -- Amid conflicting reports about the location of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, a Pentagon spokesman said Monday it's "anybody's guess" where bin Laden might be.

"We have narrowed it down to an area. Indicators were there and now indicators are not there so maybe he still is there, maybe he was killed or maybe he has left," said Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem. He said there are reports that Taliban supreme spiritual leader Mullah Omar might be in the Kandahar region in southern Afghanistan.

Prisoners captured by anti-Taliban forces in eastern Afghanistan said they think bin Laden remains in the mountainous Tora Bora region, CNN learned Monday, contradicting reports that bin Laden might have escaped into Pakistan. (Full story)

U.S. warplanes launched fresh bombing runs Monday on Tora Bora, despite assertions by Eastern Alliance commanders that their war against al Qaeda was effectively over. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned that although the Taliban regime has collapsed, its followers and members of the al Qaeda terrorist network still pose a danger.

Stufflebeem said the United States has five detainees, including American Taliban fighter John Walker. Those five are on the USS Peleliu in the Arabian Sea. Anti-Taliban forces have fewer than 100 detainees, he said.

Stufflebeem also provided specifics concerning the wounds of three U.S. Marines injured Sunday when one stepped on a landmine near Kandahar airport. Doctors amputated the leg of one Marine, and the other two sustained head and hand injuries.

VIDEO Watch entire Osama bin Laden videotape, released by the Pentagon on Thursday (December 13) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met with U.S. troops and talked with members of the interim Afghan government. CNN's Jamie Mcintyre reports (December 17) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     QUICKVOTE Is al Qaeda finished? Yes No View Results    CNN.COM SPECIAL REPORT  VIDEO/AUDIO U.S. embassy to re-open in Kabul Rumsfeld tours Afghan frontlines  MORE STORIES U.S. envoy: Peacekeeping force in Kabul by weekend U.S. raises flag over embassy in Afghan capital Uncertainty over bin Laden's location  EXTRA INFORMATION Al Qaeda's terror handbook Military Desk Briefing  RESOURCES Hunt for bin Laden timeline Message board

Latest developments

• President Bush said Monday "it's just a matter of time" before bin Laden and his associates are captured. "When the dust clears, we'll find out where he is, and he'll be brought to justice," Bush told reporters at the White House.

• The former U.S. Embassy in Kabul opened Monday, the first time it has been in operation in 12 years. The State Department's top representative to Afghanistan, James Dobbins, presided over the ceremony. The former embassy initially will serve as a "liaison office" between the United States and the interim Afghan government, which is set to take office on December 22. (Full story)

• Workers finished fumigating the Hart Senate Office Building Monday morning in an attempt to remove anthrax spores from the ventilation, heating and air conditioning systems, the U.S. Capitol police said. Spot treatments of the facility will continue. (Full story)

• The first components of an international peacekeeping force are expected to be operational in the Afghan capital, Kabul, by Saturday. (Full story)

• Gen. Tommy Franks, chief of U.S. Central Command, called the situation in the region "confused" and said al Qaeda fighters still pose a threat. "It's going to be a while before we have the area around Tora Bora fully under control," Franks said. (Full story)

• The Saudi citizen shown conversing with Osama bin Laden about the September 11 terrorist attacks on a videotape released last week is Khaled al-Habri, a former mujahedeen fighter, senior Saudi officials said. U.S. officials initially believed the man was Ali Sayeed al-Ghamdy, a former Islamic theology professor. (Full story)

• The CIA uses anthrax in its bio-warfare program but its bacteria has no connection to the tainted letter sent to two U.S. senators and several news organizations, an agency official said Sunday. (Full story)

• Rumsfeld said the U.S. military has gathered significant intelligence from a suspected al Qaeda biological, nuclear, and chemical site near Camp Rhino, the U.S. Marine base in southern Afghanistan. (Full story)