Bin Laden Not "Living in a Cave," NATO Official Says

In the nine years since the Sept. 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden has eluded capture and frustrated U.S. forces. But contrary to the popular images of bin Laden living out of caves in the harsh, mountainous terrain along the Afghan-Pakistan border, officials now believe he and his top deputy enjoy relative comfort, living in houses in Northwest Pakistan under the protection of locals and members of the Pakistan intelligence services, according to a CNN report.

"Nobody in al Qaeda is living in a cave," a senior NATO official told the network. The official declined to be named.

The official said bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri have likely moved around an area hundreds of square miles in size, ranging from the Chitral region near the Chinese border to the Kurram Valley, which neighbors Tora Bora, the mountainous Afghan region from which bin Laden escaped U.S. forces in late 2001.

Pakistan has denied sheltering members of al Qaeda. Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that if there was information on bin Laden or al-Zawahiri being in Pakistan, it should be shared so Pakistani officials can take "immediate action" to arrest them.