Ex-spy chief: Al Qaida has U.S. prisoners

WASHINGTON, March 13 (UPI) -- A former Pakistani spy master with links to the Taliban claims that al Qaida has captured American prisoners in eastern Afghanistan, forcing U.S. troops to end the siege of their stronghold and withdraw.

U.S. officials have denied the claim.

Talking to United Press International from his home in Islamabad, Gen. Hamid Gul, the former chief of Pakistan's main spy agency Inter Services Intelligence, said the United States sent "some Americans to Shahikot, dressed as Afghans."

Shahikot is the mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan where U.S. forces and their Afghan allies taking part in "Operation Anaconda" have been bombing and fighting several hundred al Qaida and Taliban fighters holed up in a series of cave complexes since March 1.

According to Gul the Americans sent to infiltrate the mountain strongholds could speak the local language of Pashto, and some even had beards.