Bin Laden 50 today?

By Saeed Ali Achakzai

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden, if he's alive, celebrates his 50th birthday on Saturday, and his friends in the Taliban prayed for his long life.

The al Qaeda leader's long silence has fueled speculation that the world's most-wanted fugitive may have died, though many in the international intelligence community reckon Islamist militant Web sites would circulate word of his death.

"He is alive. I am 100 percent sure," Taliban spokesman Mullah Hayatullah Khan told Reuters, adding that senior leaders were in touch with bin Laden, reinforcing a widely held view that he is hiding near the rugged Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Khan said special prayers were offered by Taliban fighters in camps in Afghanistan to mark bin Laden's birth on March 10, 1957, in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah.

"We prayed that Allah may give him 200 years to live," Khan said," by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location.

"When we woke up today, we offered collective and long prayers for him because he is a great mujahid (holy warrior)."

The most recent videotape of bin Laden was released in late 2004 -- subsequent tapes released were identified as old footage -- and around half a dozen audio tapes surfaced in the first half of 2006.

But a long silence since then has fueled rumors that bin Laden is unwell, or dead, though the United States fears that the al Qaeda network he founded is rebuilding its base in Pakistani tribal lands, and has forged ties with affiliates in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.