US general plans to keep hunting bin Laden

Mar 17, 2010, 23:31 GMT

Washington - The top US general in Afghanistan vowed to keep hunting for Osama bin Laden with the hope of capturing him alive so the al-Qaeda leader can stand trial in the United States.

General Stanley McChrystal's remarks came one day after the top US law enforcement officer, Attorney General Eric Holder, described the chances of catching the al-Qaeda leader alive as 'infinitesimal.'

During congressional testimony, Holder made a reference to the list of rights read by US police while conducting arrests: 'We will be reading Miranda rights to a corpse of Osama bin Laden. He will never appear in an American courtroom.'

Bin Laden 'will be killed by us, or he will be killed by his own people,' Holder said.

But McChrystal said he is not giving up on the mission.

'If Osama bin Laden comes inside Afghanistan, ... we certainly would go after trying to capture him alive and bring him to justice,' McChrystal told Pentagon reporters during a teleconference briefing from Afghanistan.

Bin Laden has been on the run since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and is believed to be hiding along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan.

Then-president George W Bush famously said in the days after 9/11 that he wanted bin Laden 'dead or alive' - borrowing from the wanted posters of Wild West lore. Current President Barack Obama has vowed to intensify the effort to capture or kill the al-Qaeda figurehead.