Exiled Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai has told the BBC that he is still in Afghanistan, denying the US reports that he had been taken out after narrowly escaping capture by the Taliban.
Karzai, a former deputy foreign minister in Kabul, said in an interview broadcast on Thursday that he and his men had beaten off an attack by "Arab forces" and then walked for three days to reach safety. They were now in the province of Uruzgan, he added.
He appealed for help from the United States, Europe and the Muslim world to rid Afghanistan of the "foreign terrorists" fighting beside the ruling Taliban regime. "I had a very difficult time for three days, together with my people. We were walking on foot... living on very little," he told the BBC. "I am now stabilised and better and feeling absolutely good," he said.

He said he infiltrated Afghanistan a month ago for talks with tribal chiefs and religious leaders about calling a Loya Jirga. A Loya Jirga, according to Afghan tradition, is a meeting of Afghan tribal, religious and ethnic factions that has in the past decided on policy issues including approving a new constitution. Bureau Report