Bin Laden 'far buried' in remote region: Petraeus

General David Petraeus talks about Bin Laden, WikiLeaks and US troops withdrawal from Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON: General David Petraeus on Sunday said alQaeda leader Osama bin Laden is "far buried" in the remote mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan but capturing the "iconic figure" remains a key task.

"I don't think anyone knows where Osama bin Laden is," the head of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan told NBC television's "Meet the Press" when asked about the Al-Qaeda leader's whereabouts.

"The fact that it took him four weeks to get a congratulatory message out or a message of condolence... indicates literally how far buried he is probably in the very, very most remote and mountainous region."

Petraeus appeared to be referring to a January 25 message by Bin Laden congratulating a young Nigerian for a failed attempt to blow up a US-bound airliner on Christmas Day.

Despite the difficulty in locating him, Petraeus said Bin Laden "remains an iconic figure and I think capturing or killing (him) is still a very, very important task for all of those who are engaged in counter-terrorism around the world."

Wikileaks

The top US military commander blasted as "reprehensible" the release of Afghan war documents, saying that US partners named in them have been put at risk.

General David Petraeus's comments came in response to a threat by the founder of the whistleblowers' website WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, to make public another batch of secret documents in a "couple of weeks" despite mounting Pentagon protests.

WikiLeaks has already released 76,000 military documents from the Afghan conflict, but is still holding another 15,000 classified files.

During the interview Petraeus said he was not sure what might be in them, but he said the files released so far have contained information that compromised people working with the international forces.

"As we have looked through it more and more, there are source names and in some cases there are actual names of individuals with whom we have partnered in difficult missions in difficult places.

"And obviously, that is very reprehensible."

He said the release of the documents, though consisting of raw documents that were not top secret, was "beyond unfortunate."

"I mean, this is a betrayal of trust," he said.

Afghanistan withdrawal

Petraeus reserved the right Sunday to tell President Barack Obama it is too early to start withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan in July 2011.

Asked whether he could make an assessment in July next year that it is not the right time to start the planned limited pullout, Petraeus said: "Certainly, yeah."

"The president and I sat down in the Oval Office and he expressed very clearly that what he wants from me is my best professional military advice," he said.

Petraeus's comments come as US public support for the war and Obama's handling of it are at an all-time low with the death toll for US troops hitting a record high in July of 66.

Petraeus pointed out that Obama had also deployed far more troops to Afghanistan and said the real point of giving the date was to step up pressure for progress in the US and Afghan effort.

"Let me point out one other item about July 2011 if I could, because what I had often noted was that in the speech the president made at West Point there were two messages," he said.

"One was a message of substantial additional commitment, an additional 30,000 troops, again more civilians, more funding for Afghan forces, authorization of a 100,000 more of them and so forth, but also a message of increased urgency and that's what July 2011 really connotes."

Petraeus took over command of more than 140,000 coalition troops in Afghanistan last month from US General Stanley McChrystal, who was sacked for showing disdain for US administration officials in a magazine interview.

Nonetheless, Petraeus still reserved the right to tell Obama that conditions on the ground had changed and that pullout plans might be premature.

"Certainly, I am aware of the context within which I offer that advice," Petraeus said. "But that just informs the advice; it doesn't drive it. The situation on the ground drives it."

"I think our job is again to show those in Washington that there is progress being made," Petraeus said. "To do that, we've got to build on the progress that has been established so far, because there is certainly nothing like irreversible momentum."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently pledged that the Afghan army and police would be able to take responsibility for the country's security by the end of 2014.