Cairo, Egypt ? Osama bin Laden is alive and the future of the United States in Afghanistan is “fire, hell and total defeat,” fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar was quoted as saying by a pan-Arab newspaper Friday.

“We don’t consider the battle has ended in Afghanistan … The battle has begun and its fires are picking up. These fires will reach the White House, because it is the center of injustice and tyranny,” Omar was quoted as saying by the London-based Asharq al-Awsat.

“The sheik (bin Laden) is, thank God, still alive and this hurts Bush who promised to his people to kill Osama,” Omar reportedly asserted.

Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, editor-in-chief of the paper, said Omar answered questions delivered by reporter Badie Qorhani to the mullah’s media adviser in northern Pakistan. Omar’s responses were recorded and returned to the reporter.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he had no “current information on the whereabouts or even the existence” of bin Laden or Omar.