JERUSALEM, June 8 (UPI) -- Osama bin Laden and his top aides are hiding in a mountainous town in northeastern Iran and Turkey knows it, intelligence sources said Tuesday.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is aware that bin Laden, his chief lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri and five other high-ranking al-Qaida leaders have been living under Tehran's protection for the past five years, military intelligence Web site Debkafile reports.

The leak that Erdogan is aware of bin Laden's location is intended to show the Obama administration the extent of Erdogan's ties to Iran, Debkafile says.

The location of the al-Qaida leader was pinned down by a Kuwaiti newspaper that identified Sabzevar as the town where bin Laden has been hiding.

The remote town of about 250,000 residents is difficult to access because of mountains and a salt desert, Debkafile says.

Until recently, the al-Qaida leader was believed to be in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region