Bin Laden Fighters Plan Anti-US Attack: Report
Reuters
June 23, 2001
LONDON: Followers of exiled Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden are planning a major attack on US and Israeli interests in the next two weeks, the Arabic satellite television channel MBC reported.
The station, monitored by the BBC, broadcast a report yesterday from a correspondent in the Pakistani town of Quetta, who said he had met Bin Laden two days ago in Afghanistan.
"There is a major state of mobilisation among the Osama Bin Laden forces. It seems that there is a race of who will strike first. Will it be the United States or Osama Bin Laden?" the correspondent said.
US officials said on Friday that forces in the Gulf had been put on threat condition delta based on a non-specific but credible threat linked to Bin Laden.
The MBC Correspondent said he had met Bin Laden at an unspecified location some three hours’ drive from the Afghan city of Kandahar. He had also talked with some of Bin Laden’s followers.
"All of them affirm that the next two weeks will witness a big surprise. A severe blow is expected against US and Israeli interests worldwide," the reporter said.
US warships in Bahrain, headquarters of the US 5th fleet, had been ordered to sea and a US marine corps training exercise in Jordan was being cut short.
Commander Jeff Gradeck, spokesman for the US naval force in Bahrain, yesterday declined to comment on military movements or security measures.
A high level of alert requires base guards and troops as well as families of service personnel to carefully watch for any threatening or unusual activities. In worst-case scenarios, US warships leave their bases and put out to sea and troops are confined to bases.
NBC television reported on Friday there had been at least three threats of attacks on US forces in the Gulf on June 25, the fifth anniversary of the 1996 bombing of the Khobar towers bombing, which killed 19 US servicemen.
Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited.
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