Storm of planes won't stop: Al-Qaeda

DOHA, OCT. 10. The Al -Qaeda network said today that the U.S. would face further attacks by hijacked planes and urged ``all Muslims'' to join for a jehad (holy war) against the U.S.

``The Americans must know that the storm of airplanes will not stop,'' the Al-Qaeda spokesperson, Mr. Suleiman Abu Ghaith said. He was speaking in Arabic in a pre-recorded message broadcast by the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite television, almost a month after hijackers rammed passenger jets into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

``There are thousands of young people who look forward to death like the Americans look forward to living,'' he said. ``American interests are everywhere, all over the world. And every Muslim has to play his real and true role to uphold his religion and his nation.''

He said the U.S-led military strikes against Afghanistan had ``opened a door that will never be closed''. ``America must know that by coming to the land of Afghanistan they've opened up a new page of animosity between us and the forces of the unbelievers.''

Reacting to the Al-Qaeda remarks, the White House in a statement from Washington said that they only bolstered the American view that the group must be eradicated.

``If anybody needed further proof that this group of terrorists has launched attacks on freedom and civilisation, all they had to was watch that statement'' said a White House official, who declined to be named.

Curbs on Osama eased

The Taliban has authorised Osama bin Laden to issue statements but restrictions on him using the country as a base for ``hostile activities'' remain, a spokesman for the militia said today. ``We have allowed Osama bin Laden to issue statements but the restrictions on him using Afghan soil for hostile activities remain in effect,'' said Amir Khan Muttaqi, a newly-appointed spokesman for the Taliban chief, Mullah Mohammed Omar, according to the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency.

The Taliban had previously insisted that it had prevented Osama bin Laden from communicating with the outside world, a restriction it claimed made it impossible for him to have orchestrated the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

It became evident on Monday that the restrictions, if

they were ever applied, were no longer in force when Osama bin Laden appeared on the Al Jazeera satellite television channel to

denounce the U.S.-led airstrikes against Afghanistan.

- AFP, AP

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