Now, Taliban 'anthrax factory'

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, NOV. 19. A British tabloid claims to have discovered a Taliban-run anthrax laboratory in Kabul alleging that Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network was ``behind'' the U.S. anthrax scare.

In a front-page splash today, The Mirror said the ``factory'', headed by the ``anti-West'' Qari Abdullah, was used to create vaccines from ``highly dangerous wild bacteria''. It was housed in a two-storey building which had been bombed by U.S. B52s.

``On a tour of the plant, Mirror saw an incubator to develop the bacteria, hundreds of test tubes ready for samples, and the word `anthrax' scribbled on a container,'' it said quoting a ``source'' at the plant as saying that the Taliban were planning a chemical and biological warfare against the West. ``I believe anthrax might have been first on their list,'' he said.

The Mirror story comes days after The Times claimed that it had found documents indicating that the Al-Qaeda was planning to make nuclear devices, and a deadly poison ``ricin''. These, it said, were found in safe houses abandoned by Al-Qaeda activists while fleeing the Northern Alliance offensive last week.

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