The Hindu : 'Al-Qaeda behind Karachi blast'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 17, 2002

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'Al-Qaeda behind Karachi blast'

WASHINGTON June 16. Three Al-Qaeda members told Moroccan officials that Osama bin Laden commanded his fighters in December to disperse across the globe to attack ``American and Jewish interests,'' The Washington Post reported today. The officials said Osama's instructions were behind a string of recent attacks, including Friday's bombing outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, that killed 11 people.

The three men, citizens of Saudi Arabia, told the interrogators they escaped from Afghanistan and came to Morocco on a mission to use bomb-laden speedboats for suicide attacks on U.S. and British warships in the Strait of Gibraltar, the Post said. The men, captured in May in a joint Moroccan-CIA operation, appeared briefly in court in Morocco on Friday, but made no public statements. They said information from prisoners and other evidence showed that Al-Qaeda leaders continued to direct missions from afar.

The Moroccans said that, based on their findings and communication with other intelligence agencies, there was every indication Osama was still alive, the Post said.

The accounts provided by the three Saudi captives were related during interviews with senior Moroccan officials who have direct knowledge of the interrogations. The Saudis were among the Al-Qaeda members who assembled in the mountainous Tora Bora region after U.S.-backed forces captured Kabul, the Afghan capital. While sneaking out of Tora Bora, an Osama lieutenant assembled Al-Qaeda members for final instructions.

The lieutenant, who said he was carrying direct instructions from Osama, ordered the members to flee Afghanistan to whatever areas of the world they had previously operated, including Asia, the Persian Gulf, Africa, Turkey and Europe, according to the newspaper.

Osama's directed them to launch terrorist attacks once they had become established in familiar areas. ``Members who were very knowledgeable about one region had to go back to that region to prepare and perpetuate terrorist attacks,'' a senior Moroccan official told the Post. The lieutenant noted that operations against European targets could be launched from North Africa, and operations in the Persian Gulf from Yemen. The Saudis were ordered to Morocco to attack the ships.

Moroccan officials said the Saudi prisoners described a final ceremony in which the men pledged allegiance to Osama and swore themselves to martyrdom through suicide operations. — Reuters

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