Kathy Evans
Osama Bin Ladin, who organised thousands of Arab volunteers in the Afghan jihad and has been linked to dozens of terrorist incidents, is homeless after being forced to leave his haven in Sudan.
He had been living there for the past three years with his former mojahedin fighters.
According to his spokesman in London, he left Khartoum last month on his own private jet with several wives and children and 20 of his fighters.
Sudanese officials have kept silent about where Bin Ladin has gone, but Arabic newspapers have reported sightings in London, Ethopia, Somalia and Afghanistan.
His exit from Sudan has sparked an international alert among security agencies. “There isn’t one Western government who wouldn’t like to talk to Osama,” said a United States intelligence official in Washington.
Bin Ladin’s departure followed a meeting in Jedda between President Omar Bashir of Sudan and King Fahd of Saudi Arabia. Sudan has been trying to improve relations with Arab and Western countries since the United Nations imposed sanctions after its failure to hand over three suspects wanted in connection with last year’s attempted assassination of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
Sudan was placed on the US state department’s list of countries sponsoring terrorism two years ago and has been condemned for sheltering numerous terrorist groups, including those led by Bin Ladin. In its latest report on global terrorism, the department identified him as “the financier and provider of logistic support to a number of extremist causes”.
Stripped of his Saudi citizenship three years ago, Bin Ladin is a member of one of the richest families in Saudi Arabia. His family’s prominence in Saudi society qualified him for the job of raising money and volunteers for the holy war in Afghanistan against the Moscow-backed government of President Mohammed Najibullah.
At the time, the Afghan jihad was supported by the Saudi government. Thousands of Saudis and nationals of other Gulf states were recruited, joining radicals from Egypt, Algeria, Sudan and other Arab countries. Most passed through Bin Ladin’s hands at a reception centre in the Pakistani border town of Peshawar.
Later, when the mojahedin took Kabul and the jihad petered out, Arab and Western security circles became concerned that the war against communism had unwittingly created an army of Arab radicals. Many volunteers — dubbed “the Kabulis” — went on to launch violent campaigns against their own governments.
A number were later jailed in the US for their involvement in the World Trade Centre bombing.