The US mobilises support from its Western allies for a crusade against Islamist terrorism
Julian Borger in Washington, Richard Norton-Taylor and Ewen MacAskill in London and Ian Black in Brussels
Nato is drawing up an emergency plan for a massive attack on Afghanistan if proof emerges that Osama bin Laden, the wanted Saudi-born terrorist sheltered by Afghanistan, was responsible for the terror attacks in New York and Washington this week.
United States Justice Department officials said there was a growing body of evidence pointing towards Bin Laden’s involvement.
However, many US experts on terrorism, including former CIA director James Woolsey and the former Nato commander in Europe, Wesley Clark, said they believed that the terrorist operation also had state sponsorship, and mentioned Iraq as a suspect.
US defence officials stressed that the culprits would be punished.
“We have a very large hammer that can be brought to bear in a number of ways at any time,” said one official. “That’s not a threat, it’s a fact.”
The US on Wednesday mobilised support from Britain and its other Western allies for a crusade against Islamic terrorism in the wake of Tuesday’s devastating attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
For the first time in its 52-year history, Nato on Wednesday invoked Article 5 of its charter, which declares that an attack on any member state is an attack on all, implying automatic European backing for US retaliation.
By invoking Article 5, Nato has committed each member to take “such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area”.
Investigators believe that four separate cells were involved in the hijackings, including trained pilots who had learned their skills at private flying schools in the US.
Nato’s historic move came amid reports that the intended targets for one of the hijacked aircraft were the White House and the presidential aircraft, Air Force One.
The ruling Taliban government in Afghanistan will now come under intensive pressure from Washington to hand over Bin Laden or face the consequences. Until now the Taliban has steadfastly refused to extradite him, and denies that he was behind the attacks.
Under contingency plans being prepared, an assault would involve tens of thousands of ground troops, equivalent to the scale of the force deployed in Kosovo, Nato defence sources said.
Such a taskforce, which might take weeks to assemble, would not preclude an initial US cruise missile attack, they said.
The Nato sources said any multinational offensive would almost certainly involve British forces. It would also require the active support of Russia.
US President George W Bush warned Americans that they faced a long, hard struggle against their terrorist enemies, but promised that the country would not stand alone.
He promised to “rally the world. We will be patient. We’ll be focused, and we will be steadfast in our determination,” he said.
“This battle will take time and resolve, but make no mistake about it, we will win.”
Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, said that Washington wanted to build a “global coalition” to fight terrorism that would include not only Nato and Russia, but China and Muslim states.
Bush spoke to British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday and indicated there would be no knee-jerk reaction. The two leaders concurred that the vital thing was to move forward in a united action.
An international probe into Middle Eastern terror groups gathered pace on Thursday, as Washington mobilised a global coalition and vowed to crush those responsible.
Italian intelligence reports on Thursday said Bin Laden was responsible for the attacks on the US. Italian agents closely cooperate with their opposite numbers working for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Cooperation between the two sides allegedly helped avert planned terrorist operations in Italy.
Italy was concerned that a ministerial meeting of Nato countries, scheduled to take place in Italy on September 26 and 27, was a potential target for terrorists.
The Bulgarian government declared on Thursday that it is ready to take part in retaliation action against the terrorist attacks in the US.
“The Bulgarian government is prepared to use all means possible to support a possible strike or retaliation” led by the US, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passi told a news conference.
On demand from Nato, Sofia can grant permission for alliance countries to enter its territory and airspace, and Bulgaria itself could take part in a retaliation, Defence Minister Nikolai Svinarov said. Bulgaria is a candidate for entry to Nato.
During 1999’s Kosovo crisis, Bulgaria opened its airspace to Nato aircraft taking part in military action in Yugoslavia.
Germany has detained an airport worker and three of the suicide hijackers may have belonged to a Hamburg-based extremist group, authorities said on Thursday.
Police declined to identify the detained man and did not say what his job had been or where he worked. He was in investigative custody because he was in an apartment that was used by several suspects, they said.
The German Federal Prosecution Office said it was investigating an extremist Islamic group that had been active in Hamburg since the start of the year. One suspect with Arab links was known to them but had not been detained yet.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said his country is not planning military strikes against suspected terrorist bases.
However, the country was strengthening its security and monitoring the southern region of Chechnya where rebels were receiving international support.
Meanwhile, teams of heavily armed FBI agents detained several people for questioning after raids in Boston and Florida on the trail of evidence left behind by the hijackers.
The FBI’s new director, Robert Mueller, said no arrests had been made, but officials at the Justice Department explained that a number of “material witnesses” had been taken into custody to help the FBI with the inquiry.
Some of the detainees were seized from a hotel in Boston where several of the hijackers are believed to have stayed the night before the attacks.
Police in Providence, Rhode Island, were reported to have stopped and searched a train heading south from Boston and held three passengers.
In Florida the investigation centred on two flying schools, in Venice and in Coral Springs, where some of the hijackers were enrolled as students. One called himself Mohamed Atta. Another reportedly went by the name Mohamed al-Shahid (Mohamed the martyr).
Last year both men took a flying course at Huffman Aviation school in Venice. The school’s president and owner, Rudy Dekkers, said the FBI was looking at student records at the flight school, including copies of passports from the men.