/ 30 September 2001

BIN LADEN PLANNING MORE ATTACKS: UK MINISTER

A BRITISH minister said that Osama bin Laden was planning further major attacks in the next few weeks. ”I understand that he is preparing already for high-impact terrorist attacks in the coming weeks if he’s able to,” Peter Hain, minister for Europe, said on BBC TV’s Question Time programme on Thursday evening. ”There is evidence he is planning high-impact attacks in the world and we have got to make sure he doesn’t do it again.” Hain did not say what the targets were or what evidence he had. Both Britain and the United States have said they believe Saudi-born bin Laden and the al Qaeda organisation which he controls were responsible for the suicide hijack attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon which killed thousands. A senior official for the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan, where bin Laden is believed to be in hiding, said on Thursday an edict had been delivered to him asking him to leave the country voluntarily. – Reuters