Chief terror suspect Osama bin Laden is alive and well, a representative for his al-Qaida network said in a statement broadcast on Sunday on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite channel.
The representative Suleiman Abu Ghaith also threatened ”new attacks against American targets”.
”Osama bin Laden, as well as (the head of the Egyptian branch of Al-Jihad) Ayman Zawahri and (fugitive Afghan Taliban leader) Mullah (Mohammad) Omar, are in good health, contrary to rumours saying they were injured in Tora Bora,” he said.
”Ninety-eight percent of al-Qaida leaders escaped unhurt and are running its affairs unaffected” by US bombing raids in Afghanistan, said Abu Ghaith, who was stripped of his Kuwaiti citizenship because of his alleged links to the September 11 attacks blamed on al-Qaida.
”The whole world and the friends of the Mujahedin (Islamic fighters) in the Muslim world will soon have the pleasure of seeing bin Laden on television,” the representative added.
”America must prepare itself and fasten its seat belt. We will arrive from where they (the Americans) are not expecting,” he warned.
”Yes, we will undertake attacks, but at the right time, in regard to what we want and in the manner we want it.”
The US military campaign in Afghanistan, launched in October after the ruling Taliban militia refused to hand over the Saudi-born bin Laden to Washington, failed to track down the al-Qaida leader.
The al-Qaida representative also claimed responsibility for an explosion on the Tunisian island of Djerba in April that killed 14 German tourists.
A total of 19 people were killed, including 14 holidaymakers, when a fuel tanker exploded outside a synogogue on the resort island on April 11.
Investigators said the explosion was an attack carried out by the truck driver.
The five-year old Al-Jazeera satellite news channel, which has at least 35 million viewers in the Arab world and elsewhere, captured world attention for its exclusive reports during the US-led strikes on Afghanistan and for showing taped statements by
presumed terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.
Bin Laden has been identified by the United States as the mastermind of last September’s kamikaze hijacked passenger jet strikes on New York and Washington.
He was previously indicted by the United States for the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. – Sapa-AFP