US tense after al-Qaeda warning
An aide purportedly close to terrorist Osama bin Laden has claimed there would be catastrophic reprisals if harm came to any of al Qaeda’s detained members at Guantanamo naval base in Cuba.
An audio tape, reportedly from bin Laden’s right-hand man, Egyptian doctor Ayman al-Zawahri, was broadcast by Arab satellite station al-Arabiya yesterday.
It warned the US that the “real battle” had not yet begun.
“America has announced it will start putting on trial in front of military tribunals the Muslim detainees at Guantanamo and might sentence them to death.
“I swear by the almighty God that crusader America will pay dearly for any harm done to any of the Muslim prisoners it is holding,” the recording said.
Attorney General John Ashcroft told “Fox News Sunday” there was a “very real potential” for a terror attack on the scale of September attack.
Mr Ashcroft said: “I believe al Qaeda wants to strike us. I believe they want to strike us whenever and wherever they can. I believe we have disrupted dozens and dozens and dozens, over a hundred terrorist-related attacks around the world since 9/11.”
The US base holds more than 600 people from 42 nations.
British terror suspects Moazzam Begg and Feroz Abbasi are also held there.
