Speaking exclusively – and chillingly – to Robert Fisk, the ‘rebel leader’ openly plotted terror against the West.
Osama bin Laden, the fiercest opponent of the Saudi regime and of America’s presence in the Gulf, has warned Britain that it must withdraw its servicemen from Saudi Arabia if it wishes to avoid the fate of the 19 Americans killed by a truck bomb in the Kingdom last month. In an interview with The Independent in a remote mountainous area of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province – to which he has returned from Sudan with hundreds of his Arab mujahedin guerrillas – the 40-year-old Saudi dissident declared that killing the Americans marked “the beginning of war between Muslims and the United States”.
Although taking no personal responsibility for the bombings, which have sent tremors through the vulnerable, oil-rich states of the Arabian peninsula, Bin Laden insisted that the killing of the Americans in Khobar (Dhahran) just over two weeks ago demonstrated the depth of hatred for Americans in Saudi Arabia. “Not long ago, I gave advice to the Americans to withdraw their troops from Saudi Arabia,” he said.
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