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March 26, 2010

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Bin Laden threatens to kill US captives

AL-QAIDA leader Osama bin Laden has threatened to kill any captured Americans if the United States executes the self-professed mastermind of the September 11 attacks or any other al-Qaida suspects.

The US is still considering whether to put Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four of his fellow plotters before a military tribunal for their role in the attacks. The Obama administration is also looking into recommendations for civilian trials, and is expected to announce a decision soon.

In a brief 74-second audio tape aired on Al-Jazeera television yesterday, bin Laden said if the US decides to execute any al-Qaida suspects in its custody - and explicitly mentioned Mohammed - his terror network would kill American captives.

He said such a decision "would mean the US has issued a death sentence against whoever of you becomes a prisoner in our hands."

It was not immediately clear whether al-Qaida currently has any US captives, but the Haqqani group - the Pakistan-based Taliban faction closest to al-Qaida - is holding an American soldier it captured in eastern Afghanistan in June 2009.

Mohammed, captured in Pakistan in 2003, is the most senior al-Qaida operative in US custody, and is currently held at Guantanamo Bay. In 2008, he was charged with murder and war crimes in connection with the September 11 attacks.



 

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