Author: Reuters
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: October 18, 2001
URL: http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=3660
Cairo, October 18: The military
chief of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network said Afghans would drag slain
US troops through the streets, rekindling memories of Washington's doomed
1993 involvement in Somalia, a report said on Thursday. "The calculations
of the crusade coalition were very mistaken when it thought it could wage
a war on Afghanistan, achieving victory swiftly," the report by the London-based
Islamic Observation Centre quoted Abu Hafs al-Masri as saying.
"America will only be certain about
its mistaken calculations after its soldiers are dragged in Afghanistan
as they were in Somalia," he was quoted as saying in the report, which
was obtained by Reuters in Cairo. The Islamic Observation Centre, which
has close ties to Muslim extremists in several countries, said it received
Abu Hafs' comments from its contacts in Kabul.
Bin Laden's aide was referring to
18 US troops, part of a UN peacekeeping force, who were killed when militiamen
downed two helicopters in Mogadishu in 1993. Mobs dragged the bodies of
some of the soldiers through streets. Washington then withdrew its troops
from the Horn of Africa country.
The whereabouts of Abu Hafs, the
nom de guerre of Egyptian radical Mohamed Atef who is reportedly number
two in al Qaeda, are unknown. The London-based Islamic Observation Centre
started issuing the regular report on events in Afghanistan after the start
of US-led attacks against bin Laden and his hosts, the ruling Taliban,
on October 7.
With US military manoeuvres pointing
to a decision soon to send in ground forces for sharp strikes, the Taliban
have insisted that their guest bin Laden, blamed for attacks on New York
and Washington last month, would not be found. Sources in Afghanistan said
Saudi-born militant bin Laden, his comrades and Taliban leaders were all
safe.
