NEW YORK, Dec 10: Three years before the Sept 11 attacks in the United States, Washington told the Saudi government that Osama bin Laden might be targeting civilian aeroplanes, according to a newly declassified State Department cable obtained by George Washington University’s National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act.

The June 1998 cable said the US had no specific information that Al Qaeda was planning such an attack and did not say it might fly planes into buildings.

The cable, from the US embassy in Riyadh to US government officials, said concerns were based on threats Osama had recently made against military aircraft in an interview with US television network ABC.