January 18, 2006	Wednesday	Zilhaj 17, 1426

LONDON, Jan 17: It is only a matter of time before groups like Al Qaeda use weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against Western targets, Washington’s counter-terrorism chief Henry Crumpton warned on Tuesday.

Such an attack using biological agents could pose an even greater threat to security than a nuclear strike, Mr Crumpton, the US State Department coordinator for counter-terrorism, told Britain’s Daily Telegraph.

The former US Central Intelligence Agency official also spoke of the changing nature of terrorism and how the fight against it was likely to last ‘decades’.

“We are talking about micro targets such as Al Qaeda which, when combined with WMD, have a macro impact. I rate the probability of terror groups using WMD (to attack Western targets) as very high,” he told the newspaper.—AFP