WASHINGTON: The United States considered using nuclear weapons against Afghanistan in response to the Sept. 11, 2011 terrorist attacks on its soil, said a report released on Saturday.

The report, first published by the prestigious German news magazine Der Spiegel and reproduced by the US media, quotes a former German official, Michael Steiner, as saying that the nuclear option one of the possibilities examined after the attacks.

Michael Steiner, a political advisor to, told the then-German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, said the Americans had “really played through all possibilities” after the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York and Washington.

“The papers were written,” Mr Steiner said when asked whether the US considered using nuclear weapons in response to the 9-11 attacks.

Mr Steiner added that Chancellor Schroder had feared that the US, which was in a state of shock following the attacks, would overreact.

Mr Steiner also said in the interview that Chancellor Schroder had rejected his idea to publish a statement declaring “unconditional support” for the United States.

Tensions between Schroder and US President George Bush intensified in 2003 when the chancellor refused to join US-led coalition in the military campaign against Iraq.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2015

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