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WASHINGTON, May 18: US officials warned on Sunday that Al Qaeda is planning more attacks on US targets around the world after the deadly bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco that killed 62 people, including nine Americans.
US intelligence officials told journalists in Washington that they have received information pointing to new attacks in coming weeks as part of a coordinated effort by Al Qaeda to prove it is still active.
They also blamed Al Qaeda for the Casablanca bombings that killed 28 bystanders.
Meanwhile, US officials have named six nations in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia where they thought new strikes might occur.
The United States, they said, had alerted Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Kenya and Liberia about the possibility of attacks on US targets. Those five nations, plus Somalia, comprised the list of locations US officials publicly warned might be sites for additional terror strikes.
US officials say that Al Qaeda has ties to Liberia’s so-called “blood diamond” trade; its operatives have frequently been stationed in and visited Indonesia and Malaysia, and Muslim Jamiah Islamiyah activists are believed to have close ties with Al Qaeda.
In Somalia, post-civil war chaos gives foreign operatives essentially free rein, US officials warn.
US intelligence officials said they also have received information about possible attacks from Al Qaeda operatives in their custody.
They said that some of these prisoners have been picked up recently and thus could have information on current planning.
On Saturday, President Bush called the deadly bombings in Saudi Arabia “a stark reminder” of the dangers ahead. “The enemies of freedom are not idle and neither are we,” Bush said in his weekly radio address, recorded hours before the Casablanca attack.
BERLIN: The Al Qaeda has reorganised and could be planning more attacks in Africa, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, Germany’s BND intelligence service has warned, adds AFP.
Al-Qaeda’s “support network and its potential for recruitment in Saudi Arabia, but also in Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait remain intact” despite security crackdowns, said a BND report cited by Sunday’s Die Welt.
It said the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, currently headed jointly by Germany and the Netherlands, is a possible target.
The report said a new generation of militants were now leading Al Qaeda and that it had found other means of financing its operations.
The BND also said that Osama bin Laden was still alive and living in Pakistan near the Afghan border.
It said a new group called al-Muhawidun, led by Thalet Ben Aziz and based in Saudi Arabia, was organizing operations.
The German Foreign Ministry has warned people against unnecessary travel to Djibouti and Tanzania, following what it said were indications that attacks could be being planned there.
“The risks are greatest around foreign embassy buildings, but also in public places, hotels, holiday sites and areas of interest to tourists,” it said.
