WASHINGTON, Dec 12: An American national who fought for the Taliban in Afghanistan was reported on Wednesday to have told investigators al-Qaeda plans to make a biological attack on the United States in a matter of days.

John Walker told US officials that “Phase II” of al-Qaeda’s war against the United States will occur at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramazan which ends Sunday, according to a report in the Washington Times.

Walker, a convert to Islam, who is being held by US Marines at their base near Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, said the second phase would involve biological weapons, according to the paper.

The United States blames al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden for the terrorist onslaught on the United States on September 11 which left more than 3,000 people dead.

Walker was seized December 1 in Afghanistan after a bloody prison uprising near the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. At that time, he gave his name as Abdul Hamid, but has since acknowledged that he is a US citizen who was fighting for the Taliban.

A third phase of the terrorist network’s war on the United States would, Walker claimed, “result in the destruction of the entire country,” according to the Times.

Investigators question the credibility of Walker’s claims because of his relatively low-level position with the Taliban, according to the newspaper.

The report was among a series of data that led to the Bush administration issuing a third public warning on December 3, after receiving credible but not specific threats of new terrorist attacks, the paper said.—AFP