WASHINGTON: Spy chiefs in the United States ordered agents to deliver Osama bin Laden’s severed head in a box of dry ice and hoist heads of other Al Qaeda leaders on pikes, a retired field officer has disclosed. As America reeled in shock days after the Sept 11 attacks in 2001, former CIA officer Gary Schroen was sent to Afghanistan to help the opposition Northern Alliance topple the Taliban.

He told National Public Radio (NPR) in an interview broadcast on Monday and Tuesday that he stopped by the office of then Director of the CIA counter-terrorism center Cofer Black for final instructions. He was told: “‘Your basic marching orders are to link up with the Northern Alliance and get their cooperation military and they will take on the Taliban.

“‘When we break the Taliban, your job is to capture (Osama) bin Laden, kill him and bring his head back in a box full of dry ice.’”—AFP