Afghan Fighter Claims US Interests In Jordan Targeted

ISLAMABAD (AP)--A man who says he was recently at a training camp in Afghanistan claims the followers of suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden have drawn up plans for attacks on U.S. interests in Jordan next year.

The man told The Associated Press he was among 300 men at a camp in the eastern Afghanistan province of Kunar. He said bin Laden's followers met there from Nov. 27 to Dec. 1 to plot their strategy.

At the Kunar meeting and at one held earlier in Nangarhar province, it was decided to attack U.S. interests in Jordan, he said.

"January to June 2000 - this is the time for the Jordan strike," he said.

According to the Afghan man, who said he had fought in the Afghani resistance against Russian troops, only 10 men from each training camp attended the meeting where strategy was discussed.

"I listened and I talked to people. I didn't attend the meeting," he said. "But, I saw by my own eyes everything."

He refused to be identified by name, saying it would almost certainly mean his death.

Drawing a crude map, he explained the meeting was held near Shargari Mountain pass, close to the border with neighboring Pakistan and barely 20 kilometers from one of Kunar's larger cities, Asmar.

The Afghan man said that, in addition to meetings in the provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar, meetings have also been held in Herat and in Ghor. They are continuing, he said.

The meetings have been attended by more than just the followers of bin Laden's Al Qaida group. Among the others the man said he saw were representatives of Pakistani-based groups like Harakat-ul-Mujahdeen, on the U.S. list of terrorist groups, Al Badr, fighting Indian soldiers in its disputed Kashmir region, as well as Algerians, and the Palestinian group Hamas.

"There were a lot of rich men of Saudi Arabia who were there....The (Saudi royal family) they say are Jewish. They aren't Muslims because they have invited the United States to come to our holy places."

"Everyone agrees we are all working to eliminate the United States," he said.

He said that at the Kunar camp he saw men from several countries, including Chechnya, Sudan, Libya. As well he said he saw Iraqi Kurds, Iranians, "but those who supported Khomeini, a North Korean, who looked like a Hazara, and even a Cuban man was there."

The North Korean, whose facial features resemble Afghanistan's Shiite Muslim Hazara population, had brought chemical weapons to Afghanistan, according to the man. They were stored in caves and in dozens of sunbaked mud homes, he said.

"No one told me he was there because he is a very secret man. But I saw him and I talked to him," he said. The North Korean said he was a chemical engineer.

The North Korean kept mostly to himself, he said listening "to the foreign radio. He wore clothes like Afghans. He also had a turban on his head."

While there was some training in chemical weapons, much of the training "was in blasting cars, buildings and people," he said.

"The one agreement that was reached was that we are Muslims in a difficult situation and the United States wants to obliterate us," he said.

In Kunar, he said, the telecommunications systems were elaborate.

"Myself I saw 10 satellite dishes," he said. "Everyone was speaking in different languages. I heard one man on the radio speaking French. There were doctors, engineers, chemical engineers. they were speaking French, English, Persian, Pashto, Arabic."

There were watchtowers on the mountains, obscured by trees, camouflaged, he said.

"I saw a lot of natural caves. The houses were made of stone and mud, very simple. The kept weapons, ammunition and other equipment surrounded by sharp barbed wire in a two kilometer area."

Last weekend, the U.S. State Department said it had "credible evidence" terrorists could strike at large holiday gatherings. U.S. citizens around the world were warned to use caution, avoid large crowds and gatherings and keep a low profile.

A senior U.S. official said the threat was linked to bin Laden.

Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil on Tuesday called the U.S. warning "propaganda."