Sources: Suicide squads trained to hit Afghans

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Suicide squads are being trained in Pakistan by Al Qaeda operatives to hit targets in Afghanistan and the bombers' families are being promised $50,000, Afghan and Pakistani sources said.

The Pakistani government denies the presence of camps here.

"Nobody will ever be able to either hide here or establish training camps in Pakistan," said Interior Ministry spokesman Iftikar Ahmed.

But privately, some officials in Pakistan's intelligence community and Interior Ministry said they believe there is such bomb training and that it is protected by Pakistani militants and Taliban sympathizers in the Pakistan military.

The nephew of Maulvi Abdul Kabir, the Taliban's No. 3 man, said the training camps are in Bajour and Mansehra, towns in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, where support for the former Afghan regime runs strong.

The nephew asked that his name not be used, fearing retaliation from both the Taliban and Pakistanis. He said he agreed to speak about the camps because he believes suicide bombing is wrong. He also seemed interested in getting U.S. attention and possibly a reward.

Kabir's nephew had a video taken at a graduation ceremony in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta, where Kabir and several top Taliban leaders, including former intelligence officials and governors, were present and some spoke. He also had an audio cassette from speeches given at a mosque in Quetta in which Kabir spoke on behalf of deposed Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, condemning the U.S. presence in Afghanistan and calling on the faithful to wage a holy war against the Americans.

During two weeks of training, would-be bombers are told by Arab instructors that they are waging war on the Jews and "will be martyrs and go straight to heaven and their family will get $50,000," Kabir's nephew said.

They are trained in small groups and not all are told they must die, he said. Some are taught to detonate bombs by remote control, and to drive explosives-laden trucks into Afghanistan, he said.

Training going on

A Western intelligence source in Pakistan also said training was going on in the Bajour and Mansehra areas.

In a separate interview, a man who served in the Cabinet of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said Pakistan's army protects the Taliban.

"They have even given them their jeeps to get around safely," he said. "Why do you think none of the top Taliban who came to Pakistan have been arrested?"

The nephew said Kabir is protected by Pakistan's intelligence and its military. He travels freely throughout Pakistan, from its deeply Islamic tribal regions to the southwestern city of Quetta and to Haripur, a city 35 miles north of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2002