Bin Laden threats prompt U.S travel advisory for Pakistan
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Monday, August 14, 2000
WASHINGTON -- The United States has issued a travel warning to
Pakistan as officials report that Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden
is again threatening to attack American citizens and targets.
U.S. officials said Washington has received information that allies or
agents of Bin Laden are planning to soon attack American interests in
Pakistan, Middle East Newsline reports.
"The U.S. government continues to receive a growing body of information
that suggests strongly that extremists based in Afghanistan are preparing to
attack U.S. interests in Pakistan in the near future," the State Department
said on Friday. "Given the presence of international terrorist Osama Bin
Laden in neighboring Afghanistan and the public sympathy and support for him in
Pakistan, the department urges all American citizens resident in, or
traveling through, Pakistan to take appropriate steps to increase their
security awareness."
An earlier travel advisory warned Americans against traveling in rural
areas of Pakistan. The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad decided to defer all
official travel to the tribal areas of Pakistan's northwest frontier
province, where the government has virtually no authority.
But the advisory was expanded last week amid reports that Bin Laden and
his Islamic allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan were targeting U.S. citizens
and facilities throughout Pakistan.
U.S. officials said the terrorist plans appear connected to the
prosecution in New York of a Pakistani Islamic leader extradited by
Islamabad. Another source of tension relates to U.S. threats to impose
additional sanctions on the Afghan Taliban ruling faction, which is
harboring Bin Laden.
The officials cited the Harakat-Ul-Mujahideen as warning against the
travel of U.S. diplomats and other nationals to Kashmir in India. The group
has been active on both sides of the line of control between India and
Pakistan.
Monday, August 14, 2000
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