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Al Qaeda planned chemical and biological attacks: Report

Investigators have come across striking evidence indicating that terror mastermind Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda outfit had planned massive chemical and biological attacks against American and European targets, media reports said.

US officials who conducted searches in Al Qaeda crude laboratories and store rooms are now convinced that the outfit has successfully obtained huge quantity of radioactive materials sufficient to launch biological attacks, the reports said.

"US now believes that Al Qaeda has gained access to materials which could be used to build a radiological dispersal device, better known as a dirty bomb," American news magazine Newsweek said quoting officials.

Set off in a crowded place, this type of weapon would not have the destructive or deadly effect of a nuclear weapon but would be terrifying and demoralising and create panic among people.

Meanwhile, reports also said a fleeing Osama bin Laden might try to return to his tribal roots in Yemen which has long been a terrorist sanctuary and the staging ground for the suicide bombing of USS Clarke in October last year.

But the Yemeni government has made it clear that it would not welcome bin Laden.

To show 'whose side it's on', the Yemeni government last week sent tanks, soldiers and helicopter gunships to battle tribesmen who were reportedly harboring at least two Al Qaeda fugitives, the magazine said.

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