WASHINGTON allowed members of Osama bin Laden’s family to jet out of the US in the immediate aftermath of September 11, even as American airspace was closed, a senior official said yesterday.

The FBI is to join the investigation into the Najaf mosque bombing after the provincial governor called for US help over the explosion at Iraq’s holiest Shiite Muslim shrine that killed 125 people.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested a man early today believed to be Eric Rudolph, the fugitive charged with the 1996 Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta and in bomb attacks at a gay nightclub and an abortion clinic, the FBI said.