UN report warns of huge increase of al-Qaida trainees

NEW foot soldiers for Islam’s holy war are streaming into al-Qaida training camps recently reactivated in eastern Afghanistan, a United Nations report has said.

Osama bin Laden’s financial network has been mainly dismantled, but his terror network still enjoys significant support and has “access to substantial funding from its previously established investments,” said the report by an expert panel, led by Michael Chandler.

Mr Chandler said al-Qaida operatives might be present in about 40 countries, which he did not identify.

The UN experts warned in the report that al-Qaida had the potential to obtain nuclear material and build “some kind of dirty bomb”.

More than a year after a US-led coalition ousted Afghanistan’s former Taliban rulers, who harboured bin Laden and his followers, the report said “one of the most recent developments to come to light is the apparent activation of new, albeit simple, training camps in eastern Afghanistan” for al-Qaida supporters.

Mr Chandler said the camps may have sprung up near the eastern town of Asadabad, in Kunar province. But he said these camps were “small, discreet and mobile” and did not stay in one place for too long.

“Particularly disturbing about this trend is the fact that new volunteers are making their way to these camps, swelling the numbers of would-be al-Qaida activists and the longer-term capabilities of the network.”

Reports of training camps have also surfaced from Peshawar, near the porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Last week, officials in Pakistan’s intelligence community and interior ministry said suicide squads were being trained in Pakistan by al-Qaida operatives to hit targets in Afghanistan. The Pakistani government denies the presence of such camps.

There were no precise numbers for suspected terrorists, but “the figure of 10,000 is tossed around”, he said.