Al-Qaida spend little on terror attacks, says report

AL-QAIDA spent less than €45,000 on each of its major attacks except the September 11 suicide hijackings, and one of its hallmarks is using readily available items like mobile phones and knives as weapons, a UN report says.

The first report released by a new team monitoring UN sanctions against al-Qaida detailed how little it cost the network to mount operations - and how most attacks involved unsophisticated arms and explosives.

The report said the March attacks in Madrid, in which 10 bombs exploded on four commuter trains, using mobile phones as detonators, cost about €9,000 to carry out. The blasts killed 191 people.