800 agents of al-Qaida ready to strike again

The United Nations will issue a report next week showing Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida militant network has some 800 members ready to strike economic or tourist targets, a French consultant to the report said yesterday.

Roland Jacquard, head of the International Observatory on Terrorism, said bin Laden sent them from Afghanistan before US-led forces toppled Kabul’s Taliban leadership.

The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the report would show that United Nations travel and arms sanctions on members of the al-Qaida network had not succeeded in capturing a single suspect person or weapon crossing international borders.