Bin Laden letter appears on websites

LETTER that a leader of militants in Iraq purportedly wrote to Osama bin Laden saying his fighters are being squeezed by US-led coalition troops has resurfaced on Islamic websites, drawing fire yesterday from al-Qaida sympathisers.

The letter was identical to one that the coalition in Iraq made public in February, saying it had been intercepted by US intelligence and had been written to bin Laden by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Al-Zarqawi is a Jordanian whose insurgent group claimed responsibility for the videotaped beheading of American Nicholas Berg.