Bin Laden called for attack on US, court told

OSAMA BIN LADEN told followers before the September 11 attacks “we must strike at America” and there would be “thousands of dead”, a witness at the trial of an alleged plot member testified yesterday.

Jordanian-born Shadi Abdellah, 25, told a Hamburg court he briefly served as bin Laden's bodyguard while attending an al-Qaida training camp in Kandahar, Afghanistan, from early 2000 until May 2001.

The accused, Mounir el Motassadeq, was also at the camp and was present for a speech in which the al-Qaida leader preached jihad, or holy war, Abdellah testified.