UN pulls out of Afghanistan

The United Nations has announced that it is withdrawing all its staff from Afghanistan as a precaution against the possibility of retaliatory attacks by the US military.

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers are harbouring Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in yesterday’s attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

Dozens of Afghan citizens were killed in 1998 when the US military bombed the country in retaliation for the bombings of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in an attack that was also blamed on bin Laden.