Taliban ‘visited anthrax research lab’

An Afghan agriculture ministry laboratory where anthrax research was carried out was visited frequently by a Taliban official, scientists have said.

If Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network wanted to get its hands on the deadly substance, the laboratory outside Kabul, now badly damaged by US bombing, could have been a source.

The Taliban government, now ousted from the capital, has long denied being involved in chemical or biological weapons research, but it seems to have taken an interest in the work being done at the lab, according to scientists there, and it was repeatedly hit by US bombers.

The lab, in a two-storey mountainside building, was frequently visited by a Taliban official during the past five years, according to scientists interviewed there.

They did not say whether Mullah Qari Abdullah showed a specific interest in anthrax, and the scientists insisted their work was aimed purely at developing animal vaccines.

‘‘The Taliban officer in charge, Mullah Qari Abdullah, would come here regularly,’’ said Dr Mohammed Ali, speaking in the lab amid shards of glass from bomb-shattered bottles.

He declined to elaborate, and when his colleagues began to speak, he snapped at them in Farsi, the language used in Iran and parts of Afghanistan, saying: ‘‘Listen to me! Listen to me!’’

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said bin Laden probably had some chemical or biological weapons, and that US forces bombed some sites in Afghanistan that could have been involved in producing them. It was not clear whether the government laboratory was on the list of suspects.

US teams have taken samples from some sites in Afghanistan where al-Qaida might have made chemical or biological weapons, General Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the Pentagon. None of those test results have come back yet.

That ‘‘the one place where the only vial that had English on it said ‘anthrax’ kind of gives you pause’’, Pace said. ‘‘We’re doing the analysis on it.’’

Ali and his colleague, Dr Abdul Wakil, did not say whether any of their research was transferred to al-Qaida or used in weapons experiments. But they acknowledged that the lab’s activities meant the Taliban had access to anthrax.

The scientists, long-time workers at the lab, showed a large container which they said held concentrated anthrax spores.

Both complained that much of the anthrax vaccine had already expired and that they were having trouble getting fresh supplies to produce more. Before the bombing campaign, private companies in India and Iran were their major suppliers, they said.

Shipments were halted after September 11, and the laboratories have had to rely on their stocks, which are running low.

The research - and the samples of deadly substances - is not in itself unusual. Similar studies, used to produce animal vaccines, are conducted in laboratories around the world, and the government scientists in Kabul received technical assistance from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Documents relating to deadly chemicals and bacteria have been found in houses abandoned by al-Qaida after the Taliban fled Kabul on November 13 and the opposition Northern Alliance took over.

Material in Arabic, Urdu, Russian and English indicate al-Qaida was studying chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons. It’s not clear whether any was ever produced.

Some papers had handwritten chemical formulas, diagrams that seemed to indicate a mixing of chemicals followed by an explosive reaction.

At a training base on the southern edge of the city was an English-language book with instructions on how to survive a nuclear war, and a letter home from a recruit that indicated al-Qaida trainees were still there earlier this month.

‘‘I would be suspicious of the anthrax research and any research during the Taliban (period) because they were under the control of Osama and al-Qaida,’’ Dalut Mir, deputy head of Northern Alliance military intelligence, said yesterday.

‘‘We have strong evidence of their involvement in chemical weapons,’’ he added. ‘‘We believe that they were using government facilities, like the ministry of agriculture, to do their research in terrorism.’’

The lab is housed several hundred yards from surrounding buildings, making it an easily identifiable target. Giant cracks run down its cement walls, window frames are twisted. Glass litters the floors. On the second floor doors have been blown off their hinges and shelves toppled.

The US military does not talk publicly about specific targets, but has said it is investigating previously suspected chemical and biological sites that no longer are in Taliban control.