American who fought with Taliban says he was funded by bin Laden

US Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh has admitted serving with a group of Arab fighters financed by Osama bin Laden.

He also says he attended a training camp run by bin Laden during an interview after he'd been captured.

The interview has been aired on US TV.

Lindh, from San Anselmo, California, said leaders of Afghanistan's Taliban militia organised fighters in branches based on ethnic groups.

In the interview, Lindh, 20, defended the Taliban, who took power in Afghanistan in 1995 after a bloody civil war against other factions.

Lindh said the Koran, Islam's holy book, permits Muslims to kill other Muslims during holy war.

"That is a question that is addressed in the Koran itself," Lindh said. "In certain cases Muslims by necessity can kill, and there are situations in which a Muslim can be killed (by other Muslims)."

Referring to jihad, Islamic holy war, he said, "It's exactly what I thought it would be."

Asked if the Taliban's cause was the right one, Walker said: "Definitely!"

Lindh said he went to join the Taliban in Afghanistan after studying in Pakistan because his "heart became attached to the movement. I wanted to help them one way or another."

He said that after being captured, a few Taliban soldiers hid grenades in their clothes as they were taken to prison.

He called the uprising a "mistake of a handful of people" because the Taliban soldiers had agreed not to fight.

The spirits of the Taliban fighters were broken when rebel forces pumped gas, then water, into the prison, he said.

"More than half of us were injured on that last day when they poured water into the basement," he said. "We were standing in water, freezing water, for maybe 20 hours."