Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda group may have some 800 operational members ready to strike economic or tourist targets at will, a French terrorism expert acting as a consultant to the United Nations said on Monday. Roland Jacquard, head of the International Observatory on Terrorism, said the United Nations will issue a report next week showing bin Laden sent this “third generation of al Qaeda” from Afghanistan before U.S.-led forces toppled Kabul’s Taliban leadership in November 2001. The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the report would show that United Nations travel and arms sanctions on members of the al Qaeda network had not succeeded in capturing a single suspect person or weapon crossing international borders. “The report of the U.N. Security Council…which will appear next week, will show that a third generation of al Qaeda is forming,” Jacquard told France 2 television. “Before September 11, Osama bin Laden anticipated the American attack and sent out about 800 fighters from Afghanistan, all top officers of al Qaeda. Full Story
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