World

Taliban Deny Bin Laden's To Blame

October 16, 2000 / 7:56 AM EDT / AP

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers on Monday denied involvement of suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden in last week's deadly suicide bombing of a United States destroyer off the coast of Yemen.

Calling the accusation "Western media propaganda," the Taliban said: "Osama cannot carry out such activities from Afghan territory."

"The western media's attitude toward Afghanistan is negative and every single incident that happens is blamed on Osama," the Taliban said in a statement published in neighboring Pakistan's Urdu-language newspaper Jang.

U.S. officials believe the United States Navy destroyer, the USS Cole, which was waiting to be refueled in Yemen, was the target of a suicide attack from a small vessel packed with powerful explosives. If terrorism is proven, it would be the deadliest such attack on the U.S. military since the bombing of an Air Force barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996 that killed 19.

No credible organization has claimed the attack Thursday, but names mentioned have included Saudi-born bin Laden, who is accused by the United States of organizing a worldwide terrorist network with followers across the Mideast, including Yemen.

Bin Laden has been indicted in the United States in connection with the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa that killed 224 people.

He has been living in Afghanistan since 1996, when he fled Sudan. The Taliban have refused to hand him over.

The United Nations imposed limited sanctions against the Taliban last November, while U.S. authorities earlier banned all trade with the Taliban to press for bin Laden's extradition to the United States or a third country to stand trial on terrorism charges.

The Taliban say it's against Afghan tradition to hand a guest over to his enemies. Afghanistan's ruling Islamic hard-liners also say that the United States has failed to provide proof of involvement of bin Laden or his organization Al Qaida in the U.S. embassy bombings.

The Taliban's supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar earlier said that all communications, including satellite telephones, had been taken away from bin Laden, making it impossible for him to maintain his contacts abroad. U.S. intelligence has rebuffed these claims.

The Taliban, who espouse a harsh brand of Islamic law, rule 95 percent of Afghanistan and the opposition, led by former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, rule the remaining 5 percent.

Recent reports from Afghanistan say bin Laden has been moving between Kandahar, the Taliban headquarters in southern Afghanistan, and Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan, where his Al Qaida group is believed to be operating several training camps.