An Israeli army official claimed Saturday that Osama Bin Laden, the Saudi dissident suspected by the US of masterminding twin bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, had tried unsuccessfully to carry out attacks inside Israel.
"Bin Laden has already tried and he will try to reach – and is likely to reach us in Israel as well," said head of the Israeli army intelligence branch, Maj. Gen. Amos Malka, quoted by Haaretz newspaper as telling Channel Two television.
Malka said Bin Laden would either try to "penetrate" Israel or to operate through residents of the Occupied Territories.
"He will try to exploit the different countries around us in order to penetrate (Israel) through them, and he will try other creative avenues," he said.
Asked whether Bin Laden had already tried to carry out an attack inside Israel, Malka said: "A few months ago he tried to carry out an attack that was thwarted."
According to previous reports by Haaretz, a number of attempts by Bin Laden to carry out attacks have been exposed in the last year.
In June last year, the paper said that Israeli forces arrested a Gaza resident at the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt, who had allegedly been sent to the Palestinian territories to set up a local arm of Bin Laden’s organization.
US troops in the Middle East are for the second day on high alert for a possible attack by followers of Bin Laden.
The alert is in response to a "nonspecific but credible threat" from Bin Laden's group, reports said – Albawaba.com
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