Nine Bin Laden Camps Destroyed

Oct 23, 2001

LONDON, Tuesday – All nine camps identified in Afghanistan as being part of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network have been put out of action, British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told a press briefing on Tuesday.

LONDON, Tuesday – All nine camps identified in Afghanistan as being part of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network have been put out of action, British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told a press briefing on Tuesday. “We believe that nine al-Qaeda camps were occupied before the start of the operation,” he said. “I can now tell you that we have successfully put all of these camps out of action.” Hoon added that Britain will “shortly” decide whether to send in ground troops to Afghanistan. “We haven’t made a decision yet. We will do that shortly,” he added. Hoon said the “right conditions” had been achieved for “future operations” in Afghanistan. He said nine airfields of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban regime had been attacked and were mostly out of action. The deployment of British ground troops appeared imminent on Tuesday with reports that some 1,000 soldiers were about to be sent in. BBC radio and television, quoting senior defence sources, said around 600 Royal Marine commandos and several hundred special forces, currently engaged in a large-scale military exercise in Oman, were set for deployment. Bin Laden is Washington’s prime suspect for the September 11 atrocities on the US, which has given rise to military action against Afghanistan. AFP Ends

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