Osama bin Laden threatens US soldiers over Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial

Osama Bin Laden has issued a threat to US troops.
Osama bin Laden has threatened to kill American soldiers if the US executes Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Pakistani alleged to have masterminded the 9/11 attacks.

An audio tape, purportedly by the al-Qaida leader, was broadcast on the al-Jazeera news channel today.

"The day America will take such decision [to execute Mohammed and any others] it would have taken a decision to execute whoever we capture," the speaker said.

A US counterterrorism official dismissed the sentiments expressed in the 74-second tape as "the height of absurdity" this afternoon.

The country is understood to be seeking the death penalty against Mohammed and four other men accused of planning the 9/11 attacks. President Barack Obama announced in November last year that the five would be tried in a civilian court in New York.

The speaker in the tape criticised Obama for "following the footsteps of his predecessor".

"The politicians in the White House were practising injustice against us and still they are. Especially by supporting Israel in its continuous occupation of Palestine."

The recording continued: "They used to think that America across the oceans is protected from the rage of the oppressed until our reaction was loudly heard at your home on the 9/11, with God's help."

The official, who wished to remain anonymous, responded to al-Qaida's threat to execute detained Americans by drawing attention to the organisation's previous treatment of captives.

"It's the height of absurdity for anyone associated with al-Qaida to even suggest that now, at long last, they're going to start treating captives badly," the official told Reuters.

"They may have forgotten Danny Pearl and all the others they've slaughtered, but we haven't."

Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was kidnapped and held hostage in Pakistan in 2002. His kidnappers made demands for the release of al-Qaida prisoners before setting a deadline for his killing.

After Pearl had been held for a month, the US state department received a videotape showing the journalist being murdered.

The US president has already faced criticism over the treatment of Mohammed, although so far it has come from closer to home. His decision to put the alleged 9/11 organiser on trial in central New York has seen the president come under pressure, with Republicans saying al-Qaida will use the trial for propaganda.