AOT - Summary of worldwide actions

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Outline of actions taken worldwide as U.S. plans retaliatory move against terrorists

By Associated Press, 9/16/2001 20:32

An outline of international actions and events connected with the U.S. campaign to find and punish terrorists who planned and carried out Tuesday's attacks on New York and Washington:

AFGHANISTAN: Afghanistan's fundamentalist Muslim Taliban leaders said they were fortifying bunkers and installations in preparation for a possible U.S. military response to the attacks. The Taliban has refused to hand Osama bin Laden, the exiled Saudi now living here, over to the West. Mullah Mohammed Omar, leader of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, received the support of senior clerics. Foreigners were ordered to leave and many Afghans began to flee.

AUSTRALIA: Australia has agreed to a U.S. request to keep its navy frigate the HMAS Anzac stationed in the Persian Gulf for eight days longer than planned. It was due to leave the area, where it had been enforcing sanctions against Iraq, on Sunday. Australia also has cleared the way for military participation in any U.S. retaliatory strikes.

BRITAIN: Britain urged its citizens to leave parts of Pakistan amid fears that U.S. retaliation might target neighboring Afghanistan. Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has pledged British support for U. S. action against the terrorists, called President Bush's handling of the attack and its aftermath ''absolutely right'' and praised the U.S. administration's consultations with allies.

FRANCE: Defense Minister Alain Richard said France was confident the United States would react ''responsibly'' to last week's terror attacks, but he cautioned against using force alone to retaliate. ''We must use it in a way that doesn't provoke other elements of instability,'' he said.

GERMANY: Germany's top law enforcement official called for a review of ''our entire intelligence strategy'' after three men who lived quietly in Germany for years were implicated in the terror attacks in the United States. German authorities suspect Marwan Al-Shehhi and two other suspected hijackers, Mohammed Atta and Ziad Jarrah, were part of a group formed in Hamburg this year to destroy high-profile U.S. targets.

INDIA: Indian intelligence officials said they have given the United States information about Islamic extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including evidence describing how bin Laden and other Muslim militant leaders were financing guerrilla groups and running armed training camps in Pakistan and southern Afghanistan. Several strong militant Islamic groups operate in Pakistan, and tens of thousands of religious schools turn out young boys dedicated to jihad, or holy war.

IRAN: Iran, an opponent of Afghanistan's Taliban leaders, is closing its 560-mile-long border to prevent Afghan refugees from crossing over ''in the aftermath of the probable U.S. attacks'' to join the 2 million Afghans already in Iran. The State Department, which for many years has accused Iran of sponsoring terrorism, has said it would consider welcoming Iran into an international coalition to fight terrorism. Iran has not indicated that it would join such a coalition.

KUWAIT: Hundreds of Kuwaitis have donated blood, laid flowers or lit candles for the victims of this week's terror attacks. ''Kuwait doesn't forget those who stood by it at difficult times,'' the Kuwait defense minister, Sheik Jaber Mubarak Al Sabah, told a group of U.S. soldiers Saturday at Camp Doha in the oil-rich Gulf state. The United States liberated Kuwait from Iraqi forces in 1991.

LEBANON: The militant Shiite Islamic Hezbollah group, which is supported by Iran, said it regretted the loss of innocent life in the attacks on New York and Washington, but warned the United States against taking advantage of the attacks ''to practice all sorts of aggression and terrorism under the pretext of fighting aggression and terrorism.''

LIBYA: In a rare show of support for the United States, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said Sunday that America has the right to take revenge for the terror attacks. ''But will this put an end to the problem?'' he asked on Libyan TV. ''There is nothing in Afghanistan,'' and if the United States occupies the impoverished nation, ''it will not be in its interests.'' Gadhafi, who has been at odds with Washington over accusations that it supports terrorism, urged Libyans to donate blood for victims of the attacks.

PAKISTAN: Pakistan's government, which has declared its ''full support'' for a U.S. assault against Afghanistan, is sending a high-level delegation to Afghanistan on Monday to demand that the Taliban hand bin Laden over to the United States or risk an attack. Hard-line Muslims who oppose Pakistani cooperation with the United States demonstrated nationwide, burning American flags, shouting out support of bin Laden and warning that they would take up arms on behalf of the Taliban.

SPAIN: European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana called for the establishment of an international coalition to oppose all forms of terrorism, ''with no frontiers and no limits,'' and in which the United Nations should have a very important role, the newspaper El Pais said. In an emotional and solemn military ceremony, Spain's crown prince presided over a memorial at an American Navy base in Rota, southern Spain, for those killed in the terrorist attacks.

SWITZERLAND: Switzerland, which had already frozen all bank accounts linked to the Taliban, said one of the suspected hijackers bought two knives in Switzerland using a credit card. No further details were given. One of bin Laden's many siblings, a half brother who has distanced himself from the fundamentalist leader, has lived in Geneva since 1973.

TAJIKISTAN: Tajikistan's leaders ruled out the possibility of launching any Western-led reprisal attacks from its territory, which borders northern Afghanistan. Prime Minister Akil Akilov had indicated he might consider a U.S. request to provide air corridors, but only with approval from Russia and the international community. Russia has made it clear that it would not approve a Western-led campaign from what Moscow considers its own backyard. Makhmut Gareyev, chief Soviet military adviser to Afghanistan's pro-Moscow government in the 1980s, said: ''The airstrikes will bring no result. Bin Laden is not alone he is a part of huge international network of terrorist centers. So terrorist organizations will survive any strikes even if bin Laden were to be wiped out.''

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Bin Laden denied in a statement broadcast in Qatar that he was behind last week's airborne terror attacks in the United States. ''I stress that I have not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation,'' the statement said. He said he pledged to Mullah Omar to abide by the militia's laws, and Omar ''doesn't allow those types of acts.''

YEMEN: Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi said, ''We in Yemen reject terrorism and Yemen will cooperate in fighting terrorism.'' He did not say whether Yemen was asked to join an international anti-terrorism coalition being assembled by the United States.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001


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