Saturday, Sep 10, 2011
PARIS (Dow Jones)-- The dead leader of terror group al Qaeda Osama Bin Laden ordered al Qaeda's Maghreb network Aqmi to hit French interests and to "use" the French hostages it currently holds "to bother" French President Nicolas Sarkozy and weigh on the next presidential election's outcome in May next year, French radio France Info reports Saturday, quoting a source from France's interior intelligence services.
The person told France Info on the basis of hand-written documents gathered at Bin Laden's home in Pakistan by the U.S. forces that killed him during an operation on May 1 and sent earlier this summer to France's intelligence services by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the radio says.
In a separate report, French weekly Paris Match reports on its web site that Bin Laden ordered Aqmi to identify targets on the French soil, among which tourist attractions and strategic locations.
Aqmi is currently holding hostage four French citizens kidnapped at the uranium mine of French state-controlled nuclear group Areva SA (AREVA.FR) in Niger, while three other French aid workers are being held in Yemen since June by people believed to be close to Al-Qaeda.
Bin Laden's orders were calling the French hostages' "fate in question," France Info radio reports, adding the orders were "precise," without elaborating.
Radio Web site: http://www.franceinfo.com, Weekly Web site: http://www.parismatch.com/Actu-Match/Monde/Actu/EXCLUSIF.-Paris-Match.-Ben-Laden-avait-prevu-d-attaquer-la-France-3311133/
- By Geraldine Amiel, Dow Jones Newswires; 33-1-4017 1767
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-09-11 1006GMT
