Al-Zarqawi ordered to attack U.S.

Baghdad

Osama bin Laden has instructed the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to hit targets inside the U.S., U.S. intelligence officials said this week. Al-Zarqawi is believed to be responsible for car bombings, kidnappings, and insurgent attacks that have killed hundreds of Americans and Iraqis since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Last fall, al-Zarqawi announced that he would follow bin Laden’s orders, and bin Laden responded with an audiotape welcoming al-Zarqawi to the jihad. Homeland Security officials said the new communication between the two did not warrant a change in the national threat level, which remains at “elevated.” But they did inform state security officials across the U.S. of a “credible, nonspecific” threat.

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