The military chief of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network said Afghans would drag slain US troops through the streets, rekindling memories of Washington's doomed 1993 involvement in Somalia, a report said today.
The calculations of the crusade coalition were very mistaken when it thought it could wage a war on Afghanistan, achieving victory swiftly, the report by the London-based Islamic Observation Centre quoted Abu Hafs al-Masri as saying.
America will only be certain about its mistaken calculations after its soldiers are dragged in Afghanistan as they were in Somalia, he was quoted as saying in the report, which was obtained by reporters in Cairo.
The Islamic Observation Centre, which has close ties to Muslim extremists in several countries, said it received Abu Hafs' comments from its contacts in Kabul.
Bin Laden's aide was referring to 18 US troops, part of a UN peacekeeping force, who were killed when militiamen downed two helicopters in Mogadishu in 1993. Mobs dragged the bodies of some of the soldiers through streets. Washington then withdrew its troops from the Horn of Africa country.
The whereabouts of Abu Hafs, the nom de guerre of Egyptian radical Mohamed Atef who is reportedly number two in al Qaeda, are unknown.
The London-based Islamic Observation Centre started issuing the regular report on events in Afghanistan after the start of US-led attacks against bin Laden and his hosts, the ruling Taliban, on October 7.
With US military manoeuvres pointing to a decision soon to send in ground forces for sharp strikes, the Taliban have insisted that their guest bin Laden, blamed for attacks on New York and Washington last month, would not be found.
Sources in Afghanistan said Saudi-born militant bin Laden, his comrades and Taliban leaders were all safe.