Saudi-born radical Islamist Osama bin Laden had nothing to do with last week's carnage in the United States, the spiritual leader of the radical Palestinian movement Hamas said in a television interview Thursday.
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin told private Greek television channel Mega that Bin Laden, the prime suspect in the September 11 terror attacks and who is hiding in Afghanistan, "would never target ordinary people."
Yassin ruled out the possibility of Bin Laden's involvement in the strikes on New York and Washington, in which around 6,000 people are thought to have been killed, saying the attacks came from within the country.
The spiritual leader said that the attacks were carried out by "people who worked inside" the United States and who were familiar with internal intelligence.
"What happened in the United States is a catastrophe, a catastrophe for the United States and an unjust attack for numerous reasons," Yassin said.
Earlier, in an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais, Yassin warned against putting state terrorism and the fight of a people resisting occupation on the same level.
"One must make a difference between state-sponsored terrorism, that of a rich country against a poor country, and the terrorism of a people who resist and fight for their independence," he said -- ATHENS (AFP)
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