July 7 plot accused tell of times with Taliban

A British Muslim accused of helping the July 7 bombers plot their attacks on London told a court yesterday how he and ringleader Mohammed Sidique Khan spent time at a Taliban camp in Afghanistan as part of a jihad training trip. Taking the stand for the first time, Waheed Ali, 25, denied participating in the attacks but admitted travelling with Khan on a «gallivant» in the summer of 2001, shortly before the September 11 attacks, and after attending a camp on the Kashmir border where they learned to shoot Kalashnikovs. They hoped to go to the frontline near Bagram airbase where the Taliban were fighting the Northern Alliance, but were deemed too inexperienced to fight and stayed at a camp about a mile behind the frontline, where they became so ill with diarrhoea that they were put on drips for three or four days.

Rachel Williams reports.

May 21 2008

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