Bin Laden's Suicide Boats Threaten Invasion Forces

January 6, 2003
by Gordon Thomas

US spy planes and submarines are hunting for five bin Laden ships crewed by suicide bombers in the Indian Ocean.

Intelligence sources in the Gulf and Washington have credible evidence that the ships could be planning to attack soft targets in the Gulf.

One could be the Royal Navy hospital ship, Argus, which will leave for the coming war with Iraq early next month.

So far it has been assigned only one escort ship. It is currently being fitted out with chemical and biological protection in Plymouth.

The majority of its 120 doctors and medics will be drawn from NHS - stripping Britain's hospitals of key staff, surgeons and anaesthetists - at one of the busiest times of the year.

The CIA and MI6 have both established that bin Laden's ships were originally purchased by a shipping agent in Djibouti, in the Gulf of Aden, last year.

In Djibouti they took on board small speedboats fitted with high-powered engines.

The ships then sailed for the Yemen. It was there Western intelligence believe that the speedboats were packed with explosive devices.
The ships left Yemen late last October - disappearing into the 29 million square mile void of the Indian Ocean.

Intelligence services believe they are lurking close to the approach routes British and US naval task forces are planning to take - and will launch their suicide speedboats against them.

The CIA now believe the attack on the oil tanker in the area last year was a trial run.

With 20,000 British troops being ordered to the Gulf this coming week, the need to locate and destroy bin Laden's rogue navy has become urgent.

Many of the troops and their equipment will be travelling on roll-on roll-off ferries - which cannot be properly armed in time for the journey to the Gulf. They will sail from Southampton and Bremerhaven week after next.

They are part of Operation Force on Mind - the code name for the coming assault on Saddam.

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