Osama bin Laden boasted of planning to kill thousands in the United States about half a year before the September 11th attacks, a man who briefly served as his bodyguard told a German court today.
"He said there would be thousands of deaths," Mr Shadi Abdalla told the court at the trial of Mr Mounir El Motassadeq, a Moroccan accused of supporting the al-Qaeda cell that allegedly led the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.
Mr Abdalla, a Palestinian born in Jordan, said he had served as bin Laden's bodyguard for about two weeks at an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and heard the statement at one camp before he left the country in May 2001.
"All the people (in the camp) knew that bin Laden said that there would be something done against America, but what he had in mind we did not know," said the Mr Abdalla.
"America was going to be hit.
"Within the radical Islamic camps in Afghanistan America was clearly seen as the enemy. All people who were there said that the aggressors against Islamic countries should be killed. Everyone there agreed on this.
"It was generally known that America was the enemy as it was present in Saudi Arabia."