The leadership of a militant Islamic group led by Saudi dissident Mr Osama bin Laden ordered its fighters to attack US bases and not to worry about civilian deaths, a member of the group told a US court.
Jamal Ahmed Al-Fadl, the first witness in a trial of four alleged bin Laden followers charged with the August 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa, told the court the group al Qaeda (the Base) had members from Sudan to London.
He said its operations ranged from farming to arms-training and it moved money in accounts throughout the world.
Al-Fadl, a Sudanese said to be among al Qaeda's first members, pleaded guilty to charges related to the case and is a key government informant.
He gave US authorities what are called extensive details about al Qaeda's activities that served as the foundation for many of the charges in the indictment.
A dramatic part of his testimony concerned fatwasor religious decrees ordering al Qaeda members to kill Americans.
Mr bin Laden is accused in the indictment of endorsing the murder of US soldiers and American civilians anywhere in the world.
In one example Mr Al-Fadl described a 1993 meeting with Mr bin Laden in which they discussed the US military presence in Somalia. Mr bin Laden said the US army had come to the Horn of Africa, he testified.
"'We have to stop the head of the snake'," Mr Al-Fadl quoted Mr bin Laden as saying. "He said the snake is America. 'We have to cut the head off the snake and stop what they are doing now'."
The indictment alleges the conspiracy began in 1989. It includes charges Mr Bin Laden and his followers killed 18 American soldiers in 1993 attacks on US military personnel stationed in Somalia.
A large part of the indictment - in which there are over 300 separate charges - centres on the bombings of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya that caused extensive casualties. Although 22 defendants are charged in the indictment only four are on trial in the US at this time.
They are Mr Wadih El-Hage (40) a naturalised US citizen born in Lebanon; Mr Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali (24) a Saudi Arabian; Mr Khalfan Khamis Mohamed (27) a Tanzanian; and Mr Mohamed Sadeek Odeh (35) a Jordanian.
Mr bin Laden is in Afghanistan. The US government is offering rewards of $5 million for information leading to arrests. Three others are involved in extradition proceedings in Britain.
Reuters