Al-Qaeda planned massive attacks in Israel after 9/11: Report

Al-Qaeda had planned massive attacks at an Israeli nightclub soon after 9/11 and was in the final stages of carrying out the plan in 2002, a media report said.

Al-Qaeda had planned massive attacks at an Israeli nightclub soon after 9/11 and was in the final stages of carrying out the plan in 2002, a media report said. The group planned to carry out massive terrorist attacks on Israeli nightclubs in 2002, The Times of Israel said.

The terror group was in the final stages of carrying out the plan, but it was thwarted with the help of US intelligence operatives, The Times of Israel reported quoting former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) researcher Ali Soufan. Soufan used to monitor al-Qaeda for the FBI both before and after the 9/11 attack.

On Friday, he told Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that the CIA had previously blocked the details of the nightclub attacks plot for publication and only it cleared recently for publication. The US intelligence agency obtained the information while investigating Palestinian al-Qaeda operative Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn also known as Abu Zubaydah, apprehended in Afghanistan.

In March 2002, the US captured Abu Zubaydah from Pakistan. Washington had said that he was an associate and longtime ally of slain Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden. Soufan interrogated Abu Zubaydah at a CIA secret site and he revealed the Israel plot. The interrogation also revealed that Al-Qaeda estimated these attacks at nightclubs would kill nearly 200 people. (ANI)