Ex-Taliban official tells of death plot

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Osama bin Laden personally ordered the assassination of Afghan opposition leader Ahmed Shah Massood days before the Sept. 11 attacks, a senior ex-Taliban official has said, the first time a Taliban insider has discussed the terrorist mastermind's role.

Massood, military chief of the northern alliance, was mortally wounded Sept. 9 when two suicide attackers posing as television reporters detonated a bomb during an interview in Khodja Bahauddin, in Takhar province.

Mullah Mohammed Khaksar, the former Taliban deputy interior minister, said bin Laden had ordered two suicide bombers diverted from a trip to Indonesia and sent them on the mission.

Khaksar said that on Sept. 9 he had gone to the home of Taliban Interior Minister Abdul Razzak to pay respects for the death of Razzak's father. Razzak, who has eluded capture by the U.S.-led coalition, had contacts with bin Laden, and two Saudis that Khaksar believed to be al-Qaida members were at the wake.

Khaksar said the two Saudis, whom he did not identify, told him of bin Laden's role and assured him that Massood was dead, although the northern alliance had withheld confirmation of his death for 48 hours until a successor could be chosen.

"They said 'no, believe me he is gone,"' Khaksar said, referring to Massood. "They also said that he was killed by two Arabs who were supposed to go to Indonesia but were ordered to go to Massood and kill him. The order came from Osama. He canceled their trip to Indonesia."

The United States has said it believes bin Laden had foreknowledge of the plot to kill Massood, but has not said what level of involvement he had in the plot.