Bin Laden: Kill Americans, Britons CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- The Muslim militant Osama bin Laden has urged Muslims to kill Americans and Britons for supporting their armed forces' attacks on Iraq, according to an interview with an Arabic newspaper. ``The British and the American people loudly declared their support for their leaders' decision to attack Iraq,'' bin Laden said in Friday's edition of the newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat. This made it ``the duty of Muslims to confront, fight and kill (Britons and Americans),'' bin Laden said. ``And anything that can be taken from them by force is the rightful prize of Muslims.'' The United States and Britain carried out airstrikes on Iraqi military and communications sites Dec. 16-19 to punish Baghdad for its alleged obstruction of U.N. inspectors seeking evidence of its weapons of mass destruction. The London-published newspaper said the interview with bin Laden was conducted in the mountains of Helmand province, southern Afghanistan. Washington accuses bin Laden, a Saudi dissident, of masterminding the twin bombing of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya on Aug. 7. The blasts killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. Thirteen days later the United States blasted bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan with cruise missiles. bin Laden denied any involvement in the embassy bombings, but expressed his ``admiration and support'' for the attackers. After the United States attacked bin Laden's camps, the Taliban -- the militia that controls 90 percent of Afghanistan -- announced that it had imposed restrictions on bin Laden, including barring him from giving press interviews. bin Laden told Asharq Al-Awsat that while the Taliban had prohibited him from carrying out attacks on foreign countries, he continues to ``guide (Muslims) toward holy war against Jews and Christians. This is a duty.'' The interview was the second to be published with bin Laden in two days. It was not immediately clear whether he was defying the Taliban's restrictions or whether they had been eased. A Taliban spokesman could not be reached for comment. A businessman who made a fortune in construction, bin Laden first went to Afghanistan in the 1980s to fight against Soviet occupation.
