At
least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the
disease that devastated
The
killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a
forest camp in
The
victim was a terrorist in AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb),
the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the
It
trains Muslim fighters to kill British and US troops.
Now
al-Qaeda chiefs fear the plague has been passed to other terror cells — or
Taliban fighters in
One
security source said: “This is the deadliest weapon yet in the war against
terror. Most of the terrorists do not have the basic medical supplies needed to
treat the disease.
“It
spreads quickly and kills within hours. This will be really worrying al-Qaeda.”
Black
Death comes in various forms.
Bubonic
Plague is spread by bites from infected rat fleas. Symptoms include boils in
the groin, neck and armpits. In Pneumonic Plague, airborn
bacteria spread like flu.
It
can be in the body for more than a week — highly contagious but not revealing
tell-tale symptoms.
The
al-Qaeda epidemic began in the cave hideouts of AQLIM in Tizi
Ouzou province, 150km east of the capital
The
extremists supporting madman Osama bin Laden went to Bejaia
and Jijel provinces — hoping the plague did not go
with them.
A
source said: “The emirs (leaders) fear surviving terrorists will
surrender to escape a horrible death.”
AQLIM
boss Droudkal claims to command around 1,000
insurgents. Training camps are also based in
AQLIM
bombed the UN headquarters in
In
an interview last July, Droudkal boasted his cell was
in constant contact with other al-Qaeda “brothers”.