Report: Israel Tried to Kill Bin Laden
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Israeli intelligence was close to assassinating Usama bin Laden in 1996 with the help of one of his confidantes, but the attack was derailed by a crisis with the Palestinians, a newspaper reported Thursday.
The Yediot Ahronot daily said Israeli intelligence was helping investigate an attempted assassination of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia and came across a group of radicals based in Sudan and led by bin Laden.
The paper said Israeli intelligence, cooperating with another country, persuaded a confidante of bin Laden to kill him, but the operation was canceled by a crisis between Israel and the Palestinians that disrupted the link between Israeli intelligence and the foreign service.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Israeli officials refused to comment on the brief report. The paper said the full story would be published Friday in its weekend magazine section.