New York: Osama bin Laden has no intention of being taken alive and has designated a "special gun" to be shot with in the event of imminent capture, according to one of the Al-Qaeda chief's former bodyguards.
Abu Jandal, who was with Osama in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2000, told the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes that his old boss had given strict instructions on what should happen if he was cornered.
"If he was going to be captured, Sheik Osama prefers to be killed," Jandal.
"There was a special gun to be used if Sheik Osama bin Laden was attacked and we were unable to save him, in which case I would have to kill him," he said.
Jandal, who lives in Yemen, said he believed Osama was hiding out in Afghanistan rather than Pakistan and warned that his most recent threats of another terror strike on the United States should be taken extremely seriously.
"When Sheik Osama promises something, he does it," he said. "So I believe Osama bin Laden is planning a new attack inside the United States."
In an audiotape broadcast by the Al-Jazeera Arabic television network in January, bin Laden warned that attacks on the US heartland were being prepared.
Jandal also revealed how sheer good fortune had allowed Osama to escape a US missile attack - ordered after the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of two US embassies in Africa on al-Qaeda training camps near Khost in Afghanistan.
The night before the attack, Osama and his entourage were driving when they reached a fork in the road that would take them to Khost or Kabul.
"He turned to us and said, 'Khost or Kabul?' We told him, 'Let's just visit Kabul.' Sheik Osama said, 'Okay, Kabul'."
He also recalled how the world's most wanted man had strict rules prohibiting cursing in his presence.
"I remember once I used the wrong word, so he suspended me from guard duty for three days," Jandal said.
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