New York: The al-Qaida is running at least a dozen camps in Afghanistan, where hundreds of recruits are believed to be imparted training in terrorist activities.

This follows the al-Qaida's dissatisfaction with its allies in Afghanistan, where the outfit has "spent a lot of money, put in a lot of time... with little result", a Taleban source in Karachi was quoted by a magazine as saying.

The magazine also interviewed three Afghans who confessed to having undergone training at separate camps, with one of them disclosing that the training programme included use of firearms, rockets and antipersonnel mines, making bombs and even suicide bombing.

However, military experts in Washington, though not denying the existence of such camps, believe that the stories are exaggerated.

Meanwhile, US intelligence officials are now "100 per cent certain" that Osama bin Laden had succeeded in "making and experimenting" with small amount of biological and chemical agents prior to the anti-terror operations in Afghanistan, possibly to be used in a so-called "dirty bomb".

During interrogation, the captured al-Qaida operations chief Abu Zubaydah had disclosed that the outfit had acquired small quantities of radioactive material, though it was unclear how far they had gone in making nuclear weapons, a media report quoting senior US intelligence officials said.

They said Abu Zubaydah admitted the idea of developing a "dirty bomb" having been picked up from US newspapers, which the al-qaida men used to refer for "inspiration".

"He noted this idea was particularly attractive because the Americans gave us the idea of how to kill them."

Meanwhile, the officials told the 'Newsweek' magazine that Abu Zubaydah has also given some vital clues about the purpose behind the bin Laden's latest audio tape released last week.

PTI