Al-Qaida is training again in Afghanistan UN reports that new camps are 'discreet and mobile'

NEW YORK--New foot soldiers for an Islamic holy war are streaminginto al-Qaida training camps that have been recently reactivated ineastern Afghanistan, a UN report on the terror group said Tuesday.

While Osama bin Laden's financial network has been mostlydismantled, his terror network still enjoys significant support andhas "access to substantial funding from its previously establishedinvestments," said the report by an expert panel.

Michael Chandler of Britain, who led the expert group, told a newsconference that al-Qaida operatives might be present in about 40countries, which he did not identify.

The UN experts warned in the report that al-Qaida has thepotential to obtain nuclear material and build "some kind of dirtybomb."

More than a year after a U.S.-led coalition ousted Afghanistan'sformer Taliban rulers, who harbored bin Laden and his followers, thereport said "one of the most recent developments to come to light isthe apparent activation of new, albeit simple, training camps ineastern Afghanistan" for al-Qaida supporters.

Chandler said the camps may have sprung up near the eastern townof Asadabad, in Kunar province.

But he said since U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan wereconstantly looking for such facilities, these camps were "small,discreet and mobile."