White House says bin Laden ordered Iraq plots

Osama bin Laden ordered al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to form a cell in 2005 to plot attacks outside of Iraq and make the United States his main target, a senior US official said on Tuesday.

Citing newly declassified intelligence, Fran Townsend, President George W. Bush's adviser for homeland security, said the information backs the administration's assertion that US troops must stay in Iraq for now to prevent it from becoming a "terrorist sanctuary." (Reuters)