Al Qaeda Trained Nearly 50,000 Terrorists

WASHINGTON: Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network has trained between 10,000-50,000 terorists, the US State Department's Coordinator for Counterterrorism Francis Taylor has said.

Briefing Non Governmental Organisations, Taylor said 77 suspected terrorists are in custody facing 116 criminal charges.

The Sept 11 hijacking, Taylor said, was financed by half a million dollars moved in small amounts through 20 countries.

The US has frozen more than $ 100 million in terrorist money.

He said the US Government is trying to help Pakistan come up with secular alternatives to the cleric-run madrassas, which he described as the "breeding ground for anti-American terrorists."