Indian police charge bin Laden

Osama bin Laden is on the FBI's most wanted list

NEW DELHI, India -- Suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden has been charged with planning to bomb the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi.

The charges are based on the confessions of two men who were arrested in June for allegedly possessing explosives, Assistant Commissioner of Police Rajbir Singh told The Associated Press.

Osama bin Laden and five others, believed to be his accomplices, have been accused of hatching a conspiracy to bomb the U.S. Embassy.

The Taliban rulers of Afghanistan are believed to be sheltering bin Laden, who has been accused by the United States of planning the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.

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Embassy officials in India refused to comment Friday, as they have done since the arrests were first reported.

Four of the five suspected aides were being detained in the capital's Tihar Jail under judicial custody, which means they can be held indefinitely as long as a judge keeps extending the detention order.

The fifth man, alleged mastermind Abdul Rehman Al Safani of Yemen, has fled India, Singh said.

In June, police arrested Abdel Raouf Hawas, whom they identified as a Sudanese, and Mohammed Shamim Sarwar in New Delhi for allegedly possessing six kilograms (13 pounds) of the lethal explosive RDX, detonators and timers.

Two more men, Abbas Hussain Sheikh and Mohammed Arshad, were arrested on charges they helped Hawas.

At the time of the arrests, Deputy Commissioner of Police Ashok Chand told Indian news media that the group had been planning for two years to park a car bomb close to the visa section of the embassy.

It is considered the most vulnerable part of the high security building, because hundreds of Indians seeking entry to the United States stand in line there for hours each day.

The police said Hawas told them that Safani was working for bin Laden.

Singh said police were trying to gather more evidence in the case and may file additional charges.