A trove of documents seized from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s compound was published Thursday morning on the website of the U.S. Combating Terrorism Center.
The newly released documents reveal that the former al Qaeda leader had grown increasingly worried about the terror network's affiliate groups’ attacks on fellow Muslims, urging them to target the United States instead.
"No Muslim (should) fall victim except when it is absolutely necessary," bin Laden wrote.
The documents were found on five computers, dozens of hard drives and more than 100 storage devices. Seventeen documents were released from a cache of more than 6,000.
"On the basis of the 17 declassified documents, Bin Laden was not, as many thought, the puppet master pulling the strings that set in motion jihadi groups around the world," a report on the documents by the Combating Terrorism Center said. "Bin Laden was burdened by what he saw as their incompetence."
