Top secret documents reveal Osama Bin Laden was planning UK attack before 9/11

CIA memos claim that 9/11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden had also been planning an attack in the UK prior to the September 11 attacks.

A slew of documents has been newly released by the CIA, with US intelligence claiming that it could see 'strong indications' that terror organisation Al-Qaeda had placed the UK on a list of potential targets.

One document was dated to 28 August 1998, just over three years before the September 11 attacks, and said there was evidence Bin Laden wanted to attack the UK.

This was one of 69 briefing notes from the US spy agency which was released, with The Sun reporting that it is the largest single release of information connected to the September 11 attacks.

The document was called 'Bin Ladin [sic] Terrorist Network Still a Threat', with Bin Laden's name spelled that way throughout the document.

It referred to cruise missile strikes that the US had carried out against Al Qaeda bases in Sudan, saying: “Hours before the US missile strikes, Bin Laden was looking at options for further attacks against the US as well as the UK."

It added: “Bin Ladin did not indicate precise targets or timing.”

Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks (Getty Images)

The memo would go on to say that there was suspicion that a US Embassy may also be 'a possible target', with Bin Laden authorising an operative to 'explore attacks in the US'.

Meanwhile, there was also another memo which was written towards the end of 1998, which was titled 'Significant Near-Term Threat of Bin Ladin Attacks'.

This said: “We have strong indications that he would like to attack the US and allies such as the UK and Israel on their own soil.

“If Bin Ladin judges these venues are too well defended, however, he will target US and allied interests in other areas of the world accessible to his network.”

There was also a third file concerning the UK as well, with one from August 1999 mentioning that Bin Laden had been angry because two of his operatives who were based in London were detained by police in the UK.

“His organisation’s capabilities have suffered from the arrest of key operatives," the memo said.

The aftermath of the September 11 attacks in New York (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

“Bin Ladin in interviews last year expressed anger over the arrests of his senior procurement officer and the chief of his organisation in the UK.”

The CIA documents say that there is 'sparse, vague, and imperfect information', and warn of Al Qaeda plans, including the possibility of that someone could 'fly an explosive-packed airplane into a US city'.

In a statement with the release of the documents, two of which had been previously released, the CIA said it 'aimed to give Americans a glimpse into our most sensitive intelligence from the years before and day after one of our nation’s darkest moments'.

Around four years after the September 11 attacks the UK would be targeted by an Islamist terrorist attack in the 7/7 London Bombings, in which four bombs were detonated at various locations across London on 7 July 2005, killing 56 people.

The attackers, all living in Britain, had praised Bin Laden and Al Qaeda in messages released after the attacks, and investigations would examine previous links to terrorist organisations.