Bin Laden's great escape: How the world's most wanted man made fools of elite troops who'd trapped him in his mountain lair

By Guy Walters

There could be no mistaking the voice as it crackled over the airwaves. ‘The time is now,’ it said, exhorting its followers to stand firm. ‘Arm your women and your children against the infidel!’

The CIA officer looked at his Arab adviser, Jalal, who was the world’s foremost authority on the voice, having studied it for seven years. Jalal knew what the CIA man was about to ask, and simply nodded.

The two men looked up from the captured short-range Al Qaeda radio and stared at the massive mountain range in front of them. Somewhere up there, in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan, was the world’s most wanted man — Osama Bin Laden.

Wanted: But Osama Bin Laden proved difficult to track down in the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan

Since the devastating Al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington just three months before, the United States had been tracking him down, and now, in mid-December 2001, they were no more than a few miles away.

If Bin Laden could be captured or killed, the terrorists would be dealt a massive blow, and the U.S. could truly claim that it was winning the newly declared War Against Terror.

Although Operation Enduring Freedom — a military incursion by thousands of Nato and Afghan troops — was successfully liberating much of Afghanistan from Taliban control, there was no doubt that the real prize was Bin Laden himself.

But the head of Al Qaeda had chosen his redoubt with care. For several years, Bin Laden had developed an intricate network of caves and dwellings 14,000ft up in the White Mountains, in a settlement known as Tora Bora.

‘I feel really secure in the mountains,’ he told a Palestinian journalist in 1996, and he had good reason.

Bin Laden knew that if the Americans managed to track him down, his hideout — so high up in the almost impenetrable mountains — would be hard to attack on foot, while the deepness of the caves protected him from the air.

Bin Laden knew that if the Americans managed to track him down, his hideout — so high up in the almost impenetrable mountains — would be hard to attack on foot, while the deepness of the caves protected him from the air. Furthermore, as Tora Bora was just a few miles from Pakistan, he would easily be able to escape as Western troops closed in.

In preparation, Bin Laden had spent hundreds of hours exploring the area on foot, much to the annoyance of some of his 11 sons, forced to accompany their father on his gruelling 14-hour treks. Years later, his son Omar bin Laden recalled: ‘My brothers and I all loathed these treks that seemed the most pleasant of outings to our father.’

According to some intelligence reports, Bin Laden had been hiding in Tora Bora since around November 17, when he and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri had slipped out of the nearby city of Jalalabad.

However, the CIA was close behind and, thanks to informers, by early December the Americans were confident Bin Laden was hiding in his mountain lair.

What happened next — the Battle of Tora Bora and Bin Laden’s subsequent escape — has become the stuff of legend. According to most accounts, Tora Bora was assaulted by hundreds of American and British Special Forces, who fought cave-to-cave in battles straight out of a war movie.

On the attack: Canadian troops were deployed in the Tora Bora valley region as part of the allied attempt to capture Bin Laden

There were reports of Victoria Crosses about to be awarded, and hundreds of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters being shot by lantern-jawed SAS and troops from Delta Force — a secretive counter-terrorism unit which is part of the U.S. Special Operations Force.

Unfortunately, unlike in the movies, the villain managed to slip away, and Bin Laden was reported to have escaped to Pakistan, just as he had planned. Except that’s not what happened at all.

This week, new files leaked from the U.S. military tell a very different story. The intelligence reports, compiled by officials at Guantanamo Bay, suggest that the real series of events was remarkably different from what was reported around the world at the time.

Now, piecing together the new reports with other special forces testimony from American soldiers who were present, the Mail can tell the story of just how the world’s most wanted man slipped through America’s fingers — on horseback.

No escape? A multiple explosion rocks Al Qaeda positions in the Tora Bora mountains after an attack by US warplanes in December 2001

What emerges is that in all, no more than 80 British and American (and possibly German) Special Forces were involved, and these played only a supporting role to the Afghan forces which carried out the bulk of the attacks.

Contrary to popular myth, the SAS did not fight at Tora Bora, and the British element consisted of just 12 men from the Special Boat Service.

Furthermore, many experts now assert that Bin Laden was able to escape because of a lack of American willingness to commit more troops to the operation — at a time when the head of Al Qaeda was well within grasp. Tellingly, there were more Western journalists near Tora Bora in December 2001 than there were Western troops.

Perhaps the most startling twist revealed this week, though, is that it appears Bin Laden did not flee to Pakistan, but, incredibly, found his way through the coalition lines and escaped north into Afghanistan, aided by a local militant commander.

As soon as Bin Laden’s position had been located to within a few miles in early December 2001, the Delta Force and SBS troops headed into the mountains in pairs to pinpoint caves and nests of enemy fighters.

Accompanied by Afghans, the Americans and British used GPS devices and lasers to ‘paint’ targets that could be bombed by the U.S. Air Force.

Troop movement: A CH-47 Chinook prepares to land and pick up members of a coalition force in the Tora Bora mountains early on in the war

As a result, Tora Bora was to endure one of the most punitive bombing campaigns in history. In just three days, from December 4 to 7, bombers dropped some 700,000lb of explosives on Bin Laden’s positions. That’s the equivalent to two nights’ worth of RAF raids over Berlin during World War II.

On December 9, a 15,000lb BLU-82 ‘Daisy Cutter’ bomb was dropped — so named because of its immense destructive power — followed by three or four B-52 bombers, each of which delivered 25 500lb bombs. Many of Bin Laden’s men inside the caves were vapourised.

‘We killed a lot of people,’ said one CIA officer. ‘A lot of bad guys.’

After the coalition forces had captured Tora Bora, a grisly sight awaited them. Body parts were strewn everywhere — testaments to the ruthless power of the bombing. The Afghan fighters dragged the corpses to a command post to display them triumphantly.

A Yemeni doctor, Ayman Batarfi, who treated wounded Al Qaeda fighters, later described during a Guantanamo Bay tribunal how he had to carry out basic amputations on the maimed.

‘I was out of medicine and I had a lot of casualties,’ Batarfi recalled. ‘I did a hand amputation with a knife and I did a finger amputation with scissors, and if someone was injured badly I was just operating on the table.’

Despite the heaviness of the bombing, Bin Laden remained untouched. At one point, Batarfi met him for about ten minutes.

‘He came from behind the trees and I assumed there was a cave nearby that secured his place,’ Batarfi said. Bin Laden never let his meetings last for more than 45 minutes, for fear the Americans would get a lock on his position.

According to Batarfi, Bin Laden was not that well prepared for the fight. In fact, Tora Bora may have been defended by only 200-300 fighters armed with no more than 16 Kalashnikovs, although such a claim should be treated with caution.

Nevertheless, it does seem clear Bin Laden was more concerned with saving his own skin than that of his men.

‘He did not prepare himself for Tora Bora and, to be frank, he didn’t care about anyone but himself,’ claimed Batarfi.

Bin Laden was not that well prepared for the fight. In fact, Tora Bora may have been defended by only 200-300 fighters armed with no more than 16 Kalashnikovs.

Bin Laden was right to be cautious, because on December 10 members of the Delta Force got within two kilometres of their target.

However, Major Dalton Fury, the Delta Force commander, reluctantly had to decide against launching any air strike for fear of killing some of his own men in the vicinity, and also because the Afghan forces were unwilling to accompany his men into the higher reaches of the mountains.

One of the primary obstacles facing the American and British troops was not the landscape, but the fact that, when night fell, the Afghan soldiers of the Northern Alliance — a loose grouping of fighters who wished to topple the Taliban — refused to hold the positions they had gained on the mountainside.

As a result, Al Qaeda fighters were able to take back the positions they’d lost during the day, only for the same process to begin all over again the following morning. ‘It was almost a kind of gentlemen’s agreement,’ one American officer later reflected ruefully.

Despite their tendency to retreat by night, some of the toughest fighting was carried out by the Afghans. One of them was ‘Crazy’, a 6ft mujahidin who had earned his nickname by killing five Taliban in Jalalabad just before it fell.

During the battles around Tora Bora, ‘Crazy’ led a charge up a mountain and is said to have accounted for several Al Qaeda fighters before stumbling upon a white coat that he brandished triumphantly before claiming: ‘This is Osama bin Laden’s coat!’

Whether he was right is doubtful, but there should be no disputing that many of the Afghans fought with courage.

But perhaps the biggest obstacle for the coalition forces was the lack of American and British manpower on the ground. Although the Americans were happy to commit their airforce, the politicians and top brass had decided U.S. involvement in Afghanistan should be ‘light-footed’, a tactic that seems hard to believe a decade later.

Empty-handed: A Canadian soldier stands inside one of 14 underground bunkers that were found in the Tora Bora region in May, 2002

Whether that was sensible is still a matter of debate among experts. Some insist that to have properly surrounded Tora Bora would have required some 3,000 troops, who were on hand but who would have lacked the necessary medical, evacuation and logistical support.

Others maintain that a minimum of 800 U.S. Rangers were required to do the job, but once again, it is hard to be certain.

Despite these impediments, some progress was made over the next few days, and by December 12 a team of 20 Delta Force soldiers had closed in on what had been Bin Laden’s house in the area — a basic structure which, curiously, featured a swimming pool.

They were clearly near their quarry, but once again the Americans were let down by their Afghan allies, who unilaterally decided to negotiate a ceasefire with their Al Qaeda enemy.

A CIA officer, Gary Bernsten, recalled his own reaction when he heard of the olive branch being offered to Bin Laden’s men. ‘I used the f-word,’ he recalled. ‘I was screaming at them on the phone: “No ceasefire. No negotiation. We continue air-strikes.” ’

Although the ceasefire lasted only a few hours, some suggest this was enough of a window for Bin Laden to make his escape. On the afternoon of December 14, the Americans were once again able to hear Bin Laden on a military radio, but this time his speech sounded pre-recorded.

It seemed as though Bin Laden had fled, most likely to Pakistan, where he could not be touched. However, it is claimed in the newly-leaked files that the Al Qaeda leader headed back north into Afghanistan.

It seemed as though Bin Laden had fled, most likely to Pakistan, where he could not be touched. However, it is claimed in the newly-leaked files that the Al Qaeda leader headed back north into Afghanistan, and was escorted by 40 or 50 fighters provided by a Pakistani militant called Maulawi Nur Muhammad.

One Guantanamo inmate, Harun Shirzad al-Afghani, made reference to a $7,000 debt that Bin Laden is thought to have incurred during his escape. According to his testimony, a year after Tora Bora a lieutenant of Bin Laden paid that sum to the commander who helped him to evade his pursuers.

Two detainees at Guantanamo claim that Bin Laden was able to get through the coalition lines and found sanctuary at the home of an Afghan sympathiser named Awal Malim Gul in or near Jalalabad.

After resting there, Bin Laden and his deputy then headed on horseback into the remote northeastern province of Kunar, where they hid for a further ten months.

After that, the trail on Bin Laden grows distinctly cold. His deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was reported to have been in South Waziristan in 2005, but there is no suggestion that Bin Laden was with him. The truth is, we simply cannot be sure where he went or where he is now.

Elusive: Osama Bin Laden, right, with his top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri at an undisclosed location in early 2002

What is clear is that Bin Laden abandoned Tora Bora in some haste, since he appears to have left behind some of his bodyguards.

A report in the files revealed this week claims that: ‘UBL [Bin Laden] left his bodyguards in Tora Bora.’ Another says that: ‘UBL departed Tora Bora with a few individuals he selected.’

Those who had remained loyal to Bin Laden were bitter at how their leader deserted them.

‘He came to visit the area we were in, and we talked to him, and we wanted to leave this area,’ recalled the Yemeni doctor Ayman Batarfi.

‘He said he didn’t know where to go himself and the second day he escaped and was gone.’

All that Bin Laden left his men with were hollow words. ‘I’m sorry for getting you involved in this battle,’ he told them. ‘If you can no longer resist, you may surrender with my blessing.’

By December 17, the coalition forces declared victory at Tora Bora. In purely numerical terms, the battle had been a success, with some 250 enemy killed and no coalition deaths. The enemy had been routed by a small number of highly trained Special Forces combined with an awesome aerial bombardment.

However, as even a Special Forces official history concedes, the fact that Bin Laden was able to get away makes the battle of Tora Bora ‘a controversial fight’.

The same report does draw some succour from the fact that success at Tora Bora meant that neither the Taliban nor Al Qaeda would challenge the Americans in the field for another five years.

Nevertheless, as the purpose of the battle was to kill or capture Bin Laden, the operation must be considered a failure.

After he had escaped, Bin Laden crowed about how the U.S. had let him go. ‘The Americans exhausted all efforts to blow up and annihilate this tiny spot — wiping it out altogether. Despite all this, we blocked their daily attacks, sending them back defeated, bearing their dead and wounded.

‘And not once did American forces dare storm our position: what clearer proof of their cowardice, fear and lies concerning the myth of their alleged power is there?’

Of course, had Bin Laden been killed or captured, the propaganda success would have been immense, and in war, propaganda can be more potent than any bombardment.

Of one thing we can be sure — if Bin Laden is ever within striking distance again, it is unlikely he will be able to slip away quite so easily.

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