It has been the base of many armed forces since the invasion of the former Soviet Union. Today is a very special day in our peace action activities. Seven villagers of the Kuz Kunar district, where we have implemented our projects, are going to visit another area with JVC staff and experience interaction with the villagers there! This program required long time for preparation, since the area is so insecure that even the transportation of people is difficult. Tora Bora borders Pakistan with steep mountains.
It is the most dangerous place where the Afghan government forces cannot take control. Nobody else desires peace more than the people in this area, where their daily life has continuously been broken by the heavy fights between armed forces and the government army.
The security situation in Pachir Wa Agam has been improved theses months as the government force has regained its power. The residents strongly requested to have a peace workshop there. After carefully checking security information, the JVC staff finally judged that they can visit the place now by taking various safety measures. Ajmal right looks a little nervous, smiling awkwardly. Sabirullah was in a car when he skyped me.
We passed a checkpoint safely. Beginning on Oct. The fall of Kabul on Nov. Dispersed Taliban and al Qaeda elements presented the coalition with a new challenge.
Of course, it was no surprise OEF had the potential to turn into a guerilla war. John D. Stufflebeem explained to reporters that Nov. However, the rapidly evolving situation in Afghanistan left US Central Command with very little sense of how many al Qaeda and Taliban remained.
Afghan fighters had the option of simply going home—or taking up new fighting positions. Many al Qaeda were not natives, however, and had come to Afghanistan from places such as Saudi Arabia and Chechnya and now had to surrender, hide, or flee.
For bin Laden, the end of Taliban rule left him few options. Cities were slipping out of Taliban hands, and roads were subject to attack from the air. This left the mountains—with their sheltered access to Pakistan—as a preferred choice for any sizeable group of terrorists sticking with bin Laden.
Few knew the complex better than bin Laden himself. A US Senate report contended that in the late s, bin Laden had assisted with many of the construction projects such as building the rough road from Jalalabad to Tora Bora and supervising excavation of the connecting tunnel system within the caves.
Bin Laden made more improvements to the Tora Bora hideout after leaving Sudan for Afghanistan in On Nov. It was to become the last public address in person by bin Laden—and the last certain confirmation of his whereabouts for nearly 10 years. Special operations forces sight targets. In the end, the fight for Tora Bora, though intense, would involve just handfuls of ground personnel.
On that night, bin Laden circulated in the audience, handing out cash gifts. Others saw bin Laden make an appearance at a mosque, surrounded by bodyguards. He then headed out of Jalalabad in a vehicle convoy bound for the mountains, with several hundred followers with him.
We sent the women and children into another village for their own safety. For all his intensity, he was not the kind of leader willing to risk his own life or that of his kin in pursuit of his ideals, nor was he a solo player. Bin Laden hid out but kept his family and security entourage with him. The move to Tora Bora was not a step toward martyrdom but a stopgap while he figured out what to do next. Top of the list was Kandahar, still in Taliban hands at the time.
Reports suggested that some Taliban and al Qaeda were fleeing into the city and then moving south. Operations to take Kandahar continued until Dec. Kandahar was especially important for several reasons. Mullah Mohammed Omar, a Kandahar area native credited with founding the Taliban in Afghanistan and in September with taking over Kabul and installing Taliban rule across the country, was thought to be there. Stufflebeem said Dec. On the outskirts of the city was another major political figure waiting to emerge.
Hamid Karzai was slated to take over as interim head of state, and his forces had taken the town of Tarin Kowt in mid-November. By Dec. Special operations forces directed air strikes for a two-day battle with the Taliban. Karzai was so close he was injured in the face from an off-target bomb that killed three members of the Afghan-US team. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D.
Now, it was time to bring airpower to bear. The first call was for intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance. Predators had surveyed the Tora Bora area as early as Oct. Tommy R. Franks confirmed the US was watching two areas closely: Kandahar and the area between Kabul and Khyber. This zone included the Jalalabad area and Tora Bora. The UAV system—with just four aircraft in existence at the time—racked up an impressive combat record.
Its infrared, radar, and electro-optical sensors allowed coverage at night and through bad weather. David Hambleton, who was a Global Hawk liaison officer at the combined air and space operations center. US air strikes hit the caves repeatedly for more than two weeks. While al-Afghani's account is impossible to confirm, he had serious credentials as a courier and facilitator for al Qaeda until his capture in February close to Jalalabad.
The document says the "detainee has provided unique information on al Qaeda's organizational structure and operations. One man well connected with the al Qaeda leadership at the time was Noman Benotman, then a senior figure in the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which had ties to al Qaeda.
Benotman says tribes around Jalalabad helped bin Laden hide after his escape and, like al-Afghani suggests, that he probably stayed in Afghanistan for about a year before crossing into Pakistani tribal territory. And he was flush with cash. It's unclear what happened to Mohammed. On a personal note, when I finally left the area just before Christmas , I traveled with a Pakistani "fixer" working with CNN -- a man with encyclopedic knowledge of the region and its many local alliances and rivalries.
As we drove from Jalalabad to the border with Pakistan, the mountains loomed on both sides: Tora Bora to the south and the wilds of Kunar in the distance to the north. Our fixer gestured north. Share this on:. Most Popular. Fine art from an iPhone?
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