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From
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/331/nation/Afghans_suspect_bin_Laden
_is_hiding_in_huge_tunnel_fortress+.shtml
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THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING
THE HUNT
Afghans suspect bin Laden is hiding in huge tunnel fortress
By Chris Tomlinson, Associated Press, 11/27/2001
JALALABAD, Afghanistan - Osama bin Laden has no shortage of hiding
places, from the thickly forested region west of Kandahar to an
impregnable fortress built with US aid during the Afghan war against
the Soviet Union.
Yet if the United States knows where bin Laden is hiding, no one in
the Bush administration is saying so publicly. In Afghanistan, rumors
of his whereabouts abound.
Militia leaders in eastern Afghanistan suspect bin Laden may be holed
up in a mountain base called Tora Bora that veteran Afghan guerrillas
describe as an impregnable fortress.
Built with US aid, Tora Bora sits about 35 miles south of Jalalabad,
atop a 13,000-foot mountain, and is three hours by foot from the
nearest road. Carved 1,150 feet into the mountain are a series of
rooms and tunnels, reportedly with room for hundreds of people.
''I am sure he is there, 70 percent sure,'' Hazrat Ali, a militia
leader in charge of security around the eastern city of Jalalabad,
said yesterday. He contends that bin Laden wants to stay near the
Pakistani border in ca
se he wants to leave Afghanistan.
However, Tora Bora is about 300 miles northeast of the Kandahar area where hundreds of
Marines landed Sunday, suggesting Washington is eyeing other possible hiding places
more accessible to the Taliban stronghold.
Mullah Mohammed Khaqzar, a former Taliban intelligence chief, contends that bin Laden
and the Taliban might head for the towering mountains that rise up to the northwest of
Kandahar beginning at Argandab.
However, Khaqzar said bin Laden would probably not stay there because the area has
been heavily bombed since the start of the air campaign on Oct. 7. Instead, he says,
bin Laden would push deeper into Islam Dara, a well-f
ortified, area that is difficult to reach.
US jets have also struck around Islam Dara, which is tucked into the crevices of a
mountain near Khaqrez, some 30 miles northwest of Kandahar. However, the bombs may not
have caused serious damage to the caves, Khaqzar sa
id.
Another possible destination could be Kajakai in neighboring Helmand province, where
the mountains are nearly 10,000 feet.
''Bin Laden could go to Kajakai, and from there he could lose himself in the
mountains,'' Khaqzar said. ''It would be very difficult to get him.''
To the west of Kandahar lies another former base from the war against the Soviets -
Maiwand. The area is overgrown with trees.
Still, officials in Jalalabad stick by their theory that bin Laden is in Tora Bora.
Ali said he has heard reports that bin Laden was riding on horseback between caves at
night in the White Mountain range, south of Jalalab
ad and that he had been seen in Tora Bora as recently as Wednesday.
When Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters abandoned their camps near Jalalabad in early
October, about 6,000 of them, led by bin Laden, headed south toward the White Mountain
range, said Abdul Qadir, the new governor in Jalalaba
d. But he said he could not confirm reports that bin Laden, who visited Tora Bora in
the 1980s, was hiding there.
Ali, who used the base to launch attacks against the Soviet Army in the 1980s, said
Tora Bora was almost impossible to take by force. The Soviets bombed and attacked it
repeatedly for a decade with little effect, he said.
Afghan guerrillas used US funding to carve the anthill-like Tora Bora complex into the
side of Ghree Khil mountain, a day's walk from the Pakistani border.
Inside Tora Bora - the name means ''black dust'' - are a series of rooms and tunnels,
said an Afghan who says he visited the complex six months ago with Arab fighters. The
man, who did not want to be identified for fear o
f retribution, said it can comfortably house 1,000 people.
The mouth of the cave is hidden behind tall pine trees. The 50-foot-long tunnel to the
entrance is wide enough for a car, and a wooden door opens to a maze of hallways.
''After the door, the way is divided into branches, just like a hotel, with doors on
the right and left,'' he said.
The caves have a ventilation system, and the Taliban have installed electrical wiring.
They use a hydroelectric generator powered by mountain runoff.
Inside, the walls are concrete, but the ceiling reveals the location - mountain rock,
black with tiny crystals. The man said the rooms vary in size from large to very small
and include bedrooms, offices, and communal room
s.
People from nearby villages sell supplies to the Taliban and Al Qaeda
members, said Sorhab Qadri, one of Ali's intelligence officers.
''The Arab people in the mountains are giving a lot of money to them
to work'' to expand Tora Bora), he added. Qadri said sympathizers
sometimes slip into Jalalabad to buy supplies and then take them back
to Tora Bora.
Only certain people are allowed to approach the heavily defended
valley, which is flanked by cliffs crowned with fighting positions.
''Osama warned the villagers that if they come near the cave,'' he
said, ''they will be killed.''
This story ran on page A15 of the Boston Globe on 11/27/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
End<{{{
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