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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Afghan interior ministry sez Khalis, Sulemankheil tribesmen helped Binny escape |
| 2005-09-15 |
| Osama bin Laden was provided safe passage to Pakistan in 2001 by Afghan commanders paid by Al Qaeda and sympathetic to its cause, a senior Afghan official said yesterday. Lutfullah Mashal, Afghanistanâs Interior Ministry spokesman, said commanders helped the Al Qaeda leader escape from the Tora Bora mountains as US warplanes and Afghan forces attacked his hideout near the Pakistan border in late 2001. âThe help was provided because of monetary aid availed by Al Qaeda and also partly because of ideological issues,â Mashal said. âOsama along with other al Qaeda people managed to go to Parachinar (in Pakistan) at the time and then Pakistani forces battled the Al Qaeda runaways, killing around 70 of them,â Mashal added, referring to an area in Pakistanâs Kurram tribal agency. He said commanders loyal to Maulvi Yunus Khalis had helped the Al Qaeda leader escape. The whereabouts of Khalis, a top mujahideen leader from the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, is unknown. Mashal told private Pakistani television channel Geo on Tuesday that US forces made a mistake in entrusting the capture of bin Laden to Afghan commanders. Mashal said he was present in the Tora Bora mountains during the December 2001 operation, and that while US forces were not there in uniform, green berets in plain clothes, some disguised in Uzbek style dress were present. He said that while 800 or 900 Arabs fled Tora Bora for Pakistanâs Khyber tribal agency, senior Al Qaeda leaders trekked across to Parachinar on foot, mule and horseback with the help of some Sulemankheil tribal elders. Mashal said bin Laden later re-crossed the border to Khost where Taleban leader Jalaluddin Haqqani gave him refuge. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 Worked well enough with Amalekites ... |
| Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-09-15 01:09 |
| #1 Then kill all the Sulemankheil tribesmen. Make sure the "tribes" understand helping AQ means they quit existing. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom 2005-09-15 00:51 |