Tora Bora, Afghanistan
Osama bin Laden and hundreds of his al Qaida cohorts escaped from the Tora Bora cave compound last winter because U.S. and Pakistani troops were unable to guard the Afghan borders, Newsweek reported this week. Afghan villagers told the magazine that the Americans bombed only one of the two main escape routes, and Pakistani troops didn’t reach the border region until many al Qaida members had already slipped into Pakistan or Iran. Bin Laden and two dozen followers went to Shah-i-kot, an Afghan mountain stronghold, in December, according to a Taliban guide. The man said he led the group on a brutal five-day trip through snowy mountains on horseback. “Osama rarely got down from his horse, he was such an expert rider,” the man said. A Taliban soldier said he saw bin Laden rallying the troops in Shah-i-kot several months later.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
September 6 editorial cartoonsCartoons Saturday’s political cartoons include profiting from authoritarianism, and the National Guard entering the CDC
-
Should Britain withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights?Talking Point With calls now coming from Labour grandees as well as Nigel Farage and the Tories, departure from the ECHR 'is starting to feel inevitable'
-
5 outspoken cartoons about Epstein survivors taking center stageCartoons Artists take on cover-ups, Trump surrounded, and more
