Secret Operation: Taliban and al Qaeda

Bullseye: Our Paradigm Intel forsaw this on 8.17.07

Gen Dan McNeill, the Nato commander, moved a battalion from 82nd Airborne, which makes up his operational reserve in Afghanistan, from Helmand to support the operation. Pakistani troops are also reported to have taken up blocking positions along the border.

Western intelligence has placed bin Laden close to the border, probably in the tribal agency of Khurram, which lies opposite Tora Bora, during recent months.



Osama bin Laden's cement-lined swimming pool fed by a mountain stream still lies, half destroyed, at the entrance to his cave complex at Tora Bora.

Close to the caves, which have been dynamited shut, is a rusting 1980s vintage Soviet tank; bullets and scraps of camouflage clothing litter the ground. An air of brooding gloom hangs about the cloud-wreathed mountains.

A week ago American forces launched a major operation to counter a rejuvenated al-Qa'eda, which has been steadily regrouping in the tribal areas of Pakistan, and has in the past three months moved back into the Tora Bora area of Afghanistan.

American military officials say much of what is happening around Tora Bora remains "classified". Discreetly, Western officials in Kabul describe it as "very successful", trapping insurgents in a series of adjacent valleys.

Local people report that the fighters include Arabs, Chinese Muslims, Chechens and a large contingent of Uzbeks led by Tahir Yuldashev.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/24/wafg124.xml

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