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Journalism of Courage
Osama bin Laden escaped US and British forces,closing in on his cave-haven hacked into the mountainside,with the help of a Pakistani warlord who provided guides to take him to safety in northeastern Afghanistan.
The al-Qaeda supremos successful flight from Tora Bora mountains in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan has been seen as an early lapse by the international military.
New details about the escape emerged from interrogation reports of the Guantanamo Bay detainees and one account claims that local Pakistani militant commander Maulvi Noor Mohammad aided Osamas escape.
The Guardian said that in documents obtained by it,Mohammad provided 40-50 fighters to escort a trapped Osama and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri to safety following intervention of al-Qaeda commander known as Abu Torab in mid-December 2001.
Previously,it was said that Osama escaped south from Tora Bora into Pakistan. However,in two accounts from Guantanamo Bay detainees,Osama and Zawahiri headed north to a safe house of an Afghan sympathiser called Awal Malim Gul near Jalalabad. The duo rested there before travelling further on horse back into the remote province of Kunar,where they were to remain for 10 months.
If true,the account to emerge is the most detailed on movements of al-Qaeda leadership after the 2000 campaign in Afghanistan. It pictures a dismal state of affairs in which Osama was as he borrowed $7,000 from a local. Osama and Zawahiri separated after the Tora Bora incident,while there has been no sighting of Osama,Zawahiri has been reported sighted in Karachi.
