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Posted on 11/24/2001 6:32:37 PM PST by kattracks

ALALABAD, Afghanistan, Nov. 24 — Osama bin Laden was seen this week at a large and well-fortified encampment 35 miles southwest of this city, a minister of the self-proclaimed government here said tonight.

The official, Hazarat Ali, the law and order minister for the Eastern Shura, which claims dominion over three major provinces in eastern Afghanistan, said trusted informants had told him that Mr. bin Laden was spotted near Tora Bora, a village where two valleys meet in deep mountains in Nangarhar Province.

"We have some people who told us that three or four days ago, Osama bin Laden was in Tora Bora," Mr. Ali said. "I trust them like my mother or father."

"He is moving at night on horseback," he said, citing his informants. "At night he sleeps in caves."

Overlooking the village of Tora Bora is a large network of mountain caves and forts used by the Afghan rebels who fought the Soviet Union in the 1980's. Eastern Shura commanders say operatives of Al Qaeda, Mr. bin Laden's organization, paid the villagers of Tora Bora $50 a family to vacate the village weeks ago.

Aides to Mr. Ali say as many as 2,000 foreign fighters — "Afghan Arabs," as they are called here — are at Tora Bora too, armed with rifles, machine guns and surface-to-surface missiles.

He described the fighters as "experienced and suicidal."

Mr. Ali's intelligence chief, Sohrab Qadri, said the Tora Bora encampment lay along a ridge of the White Mountains, and could not easily be reached except on horseback. It includes a network of caves, bunkers and ammunition depots, he said, and is sheltered by deep forests. The Afghan rebels who fought the Soviets wintered there over several years, he said, and he assumed that the caves included heating and ventilation systems.

The reported sighting of Mr. bin Laden may lead to an increased American presence in and around Jalalabad, which is precisely what the Eastern Shura commanders would like to see.

They are eager to get their hands on American weapons and matériel to help them shore up their week-old government.

Soviet Army reports described the most sophisticated caves used by the Afghan rebels as "the last word in NATO engineering." Some of the caves were upgraded in the mid-to- late 1980's, when the rebels were receiving hundreds of millions of dollars a year in covert aid from the United States and Saudi Arabia.

The Soviets threw almost everything in their arsenal at the caves, short of tactical nuclear weapons, but with little success. They did not have the precision-guidance systems possessed by the Pentagon. But "bombing alone will not be effective" against the caves at Tora Bora, Mr. Qadri said. He said the site would have to be taken by siege.

A network of mule trails connects Tora Bora and the Afghan border with Pakistan. It was a three-day journey for the men and the mule trains that moved weapons and supplies from Pakistan into Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation. The trail ends in the Tirah Valley of Pakistan.

Mr. Ali said it was possible that Mr. bin Laden would "slip into Pakistan" if Tora Bora came under heavy attack. Other Eastern Shura commanders said Mr. bin Laden was taking shelter in early October at a farm in Nangarhar Province owned by Yunis Khalis, a commander of Afghan rebels in the 1980's who was closely allied with the Taliban.

They said that Mr. bin Laden left the farm days before the American bombing started in October and that "Afghan Arabs" in his retinue had gone to Tora Bora to secure the site.

Bin Laden escaping with one of his wives. Not sure if this is authentic or not.

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