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Osama was within U.S. troops’ reach: report

Washington: Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was cornered by U.S. forces in the Afghan mountains of Tora Bora just months after 9/11 and could have been killed or captured, but the military top brass decided not to attack him with the massive force at their disposal, says a Senate report. The report, by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asserts that the failure to kill or capture Osama bin Laden in December 2001 has had lasting and disastrous consequences and his escape laid the foundation for today’s Afghan insurgency and inflamed the internal strife now endangering Pakistan. “Cornered in some of the most fobidding terrain on earth, he [Osama] and several hundred of his men endured relentless pounding by American aircraft, as many as 100 air strikes a day. [Osama] Bin Laden was expected to die.

“[But] requests were turned down for US troops to block the mountain paths leading to sanctuary a few miles away in Pakistan. The vast array of American military power, from sniper teams to the most mobile divisions of the Marine Corps and the Army was kept on the sidelines. — PTI

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