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Yesterday, a Taliban spokesman said there was “no proof” that Osama bin Laden was involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Bin Laden was the most wanted fugitive in the world until he was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in 2011.
Osama, who had formed a secret network known as al Qaeda, had attempted, and often successfully executed attacks on several countries using the help of Al Qaeda trained terrorists and his seemingly bottomless financial resources. On September 11, 2001, Osama delivered his most devastating blow to the United States.
Zabihullah Mujahid made the remark after the Islamist militant group pledged not to allow Afghanistan to be used once again as a base for al-Qaeda. “When Osama bin Laden became an issue for the Americans, he was in Afghanistan. Although there was no proof he was involved” in 9/11, Mujahid told in an interview broadcast.
“Now, we have given promises that Afghan soil won’t be used against anyone,” he added. When it was last in power from 1998 to 2001, the Taliban provided a safe harbor in Afghanistan for bin Laden, who had fought with the mujahideen against the Soviet Union in the 1980s while he built up the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
Soon after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush demanded that the Taliban hand him over and dismantle terrorist training camps. As the Taliban refused, Bush launched a campaign of U.S. airstrikes, combined with Afghan Northern Alliance ground forces, toppled the Islamist regime. The government under President George W. Bush formed a coalition that successfully overthrew the Taliban. Osama went into hiding and, for more than 10 years, he was hunted along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. In 2004, shortly before President Bush’s re-election, Osama bin Laden released a videotaped message claiming responsibility for the attacks on 9/11.
The al-Qaeda group has been substantially weakened since 2001, but its fighters remain in Afghanistan. In April, the U.S. intelligence community told Congress that al-Qaeda “will continue to plot attacks and seek to exploit conflicts in different regions.” The United Nations warned in June that al-Qaeda was present in 15 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.
The Taliban and al-Qaeda “remain closely aligned and show no indication of breaking ties,” the U.N. report said. Afghanistan analyst Abdul Sayed said the relationship was “cordial and stronger than in the pre-9/11 period.”
Tags Afghanistan Osama Bin Laden Taliban
