Puerto Rico: A doctor who treated wounded Al Qaida fighters in Afghanistan's Tora Bora has said Osama Bin Laden was at the mountain as coalition troops attacked.
World | USA
Yemeni describes bloody siege on Al Qaida
A doctor who treated wounded Al Qaida fighters in Afghanistan's Tora Bora has said Osama Bin Laden was at the mountain as coalition troops attacked.
- Agencies
- Published: 08:47 September 8, 2007
- Image Credit: Reuters
- In a new video tape released on Friday, Osama Bin Laden urged Americans to embrace Islam in order to stop the war in Iraq.
Bin Laden seemed concerned only about his own welfare, Yemeni doctor Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi told a military panel at Guantanamo Bay.
Batarfi said he was forced to treat the Al Qaida fighters in the caves of Tora Bora during the siege in late 2001 and that he is not a terrorist.
The rare insider's account of the siege is contained in transcripts obtained by the media on Friday from the Pentagon under the Freedom of Information Act.
Batarfi confirmed he met with bin Laden for about 10 minutes. "He did not prepare himself for Tora Bora and to be frank he didn't care about anyone but himself."
He added that Bin Laden would limit meetings to 45 minutes so US forces would be unable track him and fire a missile.
"He came for a day to visit the area and we talked to him and we wanted to leave this area. He said he didn't know where to go himself and the second day he escaped and was
gone."
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