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U.S. Ends bin Laden Hunt in Tora Bora
Tuesday, January 8, 2002
(11:00 AM Update)
The Guardian Staff & agencies

Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem said that US-led forces were focusing more on finding and attacking remaining Taliban and al-Qaida members and less on the hunt for bin Laden, concentrating "more on the entire picture of the country"

The US military is winding up its search for terror suspect Osama bin Laden in the bomb-shattered Tora Bora cave complex in eastern Afghanistan after failing to find him there.

US air and ground operations are now focused against the remnants of the al-Qaida network and the Taliban to stop them from regrouping, the Pentagon said.

General Tommy Franks, commander of the US campaign, said from his headquarters in Florida that the search through the tunnels and rubble of Tora Bora would be ending in the next day or so with no clue to Bin Laden's whereabouts.

Gen Franks said an arrangement had been put in place that could lead to US troops pursuing Bin Laden in neighbouring Pakistan, though he said there was no clear evidence that the Sauid dissident was there.
(More: The Guardian News Source)
2002 Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited.

Dan