Government says bin Laden eluded U.S. pursuers in Tora Bora region

WASHINGTON — A terror suspect held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, was a commander for Osama bin Laden during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and helped the al-Qaida leader escape his mountain hideout at Tora Bora in 2001, according to a U.S. government document.

The document, provided to The Associated Press in response to a Freedom of Information request, says the unidentified detainee "assisted in the escape of Osama bin Laden from Tora Bora." It is the first definitive statement from the Pentagon that bin Laden was at Tora Bora and evaded U.S. pursuers.

The detainee is not identified by name or nationality. He is described as being "associated with" al-Qaida and having called for a jihad, or holy war, against the United States.

The events at Tora Bora were a point of contention during last year's presidential race, and President Bush, as well as Vice President Dick Cheney, asserted that commanders did not know whether bin Laden was there when U.S. and allied Afghan forces attacked the area in December 2001.

Cheney said last Oct. 26 that Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, had "stated repeatedly it was not at all certain that bin Laden was in Tora Bora. He might have been there or in Pakistan or even Kashmir," the Indian-controlled Himalayan region.

Franks, now retired, wrote in an opinion column in The New York Times last Oct. 19, "We don't know to this day whether Mr. bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December 2001." He added that intelligence assessments of his location varied, but bin Laden was "never within our grasp."

Tora Bora is a mountainous area along the Pakistan border that became al-Qaida's last stand in Afghanistan. U.S. warplanes bombarded the area in December 2001, and Franks had Afghan soldiers lead the ground assault, backed by several thousand U.S. ground troops, including Special Forces, in a cave-to-cave search.

The newly revealed statement is contained in a document the Pentagon calls a "summary of evidence" against one of 558 prisoners at Guantánamo Bay.

The evidence was summarized last Dec. 14 for a Guantánamo Bay hearing to determine whether the prisoner was correctly held as an "enemy combatant."

Bin Laden remains at large. For many months, officials have said they believe bin Laden probably is hiding in the Afghan-Pakistan border region, although last week Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declined to endorse that view, saying bin Laden's whereabouts were unknown.

In a related development:

KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. warplanes killed five suspected militants near the Pakistani border after guerrillas launched an overnight attack on American and Afghan military positions, officials said today.

The planes were scrambled after insurgents fired at least eight rockets at a U.S. base in the southeastern province of Khost and turned rockets and guns against three border posts late yesterday, the American military said.

No U.S. or allied forces were hurt, it said. A senior Afghan commander blamed Taliban or al-Qaida militants.