US blasts Taliban base after bin Laden 'sighting'
A suspected Taliban leadership compound was blitzed by American planes after reports of a sighting of Osama bin Laden.
Bombers and strike aircraft struck the complex, in the Khost region of Afghanistan, yesterday, in heavy and prolonged strikes which ended with survivors being picked off by an AC-130 gunship.
Today it emerged an intelligence report of a sighting of bin Laden had led to the strike being ordered.
Special forces were today preparing to examine the remains of the complex - which was the same one targeted in August 1998 by Cruise missiles in the wake of the al Qaida bombings of America’s embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Osama bin Laden escaped death by just hours in 1998 and today Pentagon officials told American broadcaster NBC they were certain the strikes yesterday had killed al-Qaida leaders.
The special forces who are being dispatched to inspect the site will look for signs of who the dead men were - and whether they may include bin Laden.
Pentagon officials said the attack was ‘‘ferocious’’, involving four B-1 bombers and four Navy FA-18 strike aircraft.
After they had dropped as many as 100 2,000lb bombs, the AC-130, the most feared aircraft in the American arsenal, was called in to wipe out survivors.
American officials revealed 24 hours before aircraft struck, a drone spy plane spotted a convoy at the complex with the kind of security which usually surrounds bin Laden.
And although the plane’s cameras did not see bin Laden, other intelligence reports put him at the scene - although officials admitted the conclusion could have been ‘‘wishful thinking’’.
The strike was confirmed yesterday by US Air Force General Richard Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.
‘‘This morning we conducted strikes on a leadership compound that was a relatively extensive compound,’’ he said. "There was significant activity.’’
The area included buildings, a training camp, and caves, said the general, who added: ‘‘It is in the Khost region south of Tora Bora.
‘‘It was struck by Cruise missiles in 1998 an it has been a place that the al-Qaida go to regroup.’’
The bombing was the first time US air power had been used this year and came after days of patrols over Afghan skies returning to base without dropping their bombs.
American defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the use of bombers was now an option of last resort in Afghanistan.
‘‘If you look at amount of bombing we have been doing in the last week or so, it is obvious that is not our first choice,’’ he said.
‘‘Clearly the AC-130s, which do not drop bombs but unload a terrific amount of ordinance, is often a more appropriate weapon for precision targeting.’’
