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U.S. Special Forces had a plan to kill Osama bin Laden, his top lieutenant and the ruler of the Taliban in one stroke, but the plot was foiled by a suspected intelligence betrayal by Pakistan’s spy agency, reports DEBKA-Net-Weekly.
The ambush by Rangers and Delta Force was set for Oct. 16, according to DEBKA’s military and intelligence sources.
Taliban leader Mullah Mustafa Omar had summoned 100 senior commanders of his army to gather in Kandahar for a war council strategy session on that date. Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri were scheduled to be there.
The decision was made to airlift the American commandos from the Pakistani military intelligence base at Quetta, where they were stationed, to Kandahar Oct. 14, two days before the target date. They were to wait until U.S. spy planes or satellites – or Pakistani agents on the ground – sighted the three leaders arriving for the war council and then go into action. The plan was bold but simple. The U.S. commandos were to be armed with mini-rockets guided by a heat-seeking mechanism adjusted to the degree of heat emitted by 10 people – the targets plus their bodyguards.
The rockets were developed by the Israeli arms industry at the end of the 1980s. They were improved in the early ’90s by adding an in-flight directional adjustment capability. Three Israeli elite Special Forces units are trained in the use of this mini-rocket, roughly the size and weight of a U.S. shoulder-carried anti-air Stinger.
Israel offered to provide support from its Sayeret Matkal unit with improved thermal mini-rockets. The United States preferred to keep Israeli combatants out of the fighting, but asked for an Israeli unit to be sent over to the United States to train Rangers and Delta commandos in the use of the secret weapon, a supply of which had already been delivered to the United States.
Pakistan’s ISI tipped off the Americans Oct. 14 that the three targeted leaders had reached Kandahar the night before and were staying in the villa district at the northern end of the town.
Two days later, the U.S. Special Forces unit was dropped in the city.
Washington, meanwhile, changed its mind and asked Israel to send over a Sayeret Matkal unit as a strategic reserve force. The plan was for Israeli air force warplanes to hover over Kandahar with the unit aboard and bring them to land if needed to help the special U.S. force.
On Oct. 16, the Americans received information from Pakistan that the war council was scheduled to open at 11 p.m. that night with a speech by the Taliban leader Omar. According to the same source, bin Laden and al-Zawahiri had decided to minimize the risk to themselves from an American strike by parting company and appearing singly and at random times at the war council.
The Israeli planes took off, accompanied by refueling craft. By the time they arrived in Afghanistan, the Americans had discovered the information fed them by the ISI was deceptive. Bin Laden had pulled a fast one after his intelligence discovered the American plan of action. As a result, the Taliban war council met at a different venue from the one released beforehand and none of the three targets attended. It later was learned that the trio was absent from the city Oct. 16.
Meanwhile, Washington was informed that its Special Forces unit had no idea where the war council was meeting. There were also worrying reports that Taliban combat units were scouring the town for the American troops. The operation was called off, and the U.S. and Israeli commandos pulled out.
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