Trail of the world's most wanted man grows cold

As Taliban defences around Kabul crumbled under the fury of American bombs, the man responsible for it all - Osama bin Laden - was far away in the safety of this mountain fortress.

Then, by the time the Americans zeroed in on Tora Bora in December, unleashing 15,000 pound bombs on the caves and tunnels, bin Laden was gone, according to his former driver, a Taliban regional security officer and the former chief of Taliban forces here in eastern Afghanistan.