September 11 'catapulted bin Laden to evil mastermind'

Within hours of hijacked jet liners slamming into the twin towers and the Pentagon, Osama bin Laden was the world’s most wanted man.

The Saudi-born terror chief was already wanted in connection with the US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen.

But September 11, 2001, catapulted him from obscure terrorist to evil mastermind in the eyes of the western world.

Shortly after the worst ever terror attack on American soil, President George Bush declared a “war on terror” and vowed to smoke out the attackers.

He said they were wanted “dead or alive”.

But since then bin Laden has played a game of cat and mouse with US forces - first evading them during the bombing of Afghanistan and then going on the run in the mountainous border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It was in December 2001 when bin Laden is thought to have slipped out of Tora Bora in Afghanistan, in the dying days of the Taliban regime.

Since then all the outside world has seen of the terror leader comes from video tapes, urging his supporters to continue the fight on the infidels of the west.

America put a 25million price on his head and dropped leaflets over Afghanistan telling people of the reward.

Intelligence officials and experts believe that since his escape from Afghanistan, bin Laden has been constantly on the move.

He is likely to communicate through messages via courier. Satellite and mobile phones are ruled out because he would be instantly spotted by US spy planes or satellites and targeted.

He is likely to be hiding in remote border villages.

For months the trail went cold. President Bush went for many weeks without uttering the terror leader’s name in public.

Intelligence was poor. America had few Arabic-speaking agents. Years of tribal infighting meant false information was often given to US spies as a way of settling old scores.

US special forces and intelligence was focused on the Iraq war anyway, and president Bush came in for criticism for taking his eye off bin Laden – who was, after all, the reason why the “war on terror” had been launched.

After Baghdad fell and Saddam was captured, the bid to catch bin Laden appeared to gather pace once more.

A joint CIA-military commando unit called Task Force 121 was sent to Afghanistan with a new mission to catch bin Laden.

Pakistan – which has pledged to work alongside America to capture bin Laden, whatever the consequences for President Pervez Musharraf – also dispatched special forces troops to find bin Laden.

In recent months they appear to have been closing in on their target.

Fortified villages were recently found on the Afghanistan side of the border, leading troops to believe bin Laden was about to flee back to Afghanistan.

Then there were reports that Pakistani troops had narrowly missed a chance to apprehend him.

Battles were fought with cells of al-Qaida and Taliban fighters, with losses on both sides.

Meanwhile, the US decided to launch a “spring offensive”, with enhanced special forces and surveillance to find bin Laden.

And now, with his second in command Ayman al-Zawahri apparently surrounded and coming under heavy attack by Pakistani troops, many will ask how long it will be before bin Laden is taken dead or alive.