Documents: US strike aided bin Laden-Taliban ties

Washington (AP) Newly declassified documents show a 1998 cruise-missile strike on an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan was meant to kill Osama bin Laden.

The documents released by the State Department say the terror-group leader apparently left shortly before U.S. missiles struck.

The documents suggest the attack cemented an alliance between bin Laden and his Taliban protectors. They detail his evolving relationship with Taliban leader Mullah Omar over four months in 1998 and suggest that Omar came around to bin Laden's goal of the unification of all Muslims under a single Islamic state.

The rest of the documents cover months of unsuccessful U.S.

attempts to persuade the Taliban to expel bin Laden.

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