Inside Osama Bin Laden's Tora Bora Hideaway

The late terror leader is seen hiking in the Afghan mountains, posing with a rifle and smiling in the rare images from 1996.Rare images of Osama bin Laden's hideout in the Afghan mountains offer a glimpse of the terror mastermind's life before he was forced to flee.Bin Laden is seen smiling, hiking in the mountains or posing with a rifle in the photos taken in Tora Bora.In two pictures, the late al Qaeda leader is sitting against a backdrop of Islamic books.

 US forces raided Tora Bora after the 9/11 attacks as they searched for bin Laden, hearing his voice on radio several times, but they did not capture him.
At the time it was thought bin Laden was hiding in a cave system in the mountain, filled with weapons and ammunition.He relocated, eventually moving to a secure compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, less than a mile from the country's military academy. Bin Laden is thought to have stayed in one part of the house for up to five years and avoided capture for that time by having no phone or internet connection.

 But he was eventually tracked down to that house and killed in a Navy SEAL raid in May 2011.According to local news reports, the images of him in Tora Bora surfaced as government evidence during a trial in Manhattan of al Qaeda suspect Khaled al Fawwaz.

 They date back to 1996, when bin Laden was roughly 39. They were reportedly taken by Palestinian journalist Abdel Barri Atwan, who was apparently invited to the compound.