Rare photos offer look inside Osama bin Laden's Afghan hideout

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Rare photos offer look inside Osama bin Laden's Afghan hideout

Updated 1304 GMT (2104 HKT) March 12, 2015

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Osama bin Laden holds a Kalashnikov rifle in Tora Bora, a mountainous area of Afghanistan, in November 1996. This remarkable set of photos -- the first showing bin Laden in the remote hideout where he would seek refuge after 9/11 -- came to light only last month in the terrorism conspiracy trial of bin Laden lieutenant Khaled al-Fawwaz. Al-Fawwaz was a communications conduit for al Qaeda in London during the mid-1990s. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

Bin Laden first went to Afghanistan in the 1980s to participate in the war against the Soviet Union. He co-founded al Qaeda with fighters from that conflict. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

Bin Laden is seen inside his Tora Bora hideout, about to record an address. Starting in 1996, when he issued his first fatwa, or religious decree, to kill Americans, bin Laden began granting interviews to reporters to publicize his grievances against the United States and its allies. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

When issuing pronouncements, bin Laden often sat in front of shelves of Islamic books to convey an intellectual image. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

Bin Laden sits in front of his bookshelves inside his Tora Bora hideout. His three wives and more than a dozen children struggled with the sparse amenities. The only heat came from a wood-burning stove. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

Bin Laden, a Saudi exile, took al Qaeda to Sudan for four years in the 1990s before returning to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan in 1996. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

At Tora Bora, bin Laden was surrounded by bodyguards, loyal followers and family members. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

In May 1996, bin Laden settled in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad. His mountain fortress in Tora Bora was a long drive up a dirt road he had built. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

In 1998, less than two years after this photo was taken, bin Laden followers bombed U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people and injuring around 4,000. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

The journey from Jalalabad to Tora Bora was a perilous and bumpy ride past armed checkpoints. In al Qaeda's vehicle of choice -- a Toyota pickup truck -- it was a three-hour trip. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

The exterior of bin Laden's hideaway was made of mud and stone. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

A secret passageway is seen at Tora Bora. Bin Laden told his sons that they must know their way out of the mountains in case of war. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

A young man stands outside the house. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

In Tora Bora, the living conditions were medieval. The only light at night was from the moon and gas lanterns. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

Bin Laden had a two-bedroom house at Tora Bora. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

Hunger was a frequent companion to the bin Laden children, who lived on a diet of rice, bread, eggs and salty cheese. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

In addition to bin Laden's wives and children, dozens of al Qaeda fighters also spent time with bin Laden in the mountainous retreat. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

Bin Laden laughs during a walk. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

Abdel Barri Atwan, a Palestinian journalist whose 1996 journey to Afghanistan yielded these photos, said bin Laden told him he hated Americans and American policies and troop deployments in the Middle East. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

The Tora Bora settlement and cave complex was above the snow line in winter. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

Bin Laden discovered Tora Bora during the anti-Soviet war in the 1980s. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

A view of the lake outside Tora Bora. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

Syrian-born ideologue Abu Musab al-Suri was an ally in jihad with bin Laden who once ran training camps inside Afghanistan. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

From left, inside bin Laden's cave, are al-Suri, bin Laden and British documentary maker Gwynne Roberts. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

Al-Suri was a bin Laden supporter in the 1990s who later became a critic of al Qaeda's hierarchical and bureaucratic structure. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

Al-Suri advocated a "leaderless jihad" with "spontaneous operations" performed by unconnected individuals and cells all over the world. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

Al-Suri, seen here taking photos, published "The Call for Global Islamic Resistance" on the Internet in 2004, saying there need not be any organizational bonds between "resistance fighters." U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

More than 200 al Qaeda fighters were killed in the December 2001 battle of Tora Bora, and more than 50 were captured. Bin Laden and deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri escaped. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

Al-Suri, left, with Atwan. Atwan was the founding editor of Al-Quds Al-Arabi, an independent Arabic weekly published in London that had been critical of certain Arab regimes and the 1991 Persian Gulf War. He nabbed the first interview in Afghanistan with bin Laden on this 1996 trip. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

Bin Laden took journalist Atwan on a two-hour hike around Tora Bora. "He loved that nature there. He loved the mountain. They were trying to have their own community, grow their foods," Atwan recalled. Al-Suri was arrested in Pakistan in 2005 and sent to Syria, where he was imprisoned. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York

Bin Laden hikes alone at the base of a mountain. As U.S. troops closed in on Tora Bora in late 2001, bin Laden escaped. A decade later, U.S. Navy SEALs killed him at his next hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. U.S. Attorney's Office/Southern District Of New York