Report: Bin Laden flees U.S. surveillance with Taliban's help

LONDON — Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden has escaped from his Afghan headquarters to the mountains in the north.

Afghan opposition sources said Bin Laden left his Taliban shelter on Nov. 7 in fear of being targeted by U.S. forces. The sources said U.S. planes had located Bin Laden's base.

"According to reliable sources, Osama and his hundreds of Taliban and Arab bodyguards left the Kandahar city hideout for a another hideout in the northern mountains of Uruzgan province," an opposition weekly news bulletin by the administration of Burhanuddin Rabbani reports.

Bin Laden's new hideout, the Khabarnama newsletter says, was chosen because it is remote and cannot be spotted by U.S. satellites. The opposition said the ruling Taliban faction found the mountain lair and helped Bin Laden and a convoy of 100 vehicles escape to the new base.

The report said Bin Laden has 2,700 troops, anti-aircraft guns and Stinger missiles to protect him. Bin Laden is suspected of being linked to the Oct. 12 bombing of the USS Cole in Aden.

On Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen launched the last Middle East tour of the Clinton administration. The tour was reduced because of the inavailability of Arab leaders who attended the Islamic summit in Doha as well as security concerns.

A senior U.S. defense official said Cohen would not visit Yemen. The official said no new arms sales would be announced during the tour but Cohen would pursue a U.S.-sponsored initiative for regional defense against weapons of mass destruction.