One of the camps bin Laden built, known as Al-Badr, was the target of the American missile strikes against him last summer. Some of their recruits kidnapped and almost certainly killed a group of Western hostages a few years ago. The bases are still full of new volunteers, many Pakistanis. Most of those who were killed in last August's strikes were Pakistani. Muslims from the West as well as from the Middle East and North Africa are regularly stopped by Pakistani police on the road up the Khyber Pass heading for the camps.
Hundreds get through.
Afghan veterans have now joined bin Laden's al-Qaeda group. Al-Zawahiri ran his own operation during the Afghan war, bringing in and training volunteers from the Middle East. Al-Zawahiri has become a close aide of bin Laden and has now returned to Afghanistan to work with him. His al-Jihad group has been linked to the Yemeni kidnappers. One Saudi journalist who interviewed bin Laden in 1989 remembers three of his close associates going under the names of Abu Mohammed, Abu Hafz and Abu Ahmed.