Afghanistan: American attack in August 1998 on "Jaura Camp" in the Tanay area of Khost Province and its effect on the Jaura Camp jail

No reference to a "Jaura Camp" could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate. Furthermore, no reference to a jail existing at any of the camps in Khost Province, Afghanistan that were attacked by the Americans in August 1998, could be found in the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

Please note that although there is no reference to a "Jaura" in the sources consulted by the Research Directorate, there are a number of references to different camps that were reported to have been hit during the August 1998 American bombings of "terrorist" camps in Afghanistan. Some of the camps are identified as being  under the control of Osama Bin Laden, while others are identified as under the control of Pakistani nationals. There are differing accounts of the names of the camps and the damages inflicted during the attacks.

In a press conference just after the bombings, U.S. Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen and General Henry H. Shelton, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided some details of the American attack on camps in Khost Province that they identified as all under the control of Bin Laden (20 Aug. 1998). Six different camps comprised one "complex" and included the Zhawar Kili Al-Badr base camp, the Zhawar Kili support complex and four separate training camps. According to General Shelton:

The base camp is the main headquarters facility for the complex and it includes storage, housing, training and administration facilities for the complex. It is also the key command and control node. The support camp is the primary logistics area for the complex and includes storage for a large amount of weapons and ammunition. The four primary training camps...are used for training terrorist tactics, indoctrination, weapons, and the use of improvised explosive devices. Within the camp are numerous structures - tent stands, obstacle courses, firing ranges, and burned areas for explosive testing and training.

Secretary Cohen stated that all four training camps were hit and that the attacks "would cause significant damage to disrupt them for some time."

An article by B. Raman, appears on the Website of an Indian group identified as "the South Asia Analysis Group" (SAAG) whose stated objective is "to advance strategic analysis and contribute to the expansion of knowledge of Indian and International security" (3 Nov. 1998). The article provides some information on the different camps that were involved in the attacks as well as damages that were inflicted. Raman identifies two camps called Badr I and Badr II that were run by Bin Laden. He states that there were several other camps as well that were run by Pakistanis and Kashmiris that belonged to a group called the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (formerly Harkatul Ansar), or splinter groups from it. There was a camp known as Salman Farsi, located at Jawah a couple of kilometres from the Pakistani border. He states that the name of this camp changed in 1997 to Hazrat Amir Mawia. Another camp, Khalid Bin Waleed, was located near Zhavar. Near the Darwanta power station and close to Jalalabad, was a camp with an unknown name. In addition, there was a camp at Liza, near Tanai, that was located about 40 kilometres from the Salman Farsi and Khalid Bin Waleed camps, "which in turn are located about 5 to 20 kilometres from the exclusively Arab camps of Bin Laden."

Raman states that the camps "were not sophisticated training facilities, but improvised structures to put up the trainees," with the exception of the ammunition storage dumps which were originally built in the 1980s reportedly with the assistance of the CIA. He says that there are conflicting accounts of the damages suffered at the camps. According to Rahimullah Yusufzai, "a Peshawar-based correspondent of the "News", who was one of the few journalists invited by Bin Laden for the May 26 press conference at Khost and who had visited the site of all the camps after the US bombings" 6 of 25 persons present at the Al Badr complex were killed in the bombings, while two huts and three mosques were destroyed (SAAG 3 Nov. 1998.). Furthermore, at the camps of the the Harkatul Mujahideen, seven or eight huts were destroyed while the ammunition depots escaped damage (ibid.).

In a 26 August 1998 article for The News, Rahimullah Yusufzai reported on statements from Harkatul Mujahidden leader Fazlur Rahman Kahlil, who was reported to have said that "52 missiles were fired at the camps in the Zhavar area and at the Al-Badr and Arab camps," with 13 hitting the Amir Muawiya camp and 10 each hitting the camps at Khalid Bin Waleed and Zhavar. Four mosques were reported as destroyed and one damaged. Khalil also stated that nine of his members were killed and 10 to 15 were still missing. Later, in a 4 September 1998 article for The News, Yusufzai referred to an account by Mulla Jalaluddin Haqqani who helped to set up the original camps in the 1980s. This person stated that the Salman Farsi and Al-Badr (also known as "Arab" and "Abu Jindal") camps received "minimal damage," while admitting that the Khalid bin Waleed and Amir Muawiyya camps suffered some damage.

On 22 August 1998 The News stated that the camps of Bin Laden, Harkatul Ansar (Harkatul Mujahidden) and one of its splinter groups, were all hit in the attacks. At least 7 Harkatul Ansar members were killed and 10 wounded. Many members were away helping the Taleban in its offensive. The splinter group's camp was reported as "almost destroyed," while many of its members "were out on missions." The News also referred to Bin Laden's camp as "also destroyed." Pakistani border officials reported receiving 11 bodies and two dozen badly wounded Pakistanis (ibid.).

AP referred to Yusufzai's reports and said that the "August 20 missile strike mainly destroyed simple mud huts and mosques, killing about a dozen people" (5 Sept. 1998). He was reported to have described the camps as "primitive," without roads and "with little to damage" and that they were "scattered small camps amid five villages that are home to roughly 1,000 people." In an apparent contradiction of the above reports of Arab persons at the Al-Badr camps, Yusufzai was also reported to have "said most damage was at the Al-Bahr camp, which allegedly mainly housed the radical Harakut ul-Ansar group" and that it received about 11 missile hits. According to AP's account of Yusufzai's remarks, a mosque was destroyed at this camp and two mud huts were damaged, while other camps received less damage. AP also reports Yusufzai as saying that in a camp called Zhavara at the border with Pakistan, one hut was destroyed, while "villagers said that three women, and a child and an elderly man were killed."

In other reports, IRNA stated in a 21 August 1998 article that Bin Laden's camp was in the Zhawor valley. According to AFP, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported 15 people killed near the town of Khost (21 Aug. 1998a), a report that was denied by a Taleban spokesman who said no casualties were suffered and that "all the missiles landed on mountains" (ibid. 21 Aug. 1998b). The Washington Post said that at least seven Harkat Ansar members were killed and two dozen wounded (7 Mar. 1999), while the Manchester Guardian Weekly stated that this group was "the main target of the American bombing raid on August 21" (25 Oct. 1998).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Agence France Presse (AFP). 21 August 1998a. Stefan Smith. "Afghanistan: Frenchman Wounded; Foreigners Keep Off Kabul Streets." (FBIS-TOT-98-233 21 Aug. 1998/WNC)

_____. 21 August 1998b."Afghanistan: Taleban: Hundreds of Thousands Protest US Missile Strikes." (FBIS-TOT-98-233 21 Aug. 1998/WNC)

Associated Press (AP). 5 September 1998. Doug Mellgren. "AP Photo ISL 101." (NEXIS)

IRNA [Tehran, in Persian]. 21 August 1998. "Afghanistan: IRNA Cites Afghan Sources on Damage to Bin-Ladin Base." (FBIS-NES-98-233 21 Aug. 1998/WNC)

Manchester Guardian Weekly. 25 October 1998. Oliver Roy. "Fundamentalists Without a Common Cause; Hazy Outline of an Islamist International." (NEXIS)

The News [Islamabad, in English]. 4 September 1998. Rahimullah Yusufzai. "Pakistan: Afghan Camps Damaged by US Strikes Described." (FBIS-NES-98-247 4 Sept. 1998/WNC)

_____. 26 August 1998. Rahimullah Yusufzai. "Pakistan: Leader Reveals Casualties in US Afghan Attack." (FBIS-NES-98-238 26 Aug. 1998/WNC)

_____. 22 August 1998. Kamran Khan. ""Pakistan: Osama's Narrow Escape, Camps Hit Reported." (FBIS-NES-98-234 22 Aug. 1998/WNC)

South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG). 3 November 1998. B. Raman. "US Bombing of Terrorist Camps in Afghanistan: An Analysis." [Internet] [Accessed 26 Feb. 1999]

U.S. Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs). 20 August 1998. "DoD News Briefing." [Internet] [Accessed 17 Mar. 1999]

The Washington Post. 7 March 1999. Kamran Khan and Kenneth J. Cooper. "Muslim Militants Threaten American Lives." (NEXIS)

Additional Sources Consulted

Times Atlas of the World. 1994.

Electronic sources: IRB Databases, LEXIS/NEXIS, Internet, REFWORLD, World News Connection (WNC).