This is the inside story of the first, thwarted mission to find and kill the most wanted man in the world — an operation of such magnitude that it couldn’t be handled by just any military or intelligence force. The best America had to offer was needed. As such, the task was handed to roughly forty members of America’s supersecret counterterrorist unit formerly known as 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta; more popularly, the elite and mysterious unit Delta Force.

Delta’s orders were to go into harm’s way and prove to the world that Osama bin Laden had been terminated. These Delta warriors had help: a dozen of the British Queen’s elite commandos, another dozen or so Army Green Berets, and six intelligence operatives from the CIA who laid the groundwork by providing cash, guns, bullets, intelligence, and interrogation skills to this clandestine military force. Together, this team waged a modern siege of epic proportions against bin Laden and his seemingly impenetrable cave sanctuary burrowed deep inside the Spin Ghar Mountain range in eastern Afghanistan.

Over the years, since the battle ended, scores of news stories have surfaced offering tidbits of information about what actually happened at Tora Bora. Most of it is conjecture and speculation.

This is the real story of that operation, the first eyewitness account of the Battle of Tora Bora. It details just how close Delta Force came to capturing bin Laden the first time around, how close US bombers and fighter aircraft came to killing him, and exactly why he slipped through the US’s fingers. Lastly, this is an extremely rare account of the shadowy world of Delta Force, and a detailed account of these warriors in battle.

This latest edition has been released with a new introduction written by the author, dealing with bin Laden’s killing by SEAL Team Six on 2 May 2011.