US missed chance to kill bin Laden: report
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Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden speaks at a news conference in Afghanistan on May 26, 1998.
Kim Landers and Emma Alberici
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A new United States Government report has again highlighted how the country missed a chance to capture or kill Osama bin Laden in late 2001.
The report from the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee states bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of American troops in the mountains of Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan in December 2001.
But it says US military and political leaders made the costly decision not to pursue the Al Qaeda leader with massive force, and he escaped.
The report states: "The failure to finish the job represents a lost opportunity that forever altered the course of the conflict in Afghanistan."
The document has been released just days before President Barack Obama announces whether he will send more troops to Afghanistan.
British PM
Meanwhile British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called on Pakistan to do more to fight Al Qaeda, and find and kill Osama Bin Laden.
Gordon Brown says he will be talking to the military and political leadership in Pakistan in the coming days.
Mr Brown says he will impress upon them that he wants to see more progress in taking out bin Laden.
"We've got to ask ourselves why, eight years after September the 11th, nobody has been able to spot or detain or get close to Osama bin Laden, nobody's been able to get close to Zawahiri, the number two in Al Qaeda," Mr Brown said.
The Prime Minister also says Britain is prepared to help rebuild the education system in Pakistan, where he says Islamic schools have been supporting extremist action.
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