Even after two years, Massood Khalili recalls the “frozen” grins of the two assassins — posing as journalists — as they prepared their explosive-laden camera to interview Ahmed Shah Massood, the head of the northern alliance and the Taliban government’s No. 1 enemy. It was Sept. 9, 2001, two days before the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and what many believe was the prelude to the al-Qaida strike that was about to be fired halfway around the world. The fake reporters asked Massood their first question and Khalili, Massood’s close friend and the northern alliance’s ambassador to India, leaned forward to translate. “I didn’t even manage to utter the first word. … I saw this huge white and blue ball of fire engulfing us,” Khalili recalled this week in an interview with The Associated Press at his Kabul home. In a split second, the explosives went off, mortally wounding Massood and crippling Khalili. The assassins also died. Full Story
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