The Darunta training camp ''(also transliterated as Derunta)'' was one of the most well-known of many military training camps that have been alleged to have been affiliated with

al Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

Training with poisons

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

published a story in which they claimed to have acquired videotapes showing al Qaeda experiments poisoning dogs with

chemical weapon A chemical weapon (CW) is a specialized munition that uses chemicals formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be any chemical compound intended as ...

s, at Darunta.Disturbing scenes of death show capability with chemical gas
, ''

'', August 19, 2002

Location

The camp is reported to have been near

Jalalabad Jalalabad (; Help:IPA/Persian, ͡ʒä.lɑː.lɑː.bɑːd̪ is the list of cities in Afghanistan, fifth-largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 200,331, and serves as the capital of Nangarhar Province in the eastern part ...

. According to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', it was 15 miles from

, just north of the village of Darunta across the dam.Al-Qaeda's trail of terror
''

'', November 18, 2001 According to a paper by Hekmat Karzai, published by the Pentagon the camp was really a complex of four camps, eight miles from Jalalabad. Karzai wrote that the four camps were: The

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

provided intelligence, pinpointing

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden (10 March 19572 May 2011) was a militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, Bin Laden participated in the Afghan ''mujahideen'' against the Soviet Union, and support ...

's presence, that enabled

Northern Alliance The Northern Alliance ( ''Da Šumāl E'tilāf'' or ''Ettehād Šumāl''), officially known as the United National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan ( ''Jabha-ye Muttahid-e barāye Afğānistān''), was a military alliance of groups that op ...

allies to bombard him in at the Darunta camp in 1999.Flawed Ally Was Hunt's Best Hope: Afghan Guerrilla, U.S. Shared Enemy
''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', February 23, 2004 The documents from some Guantanamo captives, such as Abbas Habid Rumi Al Naely, state that the Khalden training camp was also located in Darunta.Summary of Evidence memo (.pdf)
prepared for Abbas Habid Rumi Al Naely's ''

Combatant Status Review Tribunal The Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as " enemy combatants". The CSRTs were establi ...

'' - October 25, 2004 - page 65

Administration

Some sources claim the director of the camp was

Midhat Mursi Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar (), also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri (; 29 April 1953 in Egypt – 28 July 2008 in Pakistan) was a chemist and alleged top bomb maker for al-Qaeda and part of Osama bin Laden's inner circle. The United States had a $5 m ...

.WANTED: Midhat Mursi al-Sayid 'Umar - Up to $5 Million Reward
. '' Rewards for Justice''

Dispute over whether Darunta was an al Qaeda camp

During his

Administrative Review Board The Administrative Review Board is a United States military body that conducts an annual review of the detainees held by the United States in Camp Delta at the United States Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The purpose o ...

Abdul Bin Mohammed Bin Abess Ourgy acknowledged attending the Darunta camp, but he disputed that it was affiliated with al-Qaeda. Summarized transcripts (.pdf) from Abdul Bin Mohammed Bin Abess Ourgy's ''

'' - pages 34-42 Factors for and against the continued detention (.pdf)of Abdul Bin Mohammed Bin Abess Ourgy ''

'', May 2, 2005 - page 48 He asserted that the Derunta camp was a non-al Qaeda camp, that dated back to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, that it was originally run by the Hezbi Islami, and that after his attendance there the Derunta camp was one of the many non-al Qaeda camps that the Taliban shut down at al Qaeda's request. Other Guantanamo captives have reported that the similarly well-known Khalden training camp was not an al-Qaeda camp, and was shut down in 2000, at

's request.

Alleged attendees

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Darunta Training Camp History of Nangarhar Province Al-Qaeda facilities