CIA’s Bin Laden Files Shed New Light on Qaeda-Iran Ties Iranian border guards stood watch in 2001 near Zahedan, an Iranian city where many al Qaeda fighters who had been based in Afghanistan had fled after the U.S. toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan Militant group shared a pragmatic alliance that emerged out of shared hatred of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, a newly released document shows. Wall Street Journal, November 2, 2017  - A newly released trove of documents the U.S. found in the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed provides new insights into al Qaeda’s relationship with Iran, suggesting a pragmatic alliance that emerged out of shared hatred of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. After the U.S. toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001, members of al Qaeda, which was based there, scrambled to escape. Most of them crossed the border into Pakistan. But others moved to Iran, an al Qaeda official who appeared to be a senior member of the militant group...