2000, however, Mullah Omar visited bin Laden and forbade him from attacking the United States while he was a guest of the Taliban. During the 1990s the CIA and Delta Force planned several operations to kill or capture bin Laden, but President Bill Clinton never ordered them to proceed. Change in US policy toward Afghanistan During the early years of the Clinton administration, the US had no clear policy toward Afghanistan. The 1998 US embassy bombings, however, masterminded by al-Qaeda, provoked President Clinton to order missile strikes on militant training camps in Afghanistan; bin Laden was indicted for his involvement in the bombings. In 1999 both the US and the United Nations enacted sanctions against the Taliban in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267, which demanded the Taliban surrender bin Laden for trial in the US and close all terrorist bases in Afghanistan. At the time, the only collaboration between Massoud and the US was an effort with the CIA to trace bin Laden. The US provided no support for Massoud's fight against the Taliban. A change in US policy was effected in early September 2001. The Bush administration agreed on a plan to start supporting Massoud. A September 10 meeting of top national security officials agreed that the Taliban would be presented with an ultimatum to hand over bin Laden and other al-Qaeda operatives. If the Taliban refused, the US would provide covert military aid to anti-Taliban groups to attempt to overthrow the Taliban. Military situation on the eve of 9/11 On September 9, 2001, two al-Qaeda members posing as journalists killed Massoud by detonating a bomb hidden in their video camera during an interview. The assassination was a gift from bin Laden to the Taliban and left them poised to achieve total control over Afghanistan. Mohammed Fahim became the new leader of the Northern Alliance. The Alliance had 15,000–20,000 fighters distributed across five locations. On the Kabul front, Taliban and Northern Alliance forces faced each other from trenches across the Shomali Plain. The Takhar front extended from the Tajikistan border in the north to Parwan in the south, near Kabul. Dostum's forces were located south of Mazar-i-Sharif, the Hazaras under Muhammad Mohaqiq were in the central Hazarajat region, and Ismail Khan was near Herat. The Taliban's military commander in the north was Mohammad Fazl. The Taliban military comprised approximately 45,000 Afghans and 2,700 foreign fighters, which included al-Qaeda's