In 2002 a U.S. Navy SEAL operation into Chalus was planned and then rehearsed somewhere along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

CNN: Strange bedfellows -- Iran and al Qaeda

Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence learned that some al Qaeda operatives were living in the northern Iranian town of Chalus, on the Caspian Sea.

CNN: Strange bedfellows -- Iran and al Qaeda

He was killed not far from here, during the siege of Chalus.

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The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Richard Myers, called off the assault because the information about where precisely the al Qaeda members were living in Chalus was not clear.

CNN: Strange bedfellows -- Iran and al Qaeda