>> he started doing his own battle. my father doesn't want them to work separately and that's what bin laden did in 1987. >> reporter: their first test was the battle of jaji in 1987. hutafah azzam fought alongside bin laden. futayfah was suffering from low blood pressure in the thin, mountain air. >> it was a very, very hard battle. and he joined the battle for more than four days. >> reporter: the russians fell back. jaji was the first victory for bin laden's arab army. >> it was not a particularly significant moment in the afghan war. but from a psychological point of view, it was really the beginning of sort of bin laden's almost mythic persona, because a group of arabs had held off the soviets. it got a lot of play in the middle east. >> reporter: the once reticent and terrified bin laden was now