The last major pocket of al-Qaeda resistance in Afghanistan appeared to be crumbling today as groups of fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden were captured or fled and others debated over two-way radios whether to surrender.
The fighters, believed to number up to 1,000, have been under relentless attack for weeks by US warplanes and tribal forces of the eastern alliance, aided by US special forces in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan's Tora Bora region.
On radio frequencies of the eastern alliance, one fighter said 60 Chechens had fled, leaving behind six wounded and many dead.
Of the wounded, he asked his commander, Hazrat Ali: "What do you want us to do with them?" Ali said they should be held while he sent in reinforcements.
"Don't give them time! They're taking advantage of time," an eastern alliance commander said over the radio.
Top commander Haji Zahir said al-Qaeda leaders told him they were ready to surrender, and were holding talks with the eastern alliance on how to do it in an orderly fashion. But after two surrender agreements fell through this week, Zahir remained sceptical.
"We won't accept conditions at all. We just want them to surrender. I told my forces to hold their positions, because I don't believe them," he said. "Our first and last condition is that they surrender."
Some al-Qaeda fighters could be heard debating a surrender over two-way radios. Alliance commander Mohammed Khan said a group of Arabs wanted to surrender, but another group of Chechen fighters was trying to persuade them not to do so.
Earlier, two emissaries approached the front line to announce 300 men wanted to give up, but the men never emerged, said fighter Said Mohammed Pawhalan.
While some al-Qaeda fighters tried to surrender, others fled. Khan said three captured Arabs told him 50 al-Qaeda leaders left on mules early today bound for the Pakistani border, only a few miles away.
"They are commanders, but not the top commanders. They are escaping one by one or two by two," he said.
Pakistan has sent troops and helicopters to seal the border.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking to reporters en route to Central Asia, said a group of 50 al-Qaeda fighters had surrendered, and that the rest were running out of escape routes. It was not clear whether they were the same group Khan mentioned.
General Tommy Franks, the US commander of the war, said he would not know until at least today how many al-Qaeda prisoners had been taken or whether any were senior leaders of bin Laden's terrorist network. He said they would be screened by US forces.
A US military official in southern Afghanistan said he anticipated up to 300 prisoners from the Tora Bora area, and that US Marines were building a prisoner-of-war camp at Kandahar International Airport.
"A primary focus is to receive prisoners from Tora Bora and build a site for them," said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It is our interest and the interest of the Western world to capture as many as possible."
The Marines said they would transfer the bulk of their forces from Camp Rhino, a desert airstrip, to the airport, which they seized on Friday in their largest mobilization in Afghanistan.
US airstrikes continued around Tora Bora, including on mountain ridges where bombs had not previously fallen. That could indicate the Americans were attacking fleeing fighters.
Eastern alliance forces battled close to the mouth of a cave which hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters were defending, and which Ali said was bin Laden's personal lair. Radio traffic indicated machine-gun fire was coming from the cave. B-52 bombers and fighter jets continued to pound the area.
"I don't know, but I think there is a place inside where Osama is," Ali said.
In addition to the al-Qaeda near the cave, up to 600 others were believed to be cornered in an eight-square-mile forest nearby, just miles from the Pakistan border.
"We have made it impossible for bin Laden to enter our country," said Pakistan Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider.
Pakistan has enhanced ground and aerial surveillance, including helicopter gunships. Troops on horses and mules have been seen moving to centuries-old caves to tighten the noose on fleeing fighters.
While bin Laden was the focus of the fierce conflict at Tora Bora, some officials say he is more likely holed up in another part of Afghanistan, nearer Kandahar in the south, or even may have left the country.
AP