Afghan fighters say they have seen Osama bin Laden rallying with some of his al-Qaeda troops during the battle that raged in Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan. The Tora Bora cave complex came under attack by mujahideen forces yesterday, with US bombers supporting the attack from the air.
According to the mujahideen, the world's most wanted man was sighted within the past 48 hours. He was allegedly travelling on horseback with some of his loyal fighters.
The mujahideen have put out their news at a moment when they are eager for maximum western military support: they are encountering heavy resistance as they try to push into the cave complex where hardcore bin Laden forces - most thought to be Arab - are entrenched in the mountains south of Jalalabad.
Dozens of Japanese pickup trucks drove hundreds of mujahideen well past their tank positions and up to mountain ridges just hundreds of metres from well-armed Arab fighters loyal to bin Laden.
Cmdr Haji Mohammed Zaman, a Pashtun who returned from four years' exile in France to take over as the anti-Taliban military chief in Jalalabad, admitted that his forces were making slow progress.
"It is not easy. We need to see how the fighting is before we can make any plan for an attack," Cmdr Zaman said shortly before he drove to the front. His forces are expected to mount a larger attack today.
On Thursday, the mujahideen drove through abandoned gun positions and captured two caves at the foot of the Tora Bora complex deep in the White mountains by the Pakistan border.
But yesterday it was unclear if they still held the position. Driving forward jubilantly on a twisting road through the scrubland, they found themselves under mortar fire from Arab fighters trying to cut them off.
Bin Laden himself regularly used Tora Bora as a base and was seen there last week, according to one of the Pashtun commanders leading the attack.
"My soldiers said Osama bin Laden was seen yesterday along with four guards riding on horseback," he said.
"He was returning back to Malewa after visiting the men on the frontlines." Malewa is one of the valleys at Tora Bora which has been targeted by American bombing and the mujahideen.
Another leading commander, Haji Musa, said that Arab fighters had fled from the lower caves of Tora Bora to climb into the mountains to shelter in higher caves with their families.
"There are many Arab women and children. They are in the upper caves with the men," he said.
Cmdr Musa said one of Bin Laden's sons was with them in the caves.
"We don't have any confirmed information about Osama bin Laden, but his son is still in the caves." American B-52 bombers and fighter jets circled in the clear blue sky overhead yesterday raining bombs on the Arab positions in the wooded ridge lines.
Billowing dark clouds of smoke rose from the hilltops every few minutes. At one point a B-52 fired a flare, apparently to counter the threat of Stinger missiles.
US special forces troops disguised themselves with blankets as they were driven discreetly to the frontline with the mujahideen soldiers from where they are believed to be co-ordinating air strikes. The mujahideen soldiers are young men who appear to have little experience of fighting. Most are armed either with an aging Kalashnikov rifle and two magazines of ammunition or a rocket propelled grenade slung over their shoulder as they race to the front.