Afghan forces advanced against Osama bin Laden's mainly Arab fighters in eastern mountains today, but met bitter resistance.
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The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said anti-Taliban tribal fighters had made some gains after launching a three-pronged attack on the Saudi-born militant's al Qaeda forces in the cave-riddled Tora Bora region of eastern Afghanistan.
But Arab fighters in the mountains are putting up intense resistance with light arms and artillery, it said.
Hazrat Ali, commanding local forces pursuing al Qaeda in the rugged terrain, told reporters earlier that bin Laden's men, under intense US bombing, had been forced back to new defensive positions on mountain tops between Tora Bora and Waziri Gorge.
"Osama may be there too. He was seen five days ago and an Afghan prisoner whom we have confirmed it too," Ali said by satellite telephone from Tora Bora.
"Osama has set up new caves and an underground protection system on top of these mountains. His people are putting extremely tough resistance," he added.
The United States launched strikes on Afghanistan to flush out bin Laden, its prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, and punish his Taliban protectors.
In the south, a US armoured convoy backed by helicopters moved towards the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar from a desert airstrip near the city.
What you've seen is the moving of Marines and assets up north...closer to Kandahar to block possible avenues and exits, Marine spokesman Captain Stewart Upton told reporters.
One witness reaching the Pakistani border town of Chaman said one US soldier was seen on the roof of the former compound of the Taliban's fugitive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, AIP said.
There was no immediate confirmation.