Senior Afghan mujahideen commanders in the mountains of Tora Bora accused the US military last night of scuppering a surrender agreement with cornered al-Qaeda fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden.
Mujahideen troops on the ground reported yesterday seeing dozens of armed American and British special forces, some dressed in Afghan clothes and woollen caps, climbing up the mountains towards al-Qaeda positions.
Mujahideen troops had stormed through the main gun positions and command centres of the mainly Arab fighters in Tora Bora on Tuesday.
After hours of heavy artillery fire several hundred Arab fighters fled to a desolate canyon high up in the peaks and mujahideen commanders negotiated a ceasefire.
Under a surrender deal small groups of up to 40 al-Qaeda soldiers at a time were due to descend from the canyon in the heart of the White Mountains yesterday morning and hand over their weapons.
But on Tuesday night AC-130 gunships working with unmanned Predator surveillance aircraft attacked al-Qaeda positions high in the mountains with heavy-calibre guns. The AC-130s are equipped with 40mm cannon, 105mm howitzers and 25mm Gatling guns.
For several minutes before the 8 a.m. surrender deadline a lone B-52 bomber traced circles in the clear blue sky above Tora Bora before beginning a series of devastating raids. Throughout the day jets dropped heavy bombs high in the desolate valleys behind.
For two weeks the air attacks have been co-ordinated with mujahideen ground assaults. But yesterday the co-ordination apparently broke down.
"Today the bombs are falling without our permission," said Haji Ayub, a senior soldier working under Hazarat Ali, one of three Pashtun commanders who led Tuesday's attack on Tora Bora.
He said a delegation of tribal elders was negotiating terms with al-Qaeda leaders and had yet to return.
Al-Qaeda fighters wanted diplomats from their states as well as UN officials to be present for the surrender, according to the Afghan Islamic Press, a Pakistani news agency which had close links to the former Taliban regime.
The agency said that about 1,000 fighters were in the mountains.
They came from Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Yemen, Iraq, and Chechnya.
Kalan Mir, the brother of Commander Ali, said his forces had repulsed a counterattack by al-Qaeda overnight.
The ceasefire was arranged by one of the three main commanders, Mohammed Zaman, and agreed by the other two men, but the talks were upset by US involvement, he added.
"American interference had a bad effect," said Commander Mir. "The Americans made demands. Everyone has their own agenda.
"I doubt there is any possibility of them [al-Qaeda] surrendering now because they are scared. They don't trust us anymore.
"They are scared because of the way many Arab prisoners have been killed by the Northern Alliance."
Hundreds of Arab fighters held by the Uzbek warlord Gen Abdul Rashid Dostam near his fort in Mazar-e-Sharif died in an uprising contained only after heavy US bombing.
"If we capture any Arabs we will hand them to the United Nations," Commander Mir said. "If the United Nations is not in a position to take them, we will hand them to the Americans."