KABUL/WASHINGTON, 11 December — As the US scrambled to block escape routes of Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda forces, a warplane for the third time in the Afghan conflict unleashed its most lethal "daisy cutter" bomb, aiming at caves where senior Al-Qaeda leaders, including possibly Bin Laden, were believed to be hiding. Military commander Hazrat Ali claimed Bin Laden’s fighters have been routed from some of their mountain hide-outs and forced to flee to higher positions leaving their dead behind.
"We control all of the Melawa and Tora Bora area, except for one place," Ali told reporters, adding that Al-Qaeda still held the very top of the mountain.
"We have captured all of the Al-Qaeda places with heavy weapons," he said, speaking through an interpreter.
For ordinary Afghans, hopes rose of avoiding more pain from fighting and hunger. Aid flowed in, warlords patched up differences — for now, at least — and outside nations offered to help keep the peace and rebuild the war-ravaged country.
The austere Taleban faded into history, yielding their last province, and fighting died away — except in the Tora Bora mountains where Bin Laden die-hards were not giving up, despite waves of bombing and a three-pronged ground attack on them.
"Progress is being made in closing the noose around Osama. We haven’t caught him...but we think it’s a question of ‘when’ not ‘if’," said a coalition spokesman.
Tribal fighters met tough resistance. An Afghan ex-general who fought in the area against the Soviets in the 1980s said the defenders could hold out indefinitely unless troops went in.
US officials said they were less sure exactly where Bin Laden was or how quickly his loyal core of fighters would be beaten.
"We certainly don’t have any information that would allow us to assess the situation as close to the end," said a Pentagon spokeswoman. "It’s tough...pretty intense fighting."
A tribal commander said Al-Qaeda forces had been driven out of a complex of caves first set up by anti-Soviet Mujahedeen forces and onto higher ground but had dug out new caves there.
Citing officials, NBC News said US planes — over 80 of which were in action — dropped one of their mightiest bombs on Tora Bora, the 15,000 lb (6,800 kg) daisy cutter that can devastate everything within a 600-yard radius.
US Vice President Dick Cheney said that if Bin Laden were caught alive, he should face a US military court.
The war on Al-Qaeda — suspected by Washington of operating in up to 60 countries — would go on after Bin Laden, he said.
Washington is also keen to track down Taleban supreme leader Mulla Omar, who was last seen in his southern base of Kandahar before his soldiers surrendered the city on Friday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross began collecting bodies from the streets of the city, which was calm after rival warlords had clashed for control there earlier.
US Marines and equipment moved north from their desert base to cut Al-Qaeda escape routes near Kandahar but said they would not enter Afghanistan’s second city.
A source close to the family of prime minister-designate Hamid Karzai said the new Afghan leader would quickly disarm factions in Kandahar once he assumed power on Dec. 22.
There were no reports of fighting in the rest of the country, now controlled by factions from various ethnic groups which have agreed to share power in the interim government.
In a boost for Karzai, powerful northern warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum dropped his hostility and said he would cooperate. Aides said former King Zahir Shah, seen as a unifying figurehead, would probably return home in March to join in reconstruction, ending almost 30 years of exile in Italy.
Cementing a US presence, Marines moved into the US Embassy for the first time since 1989, as Kabul revived a diplomatic quarter that housed only Pakistan under the Taleban.
Further encouraging news came with the opening of aid routes and pledges of peacekeepers from Germany and from Britain, which may lead a international force that could be on site this month.
Uzbekistan reopened a border crossing closed for four years, letting a 15-vehicle aid convoy drive over the Soviet-built Friendship Bridge into northern Afghanistan on Sunday.
US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said in a briefing yesterday two or three senior Al-Qaeda leaders had been captured over the last few days.
Afghanistan’s new Interior Minister Yunus Qanuni said in New Delhi, more than 5,000 foreign fighters were still in Afghanistan despite the rout of the Taleban
The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said anti-Taleban tribal fighters had made some gains after launching a three-pronged attack on Al-Qaeda forces in the cave-riddled Tora Bora region of eastern Afghanistan. AIP said 14 civilians were reportedly killed when US warplanes bombed a convoy of vehicles in eastern Afghanistan.
The attack took place over the weekend near Sharana, capital of Paktika province, and the dead included four women and five children. Another 10 people were killed in a subsequent attack on Moshkhel village near Sharana, the Pakistan-based news agency said. Meanwhile, 28 Al-Qaeda members were arrested after sneaking into Pakistan.
