KABUL/WASHINGTON, 13 December — Osama Bin Laden’s Arab Afghan fighters, holed out in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, yesterday decided to fight on after failing to extract a promise from forces surrounding them that their surrender will be supervised by UN representatives and diplomats from their respective countries. US warplanes resumed pounding them after they failed to surrender by an 8:00 a.m. (0330 GMT) deadline.
Ahmed Fawzi, spokesman for UN special envoy to Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi, said the United Nations had no personnel in the area and had received no request to play a part in any such deal. “If we do receive a request, it would be appropriately considered,” he said, but added that he could not recall a precedent for any such arrangement.
Just 50 minutes after the deadline had passed, a B-52 bomber carried out the first of a series of raids on the White Mountain range which takes in the Tora Bora Mountain and its complex of caves and tunnels.
“We are preparing for war as the talks have failed. The Al-Qaeda fighters firmly refused to surrender before the Nangarhar provincial administration,” said Amin, spokesman for local militia commander Hazrat Ali. “Because they are not laying down their arms our forces are now preparing to launch a ground attack, probably early tomorrow morning.” Witnesses said Western Special Forces were also in the region.
At least two helicopters landed late yesterday near the scene of fighting in what could be the start of a raid against Al-Qaeda fighters. The helicopters landed hours after the Al-Qaeda fighters rejected the surrender deadline.
Amin said the Al-Qaeda force numbered around 1,000 Arabs and other foreigners. They have already been battered for 10 days by air and ground assaults, including an attack by one of the most powerful conventional bombs.
US coalition spokesman in Islamabad, Kenton Keith, said there was no question of anything short of an unconditional surrender. “The Al-Qaeda is in no position to decide its surrender conditions,” he said. “Their option is to surrender to the forces they are facing.”
A US government official said Tuesday that US intelligence services believed they had detected Bin Laden and members of his inner circle among the fighters in the Tora Bora region.
Some members of Bin Laden’s network have probably slipped out of their stronghold and into Pakistan. However, Keith said Washington was confident the bulk of Al-Qaeda forces would never escape the valley. “We have a feeling that some have actually made it through to Pakistan,” he said. “I won’t say what has happened to them afterward but I will say this is a very minute percentage of people,” he said at the Islamabad briefing.
Pakistan has stepped up its security along the 2,500 km (1,500 mile) border to prevent crossings, but it runs through wild mountain terrain populated by Pashtun tribesmen, many of whom sympathize with the Taleban. “It would be very difficult for the Al-Qaeda or other forces to actually get out as a body,” Keith said.
The United States has hurled some of its biggest bombs at the caves in recent weeks, including the largest conventional bomb in the US arsenal — a 7.5-ton (15,000-pound) “daisy cutter” — which was dropped on a cave on Sunday. The US television network ABC News reported that in addition to causing mass destruction, the blast had sparked a series of panicked radio and satellite calls among Al-Qaeda members. Those communications provided confirmation that Bin Laden and his entourage remain in the region, the network said.
A US Air Force B-1 bomber involved in the campaign crashed in the Indian Ocean and preliminary indications were that all four crew members were rescued, defense officials said. The officials said that at least one US helicopter picked up the crew from the water at the site about 50 km (30 miles) north of the island of Diego Garcia. The officials said there was no evidence the four-engine bomber crashed as a result of hostile fire.
Following the end of the Taleban’s rule, Afghanistan’s new interim leader Hamid Karzai had been expected yesterday in Kabul. But though officials were seen waiting at the airport, Karzai’s arrival from the southern city of Kandahar was not confirmed.
Thirteen wounded Arab fighters admitted to a Kandahar hospital before the surrender of the Taleban are holed up in a ward armed with grenades and other explosives, medical staff said. The Arabs, who were injured in the battle for control of Kandahar airport last week, are being treated in the city’s Chinese-built Mirwais Hospital.
The staff said US troops had surveyed the area around the ward but had expressed fears that any attempt to disarm them could cause widespread casualties. The Arabs are held in a wing of the hospital away from other patients and are keeping their door bolted and windows covered in white sheets, they said.
Meanwhile, the Kingdom’s ambassador to Pakistan, Ali Aseeri, said there was no confirmation of Saudi deaths in the ongoing strikes in Afghanistan. He said the embassy also had not received any information about Ibrahim ibn Naser Al-Raeida, an Al-Qaeda man who was said to be carrying a Saudi passport and reported killed during the Kandahar bombing.
Aseeri said in a telephone interview that he was skeptical about the authenticity of reports saying some of the fighters were carrying Saudi passports. The embassy is also trying to find out if there were any Saudi families among those abandoned at the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Outgoing President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who has opposed parts of the deal which brought Karzai to power, promised o support the interim government that will take power on Dec. 22. “I fully support Mr. Karzai and I will cooperate (with the new interim authority),” Rabbani said.
But the disgruntled Afghan leader said that foreign powers had imposed the new interim government. “We hope this will be the last time that foreign countries interfere in Afghanistan’s affairs,” he told a news conference.
In Sydney, Australian officials said a 26-year-old Australian trained in guerrilla warfare by Al-Qaeda has been captured fighting with the Taleban in Afghanistan. The 26-year-old, named by news reports as David Hicks from Adelaide, was captured by Northern Alliance troops in Afghanistan on or around Dec. 9, the federal government said. Attorney General Daryl Williams said Canberra had been advised the man was in good health, but would not disclose where he was being detained and said his identity was being withheld to protect his family from attacks.
In Washington, President George W. Bush signed relief legislation he vowed would be a first step in rebuilding Afghanistan. “America and our allies will do our part in rebuilding Afghanistan. We learned our lessons from the past. We will not leave until the mission is complete,” Bush said in signing the Afghan Women and Children Relief Act.
