Tora Bora ceasefire may have been escape plan
Talk of surrender by trapped al-Qaida fighters vanished in a hail of bombs, artillery and gunfire today following claims that key terrorist leaders have fled Osama bin Laden’s besieged mountain base for neighbouring Pakistan.
Heavy snowfall complicated escape attempts and US air strikes alike.
After the second ceasefire in less than 48 hours collapsed and it became clear that surrender negotiations were going nowhere.
Tribal warriors - fighting alongside US and British special operations forces - launched a ferocious attack against al-Qaida positions in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan’s Tora Bora region.
US warplanes provided close air support as Afghan fighters advanced up the Milawa valley, recapturing territory they had given up when the first ceasefire was called on Tuesday. Fiery explosions echoed down the valley, mixed with heavy machine gun and tank fire.
Hazrat Ali, security chief for the Eastern Alliance, denounced al-Qaida’s surrender offer as ‘‘a trick’’ apparently designed to give senior leaders a chance to escape into the wilderness while low-level members surrendered.
’’If they do not send down the 22 leaders (on the US Most Wanted list), we cannot accept their surrender,’’ Ali said. He said he thought about 700 al-Qaida fighters, along with at least some of the leaders, remained in the Tora Bora area.
Ali said he was not sure if bin Laden, mastermind of the September 11 terrorist attacks, was with his men or even in the area.
Several figures of the Eastern Alliance had offered vague, second-hand accounts of seeing bin Laden, but US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz questioned their accuracy.
However, the £17m US bounty on bin Laden was a powerful incentive for the Afghan militias to lay siege to Tora Bora.
Snow fell this afternoon, making the plight of the al-Qaida defenders more desperate and escape over mountain passes more difficult.
’’It seems that nature has also turned against Osama and his friends,’’ said one, Gul Zareen in the Tirah Valley, on the other side of the White Mountains in Pakistan.
Pakistan - a key partner of the US led coalition against war on terrorism - said it has reinforced the border, just a few miles south of the fighting, with helicopters and thousands of soldiers to prevent al-Qaida incursions and a possible escape by bin Laden.
’’We are monitoring the border round the clock,’’ said Aslam Khan, a Pakistani soldier in the area.
Eastern Alliance fighters on the front lines said at least 60 US special forces fighters were with them, calling in air strikes and advising alliance commanders. There were also reports of British special forces operating in the area.
Within seconds of a US jet fighter’s precision bombing of a mountain ridge, an Afghan voice came on the alliance’s radio network, saying: ’’Thank you, thank you, very good, very good.’’ But later in the day, when a US bomb hit near an alliance position, an Afghan commander speaking in Pashtu cried, ‘‘Stop! Stop! Tell the Americans they are hitting near us!’’
