December 14, 2001
Fierce Al Qaeda Defense Seen as a Sign of Terror Leader's Proximity
By JOHN KIFNER with ERIC SCHMITT
ORA BORA, Afghanistan, Dec. 13 — American-backed forces believe that they have surrounded Osama bin Laden and the last of his hard- core fighters in a complex of caves between two valleys just south of here, a senior American military official said tonight.
While American officials say they still do not know Mr. bin Laden's exact location and acknowledge that he could still slip out of the country, commanders are increasingly confident that a growing number of American, British and anti-Taliban Afghan ground forces have hemmed in the leader of Al Qaeda.
Troops are focusing on caves and tunnels in an area between the Agam Valley and the Wazir Valley, a forbidding landscape of snow-dusted peaks and ridges that takes in at least several square miles, another senior official said.
The Pentagon's belief that this may be Mr. bin Laden's hiding place is based in part on the fierceness of the Qaeda defense in the area and reported sightings by troops with Hazarat Ali of the Eastern Shura, which took over from the Taliban there.
The whereabouts of the leader of the collapsed Taliban government, Mullah Muhammad Omar, remains a mystery, although military officials were looking at possible sites in Helmand Province, west of Kandahar, the former Taliban stronghold in the south.
The hunt for Mr. bin Laden has drawn increasing numbers of allied commandos to the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, more than 100 in all, including specialized Army and Navy teams, military officials said.
Concerned that Al Qaeda fighters may be fleeing into neighboring Pakistan, the American military has doubled the number of commandos working alongside anti-Taliban Afghan forces to about 50 in the last few days, officials said. American Special Forces, or Green Berets, have been acting as liaison troops with the fighters of the Eastern Shura for several days.
With attempts to negotiate a surrender failing in the last few days, the fighting and the searching in this desolate mountain terrain intensified.
In response to questions, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today in Washington that the United States had not rejected a proposed surrender agreement for Al Qaeda fighters on Wednesday, but he also said any settlement must be unconditional.
"This is not a drill where we're making deals," he said.
He said he preferred that Al Qaeda fighters give up, to avoid risking American lives and to provide important intelligence information.
"The first choice clearly is surrender," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "It ends it faster. It's less expensive. And we can encourage people to surrender."
"If they surrender, they may come out alive," he continued. "If they don't surrender, they may not. And it's kind of their choice. I, personally, would like to see people surrender. I, personally, would like to see us get our hands on them and be able to interrogate them and find out about the al Qaeda networks all across the globe. These people know things, and I'd like to know those things."
American bombs rained down on the ridges and peaks in Tora Bora throughout Wednesday night and all day today in the heaviest, steadiest barrages yet. One huge bomb on Wednesday night turned the sky magenta, and under a cold, gray sky today, there were steady bursts of smoke between the mountains followed moments later by the boom of the bombs.
Fighting resumed on the ground, marked by mortar and machine-gun fire, as Afghan tribal troops sought to take ground — some of it taken before and lost overnight — from Al Qaeda fighters.
The new commandos include members of the elite counterterrorist units Delta Force and Navy Seals, who are also specially trained to snatch terrorist leaders and conduct hit-and-run raids. On Oct. 20, Delta commandos attacked a house in Kandahar used by Mullah Omar.
Marine snipers, who can drop a target from hundreds of yards away, have also been deployed, military officials said.
Scores of British commandos, from either the Special Air Service or Special Boat Service, as well as Central Intelligence Agency officers, have also infiltrated the region, bringing the number of allied troops fighting with anti-Taliban forces to well over 100, military officials said.
American B-52 and B-1 bombers as well as Navy warplanes continued their bombardment of the cave and tunnel complexes today.
Four to six AC-130 gunships, working in tandem with unmanned Predator drones that relay live video feeds to the gunships, are prowling the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, strafing Al Qaeda forces trying to escape, military officials said.
"This is a pitched fight," said Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "The focus right now is in the Tora Bora area. There are a couple of main valleys there that we're trying to keep people from escaping."
The mission of the American commandos includes calling in airstrikes in two-man teams equipped with laser pointers and acting as advisers to the local fighters.
C.I.A. operatives are here to question prisoners and examine documents, among other tasks. The snipers could be equipped with special rifles firing heavy .50-caliber slugs, which could immobilize or destroy a vehicle.
The commandos have been glimpsed briefly, traveling the dirt roads in large four-wheel-drive vehicles, mostly with blacked-out windows, ducking their faces or wrapping them in the blanket-like shawls that Afghan men drape around their shoulders and heads here.
American officials vetoed an effort by one local commander, Muhammad Zaman, to broker a surrender arrangement, in addition to continuing their bombing during a supposed cease-fire, a senior Afghan official said tonight.
"They asked for surrender conditions, to turn themselves over to the United Nations and only to their own embassies," the governor of Jalalabad, Hajji Kadir, said at a news conference tonight, describing the Qaeda demands.
"On that condition, the Americans are not satisfied," Mr. Kadir said. "The Americans did not agree, and just because of that the fighting is starting again."
In southern Afghanistan, an advance party of American marines moved into the airport at Kandahar, while anti-Taliban forces continued to root out the last pockets of fighters remaining in and around the city.
But the Taliban's leader, Mullah Omar, appeared to have vanished into the mountains north or west of the city. "Omar is missing," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "Where is Omar?"
Mr. Rumsfeld said the United States would soon start offering rewards for information leading to the capture of senior Taliban leaders, including a $10 million bounty on Mullah Omar. This would be in addition to the $25 million in rewards offered for Mr. bin Laden and other top Qaeda leaders.
A senior military officer said the largest rewards would be reserved for a "fairly small" number of Taliban leaders, while a few dozen other lower-level Taliban leaders would yield bounties in the tens of thousands of dollars. The military is working with the Central Intelligence Agency to draw up a most- wanted list, the officer said.