Telegraph

By Philip Sherwell in Tora Bora (Filed: 09/12/2001)

THE besieged fighters of Osama bin Laden are hoping to lure American and British special forces into a bloody ambush beneath their mountain fortress at Tora Bora.

His private army of predominantly Arabic al-Qa'eda warriors have pulled back to their remote complex of caves and bunkers in eastern Afghanistan after non-stop bombardment by US B-52s and an Afghan ground offensive.

They hope that the "infidels" of the SAS and Delta Force units already deployed in the area will attempt to follow them up the mountain to flush them out and capture or kill bin Laden, according to walkie-talkie intercepts. They believe that the pine-clad ridges and crags that surround their mountain stronghold provide excellent ambush terrain.

"They say that they want to fight the infidels in the mountains," a commander with the anti-Taliban mujahideen forces said yesterday. "They know that this is their last stand and they want to take some Americans and British with them. They have told us to step aside because they do not want to fight their fellow Muslims."

Shah Zaman, a mujahideen bodyguard, disclosed that even the al-Qa'eda women are armed. "The wives of the Arabs are in the caves and their husbands have given them guns in case they are killed so that the women can defend themselves," he said.

Al-Qa'eda's ambush plan emerged as the ritual daily airstrikes were played out yesterday against the rugged and beautiful backdrop of the White Mountains, home to the Tora Bora range.

There is no sign, however, that Western units will join the mujahideen in the ground battle for Tora Bora, although last week US and British special forces were seen calling in airstrikes and liaising with tribal commanders.

After a brief morning respite, the aerial bombardment of Tora Bora resumed at midday yesterday. Overhead, the distinctive four-pronged vapour trails of the B-52s cut across the cloudless sky, signalling the latest bombing run.

On the ground, we heard the booms of the 2,000lb bombs first, then came the thick curtains of brown smoke rising above the ridge at Milawa Kili a mile in front of us. A few seconds later, the earth shook beneath our feet: it felt as if a small earthquake had struck the hills.

Within a few minutes, mujahideen soldiers were listening in on their walkie-talkies to frantic Arabic voices radioing for medical help from their comrades. The final phase came when the mountains' defenders replied in kind, raining down mortar shells on the track along which mujahideen forces clutching rocket-propelled grenades were being ferried to the front in trucks.

We had advanced up the same path less than 24 hours earlier when al-Qa'eda forces had launched a counter-offensive. As we scrambled down the rocky slopes in search of shelter, it became apparent that the American pilots were not the only ones with the enemy in their sights as another shell landed barely 300 yards away.

Al-Qa'eda's gunners then turned their attention to one of the mujahideen's Russian T-55 tanks as it rumbled slowly up the precarious mountain track towards the frontline. They missed, but they clearly intend to go down fighting.

Indeed, villagers who had just come down from the mountains said that the Arab-led force was digging its own graves ready for the bloody battle to come. "This is their last stand," said Nangialai, a mujahideen commander. "They are preparing for martyrdom."

His frontline fighters also reported the remarkable development that the Arabs' wives had been issued with Kalashnikovs and grenade launchers and allowed to replace their clumsy all-encompassing burqas with headscarves and baggy trousers, so that they could also join the last-ditch defence of the cave complex. The women were armed, an intercepted radio communication revealed, on the orders of "the sheikh", as bin Laden is known to his followers.

Another al-Qa'eda leader, Haji Qadoos, issued his own message by walkie-talkie to the commanders of the besieging mujahideen: "We don't want to fight you. You are our fellow Muslims. Stand aside and let us take on the Americans and British."

Despite their defiance, the day-and-night air barrage has taken a heavy toll. Although there are no casualty figures, al-Qa'eda fighters abandoned their more exposed positions in the foothills of Tora Bora two nights ago and pulled back up to their mountain redoubts.

As we advanced up the hill just hours after their hasty and unexpected retreat, the mujahideen warriors were in buoyant mood and insisted that they were ready for the final battle to rid their country of the foreigners whom they call simply the "terrorists".

There seems little prospect here of a reprise of the Kandahar compromise in which Hamid Karzai, the newly chosen head of the interim Afghan government, negotiated a peaceful surrender with his fellow ethnic Pathans in the Taliban leadership. The predominantly Arab fighters of al-Qa'eda are reviled as foreign interlopers.

Whether bin Laden remains holed up here, or how many of the reported 1,500 al-Qa'eda fighters are still with him, is unclear. There are reports that he may have left with his wife, some of his children and a small entourage of bodyguards and soldiers, heading south over the border and into Pakistan's Khyber tribal regions. Local chieftains in Pakistan have reported that a large group of al-Qa'eda fighters had been travelling south near the lawless mountainous frontier.

Bin Laden apparently sought refuge in the cave complex in October when he led a snaking convoy of pick-ups carrying thousands of al-Qa'eda and Taliban fighters through a desert dust-storm into the White Mountains. The intricate complex of caves, tunnels and bunkers carved into the 13,000 ft mountain range is supplied with electricity and equipped with the latest surveillance and weaponry by al-Qa'eda.

US marines have been scouring the landscape on foot and by helicopter in an attempt to cut off all avenues of escape. Senior officers are carrying photographs of key members of the al-Qa'eda network. "We're still looking for identified terrorists, specifically al-Qa'eda," Marine Captain Stewart Upton said yesterday. "We're not necessarily looking for Taliban soldiers." Later, he added: "We realise al-Qa'eda want to fight to the death and we're glad to help them meet their fate."

If and when bin Laden's private army is finally dislodged from its hideout, the contents of the mountain fortress are expected to throw light on the secretive workings of al-Qa'eda and the Taliban.

For now, a few glimpses have emerged at Tora Bora after the retreating Arabs left behind pick-up trucks. In one, there were leaflets proclaiming support for Abdul Rahman, who is in prison in America for his role in the 1993 attempt to blow up the World Trade Centre.

Another contained a book marked "Official Guide, high priority" of the teachings of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the former Taliban supreme leader who is now on the run.

His advice ranged from instructions on how to deal with criminals to exhortations not to smoke. "See how he tried to control everything," said one veteran mujahideen warrior as he leafed through the pages, before dumping the book on the ground.

-- Anonymous, December 08, 2001