Bin Laden Leading Tora Bora Defense 'In Person' December 09, 2001 04:05 AM ET Reuters Photo By Sayed Salahuddin and Zeeshan Haider

KABUL/CHAMAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden was said to be leading about 1,000 men "in person" in the defense of his bomb-blasted mountain hideouts in eastern Afghanistan Sunday as tribesmen feuded over former Taliban stronghold Kandahar.

A spokesman for the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance said anti-Taliban forces had pushed bin Laden's al Qaeda fighters out of their bases in the cave-riddled Tora Bora heights and were attacking them in nearby forests.

"Osama himself has taken the command of the fighting," Mohammad Amin told Reuters by satellite phone from the eastern city of Jalalabad.

"He, along with around 1,000 of his people, including some Taliban officials, have now dug themselves into the forests of Spin Ghar after we overran all their bases in Tora Bora," Amin said.

"He (bin Laden) is here for sure. The American planes have been carrying out regular and severe bombings to kill him," he said, adding that at least one of the Saudi-born militant's Arab fighters had been killed in "very intense" fighting.

There was no independent confirmation of Amin's account.

Waves of U.S. B-52 heavy bombers and smaller warplanes pounded Tora Bora from daybreak, CNN reported from the scene.

It said al Qaeda fighters dug in there had kept up a barrage of mortar fire for several hours Saturday, cutting a road leading into Tora Bora and forcing their opponents' tanks to pull back.

PLANES DROP UNIDENTIFIED OBJECTS

An Afghan news service said U.S. planes had dropped "nine mysterious coffin-shaped objects" overnight in the Melawa area of Tora Bora, about 55 km (35 miles) south of Jalalabad.

The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP), quoting anti-Taliban fighters returning from the Melawa frontline, said the unidentified objects had been dropped by parachute.

U.S. warplanes have been pounding al Qaeda forces in the snow-streaked Tora Bora peaks for several days in support of local Afghan forces pursuing bin Laden, the United States' prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

A tribal commander, who asked not to be named, said overnight clashes in southern Kandahar had continued into the morning.

But Khalid Pashtoon, spokesman for Gul Agha, a former Kandahar governor, denied the report.

"This is all lies, I don't know why this is being said," he told Reuters by satellite telephone from the city. "Last night the situation in Kandahar was completely quiet."

No independent account was immediately available.

Pashtoon said tribal elders and commanders had met in a jirga, or traditional assembly, Saturday night to try to ease tension in the city, and would meet again Sunday, possibly with Prime Minister-designate Hamid Karzai in attendance.

"Hopefully the situation will be resolved today. We are committed to working as a team with Hamid Karzai and committed to working for peace," he said.

MARINES PATROL ESCAPE ROUTES

As Pashtun tribes jostled for control of Kandahar, U.S. Marines focused on the hunt for bin Laden and his aides, as well as Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, who was thought to have been holed up in the city before it changed hands.

Karzai has said Omar must face a trial after missing his last chance to renounce terrorism and repudiate bin Laden.

"We're still looking for identified terrorists, specifically al Qaeda," Marine Captain Stewart Upton told reporters at a desert airbase near Kandahar Saturday.

"We're not necessarily looking for Taliban soldiers."

The United States launched strikes on Afghanistan on October 7 to try to catch bin Laden and destroy his al Qaeda network.

Upton said all Marine officers above the rank of sergeant were carrying photographs of key al Qaeda members.

Traveling by helicopter, in military vehicles and on foot, they had for the last two days been monitoring possible escape routes from Kandahar after the Taliban's collapse, he said.

Pakistan has stepped up border controls, deploying extra men and helicopter gunships to try to prevent Taliban or al Qaeda leaders slipping across the long, porous border with Afghanistan.

Pakistani paramilitary troops took control of no man's land ahead of the frontier town of Chaman Saturday night, border officials said. They said they had moved back to a checkpost abandoned since Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in 1979.

Several Pashtun factions are vying for control of Kandahar and the border town of Spin Boldak.

The local tribal commander, interviewed in the Pakistani border town of Chaman, said forces loyal to Gul Agha were confronting those of Mullah Naqibullah, who took the Taliban's surrender, at the city's airport to the south.

The Taliban had given all their tanks and heavy weapons to Mullah Naqibullah when they relinquished their birthplace and last bastion Friday, the commander said.

"Out of all the Pashtun commanders, Mullah Naqibullah has the biggest number of weapons and tanks in the city," he said.

Gul Agha dislikes a surrender deal Karzai struck with the Taliban, which saw the militia hand the city to Naqibullah, a former Mujahideen leader that he sees as close to the Taliban.

"We are trying to convince the tribal elders and Hamid Karzai that Mullah Naqibullah should be removed from Kandahar," Pashtooon said. "They are not listening, so there might be some clashes. This needs to be resolved."

-- Anonymous, December 09, 2001

Answers

Wonder if they were dropping those coffin shaped objects so a certain someone could try them for fit?

-- Anonymous, December 09, 2001

"He (bin Laden) is here for sure."

That's a sure sign to me that he's dead or in another country.

-- Anonymous, December 09, 2001