Alliance Forces Advance in Tora Bora While US Marines Move Closer on Kandahar

24/05/2001| IslamWeb

KABUL (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Afghan forces said they advanced on Monday against Osama bin Laden's diehard, mostly Arab fighters who were dug in on cave-riddled mountains in the east of the country and putting up fierce resistance.
Though the whereabouts of bin Laden himself remain unclear, a spokesman for anti-Taliban forces said the Saudi-born Islamist had been spotted some days ago climbing higher into the hills with horses, not far from the Pakistani frontier.
In the south, U.S. marines traveling by land and helicopter moved closer to the fallen Taliban stronghold of Kandahar where hundreds of bodies, victims of last week's fight for control of the city, have been found.
``We finished the last remaining resistance of Osama in Tora Bora by four in the afternoon,'' Mohammad Habeel, a spokesman for the Northern Alliance defense ministry, told Reuters in Kabul.
Afghan forces believe bin Laden has been personally leading about 1,000 of his al Qaeda Islamist fighters in the mountains and caves of the Tora Bora region in the east of the country.
``We have seized lots of ammunition there and are chasing his men in areas outside Tora Bora,'' Habeel added.
Haji Mohammad Zaman, general commander of alliance forces in eastern Nangarhar province, said four of bin Laden's fighters had been killed at Melawah, a mountain hideout.
``Others fled and climbed the mountains,'' he told the BBC Pashto service.
The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) earlier said tribal fighters had made gains in a three-pronged attack in Tora Bora. But Arab fighters loyal to bin Laden were resisting fiercely.