Afghan fighters and U.S. Special Forces scoured mountainsides today in an effort to root out Osama bin Laden's loyalists, reporting advances against al Qaeda's positions but no fresh evidence that they were closing in on its leader.
Steady U.S. airstrikes and pressure by ground forces appeared to be scattering bin Laden's fighters across the rocky and forested mountains as they attempt to surrender, hide or escape. Reports of impromptu surrender negotiations, mule-back escapes and isolated sniper fire created a picture today of a defending force in its final throes.
Afghan commanders and radio transmissions from the fighters at the front indicated that al Qaeda guerrillas were offering little resistance other than sporadic small-arms fire in what could be the culminating major operation of the 10-week-old U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan.
Afghan commanders said they have no evidence indicating the whereabouts of the primary target of the operation: bin Laden, who is blamed for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In Washington, officials said U.S. forces in Tora Bora believe they picked up a radio transmission by bin Laden this past week, perhaps indicating he was in the Tora Bora area. But they cautioned that he may have escaped since then, and that the voice that was overheard might not have been his.
The sustained bombardment and the wide-ranging ground operations underscored the large military effort now required to dislodge what commanders say might be only a few hundred al Qaeda stragglers -- mostly Arabs and Chechens estimated to number between 200 and 1,000 -- in some of the world's most rugged and hostile terrain.
American B-52 bombers, fighter jets and AC-130 gunships have been pummeling the mountain ridges of Tora Bora and nearby Milawa around the clock for 16 days, although Afghan soldiers say that U.S. bombs frequently have missed their targets, simply gouging craters among massive boulders that litter the rugged landscape.
On the ground, Afghans loyal to the coalition that rules this corner of the country have advanced steadily up valleys and mountains, accompanied by U.S. and British special forces who are directing the assault and coordinating airstrikes.
In plain sight, meanwhile, was further evidence that the battle remained unfinished: bombing run after bombing run by U.S. planes that sent mushroom clouds of dust soaring skyward, smoky fires that crawled up tree lines to push al Qaeda holdouts from hiding places, and the very occasional burst of automatic weapons.
Today's fight played out amid a swirl of information, talk of surrender deals that didn't materialize and prisoners who may or may not have been taken. 
Much of the information was simply contradictory -- and impossible to verify on a day when Afghan commanders refused to allow reporters to visit the front line.
Early this morning, field commander Mohammed Pahlawan said 300 Arabs were ready to surrender at 10 a.m. Asked if it was a trick to buy time, he replied, "There is no way for them to escape, so they have told us they will surrender."
At about 10 a.m., a voice crackled over the Afghans' radio frequency. "They are surrendering," the voice said. "Be careful."
But the deadline came and went without the Arabs laying down their guns.
About 35 minutes after the deadline, four successive bombing runs peppered the crest of a nearby ridge. A voice from a battlefield radio reported that the first plane missed its intended target, the mouth of a cave. One gunman charged out of the cave firing a machine gun.
"After the second and third runs, the person disappeared," said the voice on the radio. "He is killed."
Even so, forward observers dispatched a fourth bomb load to the site. That plane missed its target, the radio reported.
The radio traffic also offered a glimpse of the confusion surrounding the final hunt for the bin Laden loyalists, as Afghan fighters cautiously advanced toward remaining al Qaeda positions, anxiously called off U.S. warplanes and searched in vain for enemies they fear might have already fled to Pakistan.
Some of the voices over the radio were plaintive, some eager, some humorous. "The weather is very cold," one Afghan fighter radioed this morning. "Tell the Americans to continue the bombardment. I cannot fire."
After reporting the presence of only a few al Qaeda fighters, he joked: "Tell the Americans to use gas to finish them. . . . I'm very cold."
A late-morning radio exchange illustrated the degree to which the U.S. bombing has been coordinated with the Afghan ground forces -- and how little the al Qaeda forces apparently are fighting back.
Move ahead, an Afghan commander ordered over the radio. "If you face any resistance, give us information to drop bombs," he said.
Ten minutes later, around 11:40 a.m., the report came back. "We are on the top of the mountain," a fighter said. "Tell them to stop bombing."
Overhead, a B-52 bomber heading for the ridge line curved away from its target, its white vapor trail slicing through the brilliant azure sky.
Despite the Afghans' advances, field commanders and fighters expressed concern that many of the al Qaeda forces might have found a way to escape. On the radio, one commander issued a stern warning at midday not to believe the promises to surrender. "Don't give them time. They are taking advantage of the time," said the commander. "Take practical action. This is no joke to solve this problem."
On Friday night, the commander reported, a captured al Qaeda soldier told the Afghans that 50 Arabs were escaping from the mountains by mule, hoping to flee over the border to Pakistan. "We arrested one," he said on the radio. "The others have escaped. They have found a way."
Throughout the afternoon, conflicting reports emerged about a group of Chechens fighting for al Qaeda. One radio report indicated 60 Chechens had fled their mountaintop positions, leaving behind five injured soldiers and several dead. Soon after, Murad Khan, a field commander arriving down the mountain from the front said about 300 al Qaeda troops were still in the mountains -- with the Arabs among them wanting to surrender and the Chechens refusing. "No one has surrendered," Khan said.
An hour later, Pahlawan returned from the front. After a fight this morning with the Chechen holdouts, he said, about 20 of them had been killed and 50 had surrendered. "They surrendered because there was such pressure" from the U.S. bombs, he said.
The commander, who had started the day predicting a mass surrender that didn't happen, couldn't resist one last prediction. "By evening, all of them will surrender," he said as his jeep jostled its way back down the mountain.
Instead, American AC-130 gunships were pounding the mountainsides again tonight, as the mop-up operations continued in Tora Bora and Milawa.




Washington Post reporter Steve Vogel covers local and regional military issues. His Military Matters column runs every other week.