RORY MCCARTHY, Tora Bora | Friday
SENIOR Afghan mujahedin commanders in the mountains of Tora Bora accused the United States military on Wednesday of scuppering a surrender agreement with cornered al-Qaida fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden.
Mujahedin troops on the ground reported seeing dozens of armed American and British special forces, some dressed in Afghan clothes and woollen caps, climbing up the mountains towards al-Qaida positions.
Mujahedin troops had stormed through the main gun positions and command centres of the mainly Arab fighters in Tora Bora on Tuesday. After hours of heavy artillery fire several hundred Arab fighters fled to a desolate canyon high up in the peaks and mujahedin commanders negotiated a ceasefire.
Under a surrender deal small groups of up to 40 al-Qaida soldiers at a time were due to descend from the canyon in the heart of the White mountains on Wednesday morning and hand over their weapons.
But on Tuesday night AC-130 gunships working with unmanned Predator surveillance planes attacked al-Qaida positions high in the mountains with heavy-calibre guns. The AC-130s are equipped with 40mm cannon, 105mm howitzers and 25mm Gatling guns.
For several minutes before the 8am surrender deadline a lone B-52 bomber traced circles in the clear blue sky above Tora Bora before beginning a series of devastating raids. Throughout the day jets dropped heavy bombs high in the desolate valleys behind.
For two weeks the air attacks have been coordinated with mujahedin ground assaults. But on Wednesday the coordination apparently broke down.
“Today the bombs are falling without our permission,” said Haji Ayub, a senior soldier working under Hazarat Ali, one of three Pashtun commanders who led Tuesday’s attack on Tora Bora.
He said a delegation of tribal elders was negotiating terms with al-Qaida leaders and had yet to return.
Al-Qaida fighters wanted diplomats from their states as well as United Nations officials to be present for the surrender, according to the Afghan Islamic Press, a Pakistani news agency that had close links to the former Taliban regime.
The agency said that about 1 000 fighters were holed up in the mountains. They came from Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Yemen, Iraq and Chechnya.
Kalan Mir said his forces had repulsed a counterattack by al-Qaida on Wednesday night.
The ceasefire was arranged by one of the three main commanders, Mohammed Zaman, and agreed by the other two men, but the talks were upset by US involvement, he said.
“American interference had a bad effect,” said Mir. “The Americans made demands. Everyone has their own agenda.
“I doubt there is any possibility of them [al-Qaida] surrendering now because they are scared. They don’t trust us anymore. They are scared because of the way many Arab prisoners have been killed by the Northern Alliance.”
Hundreds of Arab fighters held by the Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostam near his fort in Mazar-i-Sharif died in an uprising contained only after heavy US bombing.
If we capture any Arabs we will hand them to the United Nations,” said Mir. “If the United Nations is not in a position to take them, we will hand them to the Americans.”