Afghan militia leaders said Saturday they had found the bodies of 33 al-Qaeda fighters as they pushed deeper into the mountain strongholds of Osama bin Laden's diehard followers.
The militias were advancing with the help of fierce air raids, which continued Saturday. But for the second time in three days an agreement for a large-scale surrender fell through.
US warplanes pounded the mountains. Raids on the White Mountain chain around Tora Bora went on through the night and Saturday with B-52 jets dropping heavy bombs.
The US-allied Afghan forces found the bodies of 33 al-Qaeda fighters and captured four others as they advanced into the Tora Bora mountains in eastern Afghanistan, a spokesman for militia commander Hazrat Ali said.
The spokesman, Amin (eds: one name), told AFP the bodies were found on Friday and Saturday as Ali's forces moved into caves and tunnels formerly held by the diehard fighters -- mainly Arabs and other foreigners.
"We are firing mortar bombs and then advancing into al-Qaeda territory," he said. "The bodies are being found as we advance. Most of the bodies are those of Arabs and other foreigners."
Amin said the four captured fighters would be used to negotiate by radio with those still in the mountains to persuade them to surrender.
Another local militia commander, Said Mohammad Palawan, said earlier that 300 fighters had promised to give themselves up. But there was no sign of this four hours after the surrender was due to start.
Negotiations earlier in the week on a mass surrender also came to nothing.
But US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld confirmed that some 50 fighters gave themselves up on Friday.
Rumsfeld, speaking Saturday on his way to eastern Europe and central Asia, also said US and allied Afghan forces advanced two kilometers (1.2 miles) in the previous eight hours.
He said a "very energetic battle" was under way with Afghan troops doing most of the fighting while US special forces largely directed air attacks.
He said 180 bombs or missiles had been used Friday with several sorties still to be made, and 230 to 240 bombs the previous day.
General Tommy Franks, commander of the Afghan operation, said in Florida Afghan fighters had made steady progress but there was still "a lot left to do."
Franks said surviving al-Qaeda fighters were not surrounded and some could slip away.
But "the view of the opposition leaders on the ground is that this al-Qaeda force is contained in that area" between the Tora Bora valleys of Agam and Wazir, he said.
Both men acknowledged they are no nearer the main aim of capturing or killing bin Laden, who is accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington which killed more than 3,000.
"There are a lot of people who believe he's in that general area," Rumsfeld said. "There are people who believe he's not and we cannot know the answer until we have something very telling, and hard and firm and clear."
Franks said it was "a possibility that bin Laden has left the country."
The US focus is firmly on al-Qaeda and his group after the fundamentalist Taliban regime which protected bin Laden and his fighters was toppled from power.
In the southern city of Kandahar, US Marines who took over the airport Friday resumed flights there after determining that a nearby anti-aircraft missile was in the hands of allied Afghan forces.
The Marines are clearing the airport of mines and booby traps to reopen it for military, aid and commercial flights.
In the city a ban on carrying guns in public went into force Saturday. Security is a top priority in the capital also.
A British military reconnaissance team was expected in Kabul late Saturday to help prepare for the deployment of a UN-mandated peackeeping force, whose advance units could fly in within days.
The team of about 10 is led by Major-General John McColl who, according to British press reports, will command the multinational force.
He is due to meet new interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai and Defence Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim on Sunday before flying home Monday.
They will discuss "what is required on the ground, how many troops are needed and what rules they will operate under," said British embassy spokesman Paul Sykes.
"If the people here agree to the deployment, the first troops will come pretty quickly. Everyone is focused on the 22nd (of December), when the new government is to take power," Sykes added.
The Northern Alliance, which led the ousting of the Taliban, has only reluctantly agreed to an international security force and sought to limit its mandate.
US Marines prepare for al-Qaeda prisoners from Tora Bora
US Marines are preparing a prison camp at Kandahar airport for up to 300 al-Qaeda fighters who might surrender or be captured in the Tora Bora mountains, an officer said Saturday.
"Our primary focus is on receiving prisoners from Tora Bora and building a site for them," at the international airport held by the Marines, the officer said on condition he not be named.
He expected that "between 100 and 300 prisoners" could be taken in the eastern mountains.
A site had already been marked out at the airport, which hundreds of Marines occupied Friday to make it safe for military and eventual civilian use.
They might surrender or be captured, he said.
An Afghan militia commander in the Tora Bora region, Said Mohammad Palawan, said some 300 al-Qaeda fighters who promised to surrender on Saturday had failed to give themselves up by four hours after the set time.
The Marine officer who is involved in operations planning at Camp Rhino dismissed speculation that most of Osama bin Laden's followers would fight to the death.
It was human nature to try to avoid death, he said, but warned that the prisoners would be dangerous.
The officer cited the uprising by prisoners in Mazar-i-Sharif last month that was bloodily suppressed by the Northern Alliance and US warplanes.
"These are hardcore people," he said. "If they have a chance to overwhelm and kill a guard, they will try to do that, even if it means their own death."
The al-Qaeda will not behave like the thousands of generally "docile" Iraqi troops taken prisoner after the 1991 Gulf War, he said.
The officer said it was important to detain as many as possible of the al-Qaeda fighters. "These are bad guys who are against all of us."
The officer also said that Camp Rhino, the forward operating base in the desert south of Kandahar which the Marines seized on November 25, would be phased out early next year when Kandahar airport becomes fully operational as a base.
He expected the army to take over there from the Marines. Afghanistan- (AFP)
