U.S. forces join struggle for Tora Bora

JALALABAD, Afghanistan -- Despite another day of heavy bombing by U.S. warplanes, Osama bin Laden's guerrillas held their ground Thursday against 1,000 Afghans attacking their mountain stronghold of heavily fortified caves and bunkers.

As the battle for Tora Bora entered its third day, the Pentagon confirmed that 30 to 40 U.S. Special Forces troops were in eastern Afghanistan to help coordinate the hunt for bin Laden and the remnants of his al-Qaida organization. Dozens of CIA operatives also were believed to be in the area as well.

Now that the Taliban has offered to surrender its southern bastion of Kandahar, the White Mountains -- where Tora Bora is located -- could become the final battlefield in the U.S.-led war against bin Laden and his Taliban protectors. The radical Islamic militia's swift collapse since early November has left an estimated several hundred bin Laden loyalists apparently trapped and cut off from resupply in the mountain range about 55 miles southeast of here.

"We have taken the center of the base, but there is still severe fighting," field commander Haji Ayub told reporters Thursday at the front, where intense U.S. air attacks hit mountain targets and al-Qaida fighters fired mortar rounds at their Afghan attackers. "There is hand-to-hand fighting," Ayub said.

But as the hunt for bin Laden comes down to what could be a final phase of hand-to-hand combat, many things about this offensive against al-Qaida are uncertain. No one knows how many Arabs and other recruits from foreign countries are still in the al-Qaida ranks or exactly where fighting is taking place in the many hideaways that dot Tora Bora.

Most important, no one knows if bin Laden or his top lieutenants are up there.

Early reports indicate that resistance from al-Qaida has been fierce. Some caves have already changed hands twice, according to field commanders, with bin Laden's fighters Thursday recapturing some of the positions that the Afghans stormed successfully on Wednesday.

Still, leaders of the Afghan offensive insisted this would be a quick operation. "The mujahedeen are advancing," said one deputy to Hazrat Ali, the regional security chief who has sent many of his fighters to the front. "Tora Bora will be cleared, it will be captured."

There are no precise casualty reports.

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