SAS in battle at Tora Bora

British Special Air Service soldiers and American Green Berets are today playing a key role in the battle for control of al Qaeda's cave complex at Tora Bora.

It is thought possible that Osama Bin Laden himself is hiding in the mountain complex.

Anti Taliban forces this morning said they had smashed through the defences around the caves deep in the Tora Bora mountains over-running one of the last terrorist lairs and setting off a frantic manhunt for the al Qaeda leader.

SAS and Green Berets troops were among the Afghan fighters who earlier charged through the alpine woodland in search of Bin Laden and other terrorist leaders.

Haji Ayoub, the commander of tanks laying down covering fire for infantry in the heavily forested slopes of Tora Bora, said: "We've taken most of the caves and captured six pick-up trucks. Inside the caves there is a lot of ammunition but the al Qaeda have fled and are now fighting us face to face outside the cave complex."

Ayoub was in direct radio contact with infantry on the frontline as they raced through the cave complex looking for Bin Laden and his henchmen.

He said that fighting was so ferocious outside the cave complex that it had not been possible to conduct a full search but he was convinced they had captured Bin Laden's underground headquarters.

"It is a very extensive complex and it is under our control. It was their centre of operations, they had electricity and ventilation and the Arabs are now on the run from them," said Commander Ayoub. Afghan commanders fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban as well as American officials including Vice President Dick Cheney have said for the past week that they believed it was a strong possibility that Bin Laden was hiding in the Tora Bora cave complex close to the border with Pakistan.

If the claims of the anti-Taliban fighters are true, the loss of his cave complex has stripped al Qaeda of what had been believed to be an impregnable hiding place.

Under heavy bombardment from Ayoub's tanks and B52 carpet bombing which have turned the lower reaches of Tora Bora black with smoke Bin Laden's forces have only high-altitude smugglers' routes for escape into Pakistan.

Small teams from the Hereford-based SAS regiment arrived in Jalalabad over the last three days, intelligence sources said.

The soldiers came to advise anti-Taliban commanders and improve the accuracy of air strikes after three US servicemen were killed by their own side yesterday. Five Afghans fighting the Taliban were also killed by the stray bomb in Kandahar.

Hamid Karzai, appointed yesterday to head an interim Afghan administration, was among those lightly wounded when the 2,000lb "smart" bomb went astray during a battle on the outskirts of the Taliban stronghold. US rear admiral John Stufflebeem said the special forces soldiers in Tora Bora "are trying to determine locations of al Qaeda, and specifically al Qaeda leadership and remaining Taliban that might be in the area.

"The reports are that many of these forces have taken up refuge in caves and tunnels. So we are working to determine where these bad guys are and then to bring [air] strikes on them. They are supporting opposition groups, they are not leading opposition groups."

The SAS and Green Berets have their work cut out. Although they are travelling with some of the best local fighters - from the bodyguard of Hazrat Ali, the Jalalabad commander in charge of 3,000 men attacking Tora Bora - they have faced combat under appalling conditions. Battle-hardened Chechens, Pakistanis and Arab al Qaeda forces have kept a low profile during daylight hours as B52 attacks with 2,000lb bombs threw flames hundreds of yards into the air and the concussion waves knock the breath out of people a mile away.

But at dusk the terrorists creep out of the lairs that have saved them from the US bombs and pounding by 14 anti-Taliban tanks which blast at them from the Bamuchill ridge, and use the cover of the pine forests to launch counter attacks.

Yesterday one anti-Taliban fighter was killed and three wounded when they were ambushed in the twilight close to Bamuchill just as SAS soldiers were arriving in the combat zone. The dead man had been part of a team fighting uphill through smoking woods towards the Tora Bora complex that was attacked by al Qaeda. Machinegun fire rattled through the pines in short bursts followed by terrifying silences as the al Qaeda terrorists and Hazrat Ali's men fought for control of the forest below Tora Bora, creeping from cave to cave.

Trees set alight by the bombing and tank shells smouldered, laying down a blanket of smoke over the skirmishes and almost blinding soldiers trying to flush small groups of al Qaeda guerrillas out of the woods before nightfall.

Last night several rounds from al Qaeda guns screamed down the river valley which leads to their underground complex, doing little damage but terrifying innocent people who have been leaving the area after an estimated 100 to 130 civilians were killed by a B52 bomber at the weekend.

This morning Hazrat Ali's men appeared determined to make good on their commander's boast to clear al Qaeda out and capture Bin Laden, within two weeks. His elite bodyguards, distinguished by having full uniforms and each draped in enough fire power for a platoon, lead SAS soldiers into the hills in a small convoy laden with tank shells and other ammunition.

However, just a three-hour climb from the border with Pakistan, Bin Laden has an easy escape route which would take him into the lawless North West Frontier Province of Pakistan where tens of thousands of fundamentalist supporters could hide him indefinitely.

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Comment: The fog of war