US raids scupper al Qaeda 'surrender'

American air raids stymied Mujahideen plans to take the surrender of the last of Osama bin Laden's men hiding out in mountain peaks above their abandoned cave complex at Tora Bora and Malawa this morning.

Mujahideen commanders who had expected the al Qaeda terrorists to walk out of the hills and give themselves up by noon, were dumbfounded when these plans were literally blown away by three B52 air strikes against the terrorists just as they were expected to lay down their arms.

Yesterday Donald Rumsfeld, the US secretary of Defence, said America had not signed up to the surrender terms offered by the Mujahideen to Bin Laden's men who were making a last stand on the peak of Enziri Zur.

Haji Zahir, commander of one of the Mujahideen groups which, with the assistance of US air strikes drove al Qaeda fighters out of their mountain lair in the Tora Bora cave complex yesterday, appeared to be the only local commander to endorse the hardline attitude struck by Mr Rumsfeld.

"I'm not interested in their surrender on any terms," Mr Zahir said as he raced towards the former front line which was abandoned by Mujahideen men this morning as a gesture towards al Qaeda to encourage their descent from their mountain hideout.

Three miles away, Haji Zaman and Hazrat Ali, the two commanders of the other main Mujahideen forces fighting in eastern Afghanistan, were holding urgent discussions with senior officers from US special forces, whose men had called in devastating air strikes overnight.

On the ground Mujahideen fighters were as baffled by the turn of events as their commanders and were anxious to leave the positions that they captured yesterday for fear of both al Qaeda mortars and American air strikes. Their anxiety was wellfounded. An hour after they pulled back from the village and cave complex of Malawa, which locals said had been the heart of the Tora Bora cave network built by Bin Laden, a B52 bombed the area once again.

Mumin Argar, 38, said he had no idea why the Americans were bombing at a time when he was waiting to take the surrender of Bin Laden's men. "After one month's American bombing they probably don't have much food and they must be very frightened after our attacks yesterday.

"I'm sure that they want to surrender-now that they cannot escape to Pakistan and we have promised not to kill them if they come down from the hills peacefully. If the Americans keep on bombing then they will not believe us," Argar said.

Robert Fox writes: The cities may have been rid of the Taliban and al Qaeda but the war in Afghanistan is far from over, senior defence officials in the US and Britain have warned.

Many of the network's foreign fighters are believed to have escaped to Pakistan - a route taken by Bin Laden himself weeks ago, many US intelligence officers now suspect.

"It's a classic military mistake to leave a partially defeated enemy on the battlefield in one form or another," warned US deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who wants the fight against al Qaeda to be continued in Afghanistan before the US turns its attention to tackling terrorist groups elsewhere. He underlined that very few al Qaeda and Taliban commanders of calibre had been captured or killed.

Meanwhile, a 40-minute video in which Bin Laden demonstrates prior knowledge of the 11 September attacks is to be made public in America today. Senator Richard Shelby, of the US senate intelligence committee, said the tape is the "smoking gunî which proves Bin Laden is behind the attacks.

The tape shows Bin Laden meeting advisers and discussing the immediate aftermath of the attacks. Mr Shelby said: "What's sad about it is that he's gloating, he's laughing, he's having fun about the death and destruction.î