TORA BORA - Hundreds of al Qaeda fighters have battled to the death in a last stand in eastern Afghanistan, but their leader, Osama bin Laden, still eludes the dragnet.
"He has not yet been captured," said Hazrat Ali, commander of Afghan anti-Taleban forces advancing cave by cave against al Qaeda fighters burrowed into the Tora Bora canyons.
But hundreds of mainly Arab al Qaeda fighters had been killed in days of relentless United States bombing and by Afghan forces inching forward on the ground, he said.
As Ali's forces and US commandos searched caves and tunnels, American B-52s and other warplanes pounded the mountains with bombs.
Between 300 and 1000 al Qaeda are believed to be fighting a last stand.
Authorities in Pakistan arrested 31 Arab militants as they crossed the frontier into the Kurram tribal area. Four more, including a wounded French national, were captured a day earlier in the Khyber Pass.
Mohammad Pahlawan, an Afghan tribal commander, said 20 Chechens had been killed in the latest fighting around Tora Bora.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said earlier that 50 al Qaeda fighters had surrendered.
He said last night that US forces had found material and documents at a former al Qaeda base in southern Afghanistan that are being tested for chemical, biological and radiation content.
American Marines were setting up a prison camp at Kandahar airport for up to 300 al Qaeda fighters who might surrender or be captured at Tora Bora.
Meanwhile, 19 US military and civilian experts arrived at the airport to help search for nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
A US officer said "munitions with strange markings on them" and documentation as well as e-mails on computers were found at sites near Kandahar Airport.
"At any potential [nuclear and chemical] site in Afghanistan, they're sending in experts."
In Kandahar, a smaller showdown was brewing. In ward 4 of the Chinese Hospital in Kandahar, nine injured Arabs loyal to bin Laden clutched grenades to their chests, vowing to blow up anyone who tried to capture them.
Outside, two anti-Taleban commanders stood guard, barring entry to all but one male nurse trusted to change the Arabs' dressings.
Guards said they planned to hand the men over to their own country - Saudi Arabia.
These are Arab radicals who lived in Kandahar under Taleban rule, many of them training in an al Qaeda camp called Lewa Saradi, or Wolf's Frontier, near the city airport.
All were young, aged between 19 and 30, and were admitted to the hospital while the city was still in Taleban hands.
No checks were made to see if they were armed, doctors said.
In London, the British Defence Ministry said an official announcement on a planned United Nations-mandated force for Afghanistan would probably be made soon.
A British military reconnaissance team was expected in Kabul today to help prepare for the deployment of the UN force, whose advance units could fly in within days.
British military chiefs are opposing British Prime Minister Tony Blair's plans to send thousands of peacekeeping troops to Afghanistan because they fear it may leave British forces overstretched, the Sunday Times reported.
Blair has said Britain is prepared in principle to lead a UN-approved multinational force.
Chiefs of staff have reportedly put forward an alternative proposal under which only 1000 British troops would go to Afghanistan, but Britain would provide the force's command structure.
- AGENCIES
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Fight to death by al Qaeda in mountains
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