Al-Qaida hold-outs face new surrender deadline

Al-Qaida fighters holding out in the terror gang’s final Afghan stronghold were this morning facing an new deadline to surrender and were also being urged to hand over their leaders as well.

As the deadline of noon (7.30am Irish time) set by tribal chiefs passed, SAS troops were preparing for a final assault on hundreds of diehard Osama bin Laden fighters cornered in the Afghan mountains where he is thought to be hiding.

They were being supported by dozens of British and US special forces underlining the belief in London and Washington that bin Laden may be among the defenders.

During the negotiations yesterday, US AC-130 gunships continued to strike a desolate canyon in the White Mountains where a group of Arabs and other non-Afghans fighting for al-Qaida were pinned down.

Ghafar, a leader in the tribal Eastern Alliance, said the al Qaida fighters are believed to include some from a list of 22 ‘‘most wanted terrorists’’ made public by US President George W Bush after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

‘‘They have to hand them over, but they didn’t (want to),’’ said Ghafar.

He said a plan for the fighters to surrender yesterday morning collapsed in part over the refusal of leaders to give up. ‘‘They must turn over at least some of these people.’’

The new deadline for the al-Qaida fighters thought to be mostly Arabs, Pakistanis and Chechens to surrender was set after an agreement to give themselves up yesterday morning broke down.

They were reported to have demanded that they would be handed over to the UN and that UN representatives and diplomats from their own country would be present when they surrendered.

It was still unclear today whether bin Laden was actually with them.

Some local anti-Taliban commanders suggested that he was hiding in the thick mountain forests close to the Pakistan border while others said he may have escaped during the overnight ceasefire.

The alliance suspected that top al Qaida leaders would have used any surrender to flee in small groups to other areas of Afghanistan or across the nearby border to Pakistan, he said.

Thousands of Pakistani troops have been deployed on the frontier to cut off escape routes.

During fighting yesterday, about 60 US special forces soldiers were on the front line, wearing traditional Afghan hats and shawls, but carrying US weapons and large backpacks, making them stand out from the alliance fighters.

Ghafar said the surrender negotiations were ‘‘just a beginning’’ and might not bring a stop to the battle at Tora Bora.

He said his men had pulled back from mountain positions they took in fighting yesterday because of intense cold, and some al-Qaida followers may have taken advantage of that to move back in. Other al-Qaida fighters could still be lurking in the area.

‘‘No one knows how many fighters are up there, but I don’t think there are very many. This area is very large. The forest is very dense, and it is very difficult to search,’’ he said.

Meanwhile UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has expressed hope that Britain would lead a planned UN-backed ‘‘stabilisation’’ force to maintain order in Afghanistan

Mr Annan, in Sweden yesterday to mark the award to the UN of the Nobel Peace prize, said he wanted to see the force in place as soon as possible, but admitted it might not be there in time for the assumption of power by the new interim Afghan administration on December 22.

‘‘There are indications that the British Government may agree to lead the force,’’ he said.

‘‘I’m not sure they will be on the ground before December 22 but we are going to do whatever we can to get the forces there at the earliest possible time.’’

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said Britain would be prepared ‘‘in principle’’ to lead what would be a multinational force, but Downing Street said again today that no decisions had yet been taken.

‘‘There are detailed issues that have to be nailed down. It is important that we take a bit of time getting these right before final decisions are taken,’’ the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.

He added: ‘‘People are aware of the December 22 date and the significance of that. As people have said in recent times, forces can move very quickly.’’

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has held discussions with key UN and Afghanistan figures on the political future of the country in the past 24 hours, Downing Street said last night.

He spoke by telephone to the UN special envoy to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, Mr Annan and the Northern Alliance foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah.