Allied troops hunt for al-Qaida fugitives

Allied forces combed through the rubble of smashed caves in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan today, searching for information about the al-Qaida fighters who had sought refuge there.

US helicopter gunships blasted cave entrances yesterday, seeking to stop the fugitives escaping after US and Afghan troops seized control of the battlefield.

But Afghan commanders said many al-Qaida and Taliban fighters - including their commander, Saif Rahman Mansour - got away before Afghan troops overran three villages and a commanding ridgeline.

Pentagon officials had repeatedly said the only choice facing the enemy troops was to ‘‘surrender or die,’’ although Afghan commanders had been prepared to allow them to leave.

It was unclear how many enemy fighters died in the biggest US-led offensive of the five month Afghan war, which brought conventional American ground troops into combat for the first time in the conflict.

A US officer estimated that 500 al-Qaida fighters were killed in the 12 day offensive. But Afghan troops said they found only 25 bodies in the initial sweep of the area. Others may be buried in caves that collapsed during the bombing.

Initial US estimates put the total number of enemy combatants at 150-200, but the figure later was increased to 500-600.

‘‘I think we got a lot of them but we’re not really sure,’’ said one US special forces officer. He said operations would continue in the area for 30 to 35 more days, but on a smaller scale.

Colonel Frank Wiercinski, a brigade commander of the 101st Airborne, said cave searches had turned up al-Qaida training manuals, bomb-making equipment and other intelligence on the terrorist network.

‘‘They had been building this place and this defence for years,’’ Wiercinski said.

‘‘We definitely put a spike through their heart.’’