Afghan commander claims to have found bin Laden's cave

Associated Press WriterTORA BORA, Afghanistan (AP) -- Intense fighting between U.S. special forces and al-Qaida machine-gunners left two Americans slightly wounded Friday, a witness said, as a top Afghan commander claimed to have located and surrounded a cave in which he believed Osama bin Laden could be hiding.

Eastern alliance defense chief Hazrat Ali also said his fighters had surrounded a large number of bin Laden's al-Qaida guerrillas on a mountain ridge in the Tora Bora area in eastern Afghanistan -- near to the cave.

Ali did not say why he thought bin Laden might be inside the cave, one of several in a gorge where his tribesmen were fighting al-Qaida forces amid heavy U.S. aerial bombing.

The battle in which the two Americans were said to be hurt occurred near the Tora Bora complex. Twelve members of the U.S. special forces and dozens of tribal eastern alliance fighters were trying to take out an al-Qaida defensive position when they came under machine-gun fire, said an Afghan fighter who uses the single name of Khawri.

He said in an exchange of fire, two of the Americans were grazed by bullets -- one in the shoulder, the other in the knee. Khawri said the wounded men were well enough to walk down the mountain. They were taken back to a schoolhouse in a nearby town where they have been staying for medical treatment, he said.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan's south, scores of U.S. Marines in a land convoy and helicopters took control of the battle-scarred Kandahar airport, a one-time stronghold of al-Qaida and the now-vanquished Taliban militia. The runway was littered with unexploded ordnance and pocked by bomb craters.

The airport is to become a major arrival point for humanitarian aid that will be desperately needed as the bitter Afghan winter sets in.

The location of bin Laden -- the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States -- remains the focus of the fierce conflict near the Pakistan border. Some U.S. officials believe he might be hiding there under seige. However, others say he is more likely holed up in another part of Afghanistan or may have even left the country.

A $25 million U.S. bounty for the Saudi millionaire has heightened the hunt for him. There have been several unconfirmed sightings of bin Laden in the Tora Bora area in recent days.

Ali's description of the fighting could not be independently verified as journalists have been barred from that area.

Several hours earlier on Friday, Ali quoted running radio reports from the battlefield as saying that his men had captured, entered and searched the cave. However, later he said they only located it and were trying to capture it.

"There is one cave surrounded by my forces. ... I think there is one place inside where Osama is," he said.

Ali said his forces had encircled al-Qaida loyalists in a small depression on the ridge. A battle for that position was ongoing, he said, and there were many al-Qaida dead and wounded.

"They are surrounded and they cannot escape," he said.

Said Mohammed Pahalawn, a deputy of Mohammed Zaman, who commands another alliance faction, said the depression contained about 100 to 120 al-Qaida fighters who were under attack from the ground and air.

"We have seen the place," Pahalawn said of bin Laden's cave. "The U.S. is bombing the area, but the opening of the cave is safe from bombing. The bombs can't reach it."

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has stressed that the United States is not sure where bin Laden is. He has said that although the Tora Bora area is a likely location, he might be elsewhere in Afghanistan.

Ali said Afghan agents reported seeing a man, identified as bin Laden, in the Tora Bora area on Monday. That report could not be independently verified.

However, the Afghan Islamic Press, a Pakistan-based news agency, quoted unidentified sources in the eastern city of Jalalabad, as saying bin Laden had left Tora Bora on Nov. 25 or 26 for an unknown location.

Earlier Friday, several alliance commanders said al-Qaida forces were falling back and abandoning their heavy weaponry after days of intense fighting and devastating bombing.

U.S. fighter jets swooped low over the battlefield and pummeled mountains that separate the Tora Bora and Milawa valleys, where bin Laden's loyalists had operated from a base of caves and tunnels. B-52s bombed from high above.

Alliance forces said four of their fighters were injured when a bomb exploded too close to their front line.

Tribal commander Haji Musa said some enemy troops were headed for a forest behind the two valleys. From there, they might try to escape along narrow trails that weave south through the towering White Mountain range and into Pakistan.

Pakistani's military has posted thousands of troops to stop al-Qaida troops from crossing the border but says the rugged and snowy terrain makes that difficult.

At the Kandahar airport, U.S. Marines cleared debris and searched for booby traps and land mines. Burned-out and mangled aircraft, hit during air raids in previous weeks, sat on the tarmac.

Spokesman Capt. David Romley said a guard had been posted around the airport's perimeter amid reports that some pro-bin Laden gangs might be still operating in the area.

Also on Friday, Afghanistan's incoming interim prime minister Hamid Karzai and some aides made a pilgrimage to the grave of slain opposition leader Ahmed Shah Massood.

Massood was killed in a suicide attack two days before the terror strikes in the United States. He was revered in much of Afghanistan, particularly in areas that were strongholds of his northern alliance.

Karzai arrived in the Afghan capital Thursday. It was his first visit to Kabul since he was named interim premier at a U.N.-brokered conference in Germany.

Karzai, who will take office on Dec. 22, has said he hopes for an early meeting with Afghanistan's exiled King Zaher Shah, who is living in exile in Rome.

In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair still has not announced that Britain, as expected, will lead an international peacekeeping force. Countries expected to take part besides Britain are France, Turkey, Germany, Canada, Italy and the Netherlands. Troops from Bangladesh and Jordan are expected to follow. Argentina this week also offered troops, diplomats said.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Associated Press correspondents Chris Torchia and David Martin in Kandahar, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.