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Bombers Pound Al-Qaeda Fighters, 33 Bodies Found
TORA BORA, Dec. 15 (News Agencies) - Afghan militia leaders said Saturday they had found the bodies of 33 al-Qaeda fighters as they pushed deeper into the mountain strongholds belonging to what are believed to be diehard Osama bin Laden followers.
The fighters were advancing with the help of fierce air raids, which continued Saturday, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
U.S. warplanes pounded the mountains, and raids on the White Mountain chain around Tora Bora went on through the night and Saturday with B-52 jets dropping heavy bombs.
The U.S.-allied Afghan forces found the bodies of 33 al-Qaeda fighters and captured four others as they advanced into the Tora Bora mountains in eastern Afghanistan, a spokesman for commander Hazrat Ali said.
The spokesman, Amin, told AFP the bodies were found on Friday and Saturday as Ali's forces moved into caves and tunnels which had Arab and foreign fighters.
"We are firing mortar bombs and then advancing into al-Qaeda territory," he said. "The bodies are being found as we advance. Most of the bodies are those of Arabs and other foreigners."
Amin said the four captured fighters would be used to negotiate by radio with those still in the mountains to persuade them to surrender.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking Saturday on his way to Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said U.S. and allied Afghan forces advanced two kilometers (1.2 miles) in the previous eight hours.
He said a "very energetic battle" was under way with Afghan troops doing most of the fighting while U.S. special forces largely directed air attacks.
Rumsfeld added that 180 bombs or missiles had been used Friday with several sorties still to be made, and 230 to 240 bombs the previous day.
General Tommy Franks, commander of the Afghan operation, said Afghan fighters had made steady progress but there was still "a lot left to do."
The Afghan Islamic Press said Saturday that five Afghan troops were killed in U.S. bombings of al-Qaeda positions in the Tora Bora mountain zone in eastern Afghanistan.
The five were caught in U.S. bombing of al-Qaeda fighters on the eastern side of the mountain late Friday, said the Pakistan-based agency. Those killed were from a group led by commander Ilyas Khail.
"Today, there is no ground fighting because we are in talks with Arab fighters in mountains," said a spokesman for commander Mohammad Zaman, who refused to give further details of events.
Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Saturday it wants access to some 50 al-Qaeda fighters captured by U.S. and Afghan forces in eastern Afghanistan, amid fears they may be mistreated.
"Our officials in Jalalabad have made contact with the authorities and have asked for access to the prisoners," said ICRC information senior assistant in Kabul, Mohammed Hilaman, adding that this was part of the normal process regarding prisoners of war.
Once permission is granted, the ICRC would register the names of prisoners, assess their health and inform their families of their whereabouts.
A humanitarian worker in Kabul said he feared their Afghan captors would beat the prisoners. "They are the enemy and one can expect some to be beaten," said the worker, who asked not to be named. "The prisoners themselves expect to be beaten. That is the nature of the conflict."
Hilaman, however, would not be drawn in on the subject. "That is confidential. We bring all cases of mistreatment to the attention of the authorities," he told AFP.
He declined to say if the ICRC had raised any cases of mistreatment of any of the hundreds of prisoners of war - mainly foreigners - taken during recent fighting between opposition forces and the now-ousted Taliban regime.
However, none of the 20 prisoners who had been hospitalized at the recommendation of the ICRC after officials saw them in detention in the north of the country had suffered injuries caused through assault, he said.
"They all had gunshot wounds [received in battle]," Hilaman said.
The ICRC was in the process of registering around 3,000 prisoners being held at Sherberghan near the northern city of Mazar-e-Shariff.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the British Ministry of Defense said Saturday that an announcement on the multi-national peacekeeping force for Afghanistan would probably be made at the start of next week.
A meeting in London on Friday between military officers of countries likely to take part in the force had been very productive, he said, and did not rule out the possibility of further meetings over the weekend.
"We don't intend to give the details of what happened in the meeting but you can probably expect an announcement early next week," he said. "It was a productive meeting but there is still a lot of ground work to do."
The issue of the multi-national force caused diplomatic embarrassment at the E.U. summit in Laeken on Friday as an early announcement by officials that an E.U. force had to be modified as governments confirmed, denied or played down the reports.
If the force eventually includes an official E.U. element, it will be the first time that the European Union has sent a joint force under its banner.
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