WASHINGTON — The U.S. military has sent Special Operations sniper and "snatch and grab" teams to the Tora Bora area of eastern Afghanistan to assist in killing or capturing Osama bin Laden and other senior leaders of the Qaida network, according to senior defense officials.
The arrival of the highly trained commandos indicated that war planners at the U.S. Central Command believe that Mr. bin Laden and other Qaida leaders have not fled the region and are now cornered in heavily fortified cave and tunnel complexes.
A senior defense official said there was growing confidence that Mr. bin Laden remained in the Tora Bora area. He cited three factors: Qaida fighters were putting up extremely stiff resistance, "like there's something worth fighting for"; Afghan fighters besieging Tora Bora had reported recent sightings of Mr. bin Laden; and other intelligence sources had provided evidence of his presence, which the official declined to specify.
"None of the three by themselves is particularly convincing, but all three coming together might mean something," the official said.
The "very specialized, very small" number of Special Operations Forces sent to Tora Bora have the "capability" to kill or capture Qaida leaders — "and, yes, they've been authorized to use it," the official said.
Qaida's forces are holed up in two parallel valleys, with opposition forces fighting their way up from the north and Pakistani forces blocking the border to the south, the official said. This leaves the Qaida fighters a choice of either fighting their way out or trying to escape to the east or west over snowy mountain tops.
One senior Bush administration official said U.S. intelligence analysts believe Mr. bin Laden remains in the Tora Bora region, though his precise whereabouts are not known.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday that the Pentagon had increased the number of Special Operations Forces in eastern Afghanistan, which could include Army Rangers and Green Berets, Navy Seals, air force commandos and members of the supersecret Delta Force, which specializes in snatch-and-grab operations, or abductions.
Thus far, U.S. ground forces have been acting primarily as spotters for air strikes and advisers to Afghan opposition fighters.
"I think it is certainly likely that they could be doing something other than what you characterize as liaison work," Mr. Rumsfeld said.
"We're in a pitched battle over there. There's a lot of fighting going on, and a lot of people exchanging ordnance, and people getting hurt."
But Mr. Rumsfeld insisted that the U.S. military would rather capture Mr. bin Laden and other senior Qaida leaders than kill them. "I personally would like to see people surrender," he said. "I personally would like to see us get our hands on them and be able to interrogate them and find out about the Al Qaida networks all across the globe. These people know things. And I'd like to know those things." To underscore the point, Mr. Rumsfeld said the United States would soon offer a reward of about $10 million for information leading to the capture of the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, in addition to the $25 million reward for the capture of Mr. bin Laden.
Mr. Rumsfeld denied that the U.S. military had scuttled a deal for the surrender of Qaida fighters that had been offered by opposition commanders on Wednesday. He said the Pentagon was not intent on "exterminating" members of the extremist Islamic network, which the Bush administration holds responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
"This is not a war of extermination," added General Richard Myers of the air force, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
On Wednesday, three Afghan opposition commanders said U.S. forces had resisted the terms of a cease-fire negotiated with Qaida fighters that would have allowed Mr. bin Laden's mainly foreign fighters to hand themselves over to the United Nations and the diplomatic representatives of their countries.
Mr. Rumsfeld made it clear that the United States would not accept such a deal. "We're there to stop those people; and if they want to surrender, they can do it in one second, and they know it," he said.
But Mr. Rumsfeld said the U.S. forces "did not nix or stop or put the kibosh on anything. I do not even know if anything was really offered."
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