ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda fighters defending their last hideouts in the cave-riddled mountains of eastern Afghanistan were due to surrender on Wednesday under a deal with their Afghan attackers.
Haji Mohammad Zaman, commanding local forces assaulting al Qaeda strongholds in the rugged Tora Bora region, told an Afghan news service that bin Laden's forces had sued for peace.
``Al Qaeda fighters in the mountains have asked for time. All kinds of attacks have been stopped against them until tomorrow morning,'' Zaman told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) by satellite telephone from Tora Bora late on Tuesday.
He said al Qaeda fighters had promised to start laying down their arms at 8 a.m. (10:30 p.m. EST Tuesday).
Zaman denied that U.S. troops were in the area. ``We do not need American commandos. We have our own commandos,'' he said.
The commander had no word on the fate of bin Laden himself.
``I cannot say anything about this, whether he is in the mountains, or he has been killed in the bombardment or is still alive. All this will be known tomorrow,'' Zaman said.
Afghan forces backed by pulverizing U.S. air strikes made dramatic gains against al Qaeda on Tuesday, overrunning several fortified caves and bunkers in hand-to-hand fighting.
``In today's fighting, four Arabs were killed. We buried them with due respect in the Agam area,'' Zaman said.