Taliban agree to surrender their last bastion

Yet these two leaders could also be each other's worst enemies. Karzai might see the handover of Kandahar to Naqib as an effort to weaken his own position on the eve of his taking power in Kabul. Naqib, as an ally of current Afghan president and Northern Alliance leader Rabbani, could see Karzai as a threat to his friend's hold on power.

ANTI-TALIBAN Pashtun tribesmen, backed by US bombing and American special forces, had been closing in on Kandahar from the north, south, and the east, including a force led by Karzai.

At the same time, the US is ratcheting up its efforts to catch bin Laden at Tora Bora, in the rugged White Mountains near the eastern city of Jalalabad. Yesterday, American B-52s dropped 250- and 500-pound bombs onto an elaborate tunnel and cavern complex, setting off orange flashes and plumes of smoke in the forested mountains.

Dozens of planes flew missions there through Wednesday night and yesterday morning after anti-Taliban forces used tanks and mortars to attack Al Qaeda guerrillas loyal to Mr. bin Laden.

Local tribesmen believe bin Laden might be holed up inside the Tora Bora caves with Arab, Pakistani, and Chechen defenders. As many as 1,500 tribal fighters pushed down a valley toward the fortified complex.

At the Pentagon, spokesman Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said US special forces were in the area helping direct airstrikes and gathering intelligence. He said Afghan fighters had already entered some caves in the hunt for Al Qaeda members.

Late yesterday, two truckloads of what appeared to be bearded Western military advisers disguised in local clothes sped toward the mountain redoubt where bin Laden is reportedly lodged. With more forces massing around Tora Bora and a growing sense that Al Qaeda fighters can be squeezed from the ground and the air, speculation grew that many of the top terrorists would try to flee.

Rooh Ullah, an officer attached to the warlord Haji Zaman Ghamsharik, pointed into the distance over a mountain toward the Pakistani border.

"We've only been able to block part of the valley leading into Pakistan," he said. "The Arabs can still cross into Pakistan on a 24-hour walk. If they prefer, they can go south into their other terror bases still inside Afghanistan."

The ridge where Mr. Ullah stood was littered with fliers dropped from the skies by US planes. On one side was the face of bin Laden, and on the other side was that of Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's No. 2, whom senior intelligence officials for Commander Ghamsharik believe died in an airstrike Monday when he was asphyxiated by a bomb blast near his cave.

Material from Philip Smucker in Bamokhil, Afghanistan, and from the wire services was used in this report.

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