MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now, let's move on to the war in Afghanistan and specifically the Tora Bora mountains, where anti- Taliban forces are declaring victory against al Qaeda forces. CNN's senior international correspondent Walter Rodgers has the latest from Tora Bora.</s>WALTER RODGERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A two-pronged military offensive into the valleys of the Tora Bora region by the Eastern Alliance anti-Taliban forces has produced a pronouncement by the commanders of those forces that they believe the al Qaeda and Taliban forces in the Tora Bora region have been put on the run. They could not find them. There were reports from Hazrat Ali that 80 of the al Qaeda forces had been killed, another 21 Afghan-Arabs had indeed been captured, but they believe, they're saying, that Osama bin Laden has gotten away. They also believe that many of the al Qaeda fighters who were in the Tora Bora region have escaped this region. As I say, there was a military campaign, a two-pronged campaign up the valleys here and they say the al Qaeda fighters are no longer there. Does that mean they have fled to Pakistan? Perhaps some have, but again that's somewhat unlikely because the Pakistanis have substantial numbers of troops along the border to prevent just such an al Qaeda exodus. More likely, it seems at this point, that many of those al Qaeda fighters and bin Laden himself may simply have gone to ground, seeking shelter deep, deep in the tunnel complex that runs under the mountains, up against the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Walter Rodgers, CNN, in Afghanistan.
Anti-Taliban Forces Say They Put al Qaeda on the Run