Sources: Pakistan Allows U.S. 'Hot Pursuit'

Dec. 19, 2001 -- The United States has struck a secret agreement with Pakistan to allow "hot pursuit" of al Qaeda fighters fleeing across the border from Afghanistan, sources told ABCNEWS.

The deal will allow U.S. troops to hunt the fighters on the ground and fire on them from the air, but sources said it will also be on a case-by-case basis, with the United States required to ask permission each time.

Hundreds of al Qaeda fighters are believed to be trying to escape into Pakistan after the fall of their Tora Bora mountaintop complex earlier this week, and there are suspicions that Osama bin Laden may be among them.

"He's either dead in some tunnel or he's alive. ... And it does not matter. We'll find him one day and we'll know what's happened," U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing today.

In the last two days, U.S. and Pakistani sources say nearly 400 suspected al Qaeda members have been picked up by Pakistani patrols.

Meanwhile, U.S. forces continued to comb through the caves and tunnels that comprise Tora Bora, looking for al Qaeada fighters still in hiding and other clues to the whereabouts of bin Laden, the prime suspect for the Sept. 11 attacks.

In an effort to step up the search, hundreds of U.S. Marines will be sent to the area in the next few days, sources told ABCNEWS.

"There is a lot of information that is being collected as U.S. and opposition forces move through various towns and … caves," National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said. "They're looking at the information to see what can be used to further our military objectives."

U.S. warplanes flew some 20 sorties today but for the second straight day dropped no bombs, instead conducting surveillance over the densely wooded mountains near Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan.

Captive Intelligence

According to Eastern Alliance commander Afta Gul, some captives "are telling us stories about Osama giving a speech 14 days ago and then leaving, but these men are not very credible. I have heard that Osama has shaved his beard and gone to Pakistan, but no one can say for sure."

Intelligence sources told ABCNEWS they believe they have some of bin Laden's most senior people in custody.

Although officials, lacking photographs and fingerprints, had some problems identifying these individuals among the bedraggled masses, sources said other prisoners are starting to finger their former leaders and provide information as to where bin Laden might be.

Fifteen al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners were taken to the new detention center built by the Marines at Kandahar airport. They were bound, blindfolded and chained together. Two were injured and needed help getting into the building.

They are classified as "battlefield detainees" — the same status given the American Taliban fighter John Walker — and will be treated as enemy prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention, entitled to food, shelter and the right to practice their religion, U.S. officials said.

FBI agents are helping interrogate the captured al Qaeda members. Eight agents investigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States arrived there late Monday.

"It's the first time we've been in a foreign country while bombs are falling since looking for Nazis in South America in the 1940s," FBI agent Thomas C. Knowles told reporters at the Marine base at the Kandahar airport.

Al Qaeda Prisoners Break Out

At least 14 people — including eight members of al Qaeda — were killed today in a clash between Pakistani security officials and Afghanistan war prisoners, all of whom were non-Afghans believed to be al Qaeda fighters captured as they tried to cross the border.

Pakistan government spokesman Gen. Rashid Quereshi said the confrontation erupted while more than two dozen prisoners were being transferred from Parachinar to a jail in Kohat in northern Pakistan.

The prisoners, who were among al Qaeda members captured over the last two days as they tried to cross into Pakistan, seized weapons from their captors and opened fire when the bus they were in overturned, he said.

"One of the Arabs shouted 'Allahu Akbar!' ["God is great!"] and with that slogan, the others attacked," bus driver Rehman Ali told The Associated Press.

A local journalist who visited the site told ABCNEWS in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, that after the fighting was over, the remaining prisoners were held in a mosque in the village of Alizai, near Parachinar.

After the firefight at least 42 prisoners made off in four vans. Pakistani tribal forces and army helicopter gunships pursued the fugitives, capturing at least 21 and surrounding the others in the mountainous border region, the AP reported.

A State Department spokesman said the United States has been working with Pakistan to ensure that the border is closed as tightly as possible to bin Laden supporters who might try to evade capture there.

"We're very pleased in the way that Pakistan has ramped up its military presence on the Afghan-Pakistani border by deploying thousands of additional troops for reinforcement in that area," Richard Boucher said today. "We think that this strong military presence makes it less likely that significant numbers of foreign al Qaeda fighters can slip unnoticed across Pakistan's border.

"We have seen tangible results from this effort," he added. "They're making a major effort, and we're seeing the results of it."

War Not Over Yet

Organized al Qaeda resistance in the mountainous Tora Bora region appeared to collapse over the weekend, but the hunt through the deep ravines, steep mountain walls and numerous caves for the remaining members of bin Laden's terror network — and possibly bin Laden himself — is still expected to take some time.

Some Eastern Alliance commanders said that non-Afghan al Qaeda members have been getting help fleeing Tora Bora from tribesmen still inclined to see the Arabs, Chechens, Pakistanis and others as heroes, remembering the mujahideen fight against the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

One Eastern Alliance official who asked for anonymity for fear of retribution told The Associated Press that hundreds of al Qaeda members and their families were helped to escape, and that some top figures in the terror network may have been among them.

Eastern Alliance intelligence officer Sorhab Qadri said that some members of the alliance's governing council, or shura, helped al Qaeda members get out of Afghanistan. He said that even bin Laden may have been among those spirited out of the country by tribesmen ostensibly aiding the U.S. anti-terrorism fight.

There have been accusations that Pakistan has been lax in trying to close off its border to members of al Qaeda and the Taliban seeking to escape, but American envoy to Afghanistan James Dobbins said the Islamabad government "reaffirmed their commitment to us in regard to strict border controls."

"I don't think it's possible to prevent individuals from crossing the border," Dobbins said. "I think it is possible once they've done so to apprehend them over time and then to ensure that they're dealt with appropriately."

Intelligence sources told ABCNEWS their best guess is that bin Laden is still in Afghanistan, but is most likely in high mountain passes, trying to walk out of the country to Pakistan.

Military sources said bad weather has obscured American surveillance efforts along the border, but teams of U.S. special operations troops are in some of those high passes, waiting for the opportunity to strike.

U.N. to Receive Peacekeeper Resolution

In other developments:

British diplomats at the United Nations will distribute a Security Council resolution to authorize a multinational force to help protect the interim Afghan government that is scheduled to take office in Kabul on Saturday. The vote on the resolution could be scheduled as early as Thursday but might be delayed until Friday, diplomats said. Britain will lead the force, whose members, according to the resolution, will be allowed to use force if they are attacked. There is still dispute, however, about how long the force should remain in Afghanistan and about its relationship to U.S. troops in the country.

In separate incidents, two U.S. soldiers were badly injured on Tuesday. One stepped on a land mine at the Bagram airport, blowing off part of his leg. He was the fourth U.S. soldier to be in hurt in a land mine accident in Afghanistan, one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. The other soldier was bitten by a cobra while pulling guard duty at an airfield in Pakistan. His heart stopped briefly. Both are headed for an American Army hospital in Germany.

The three Marines injured in the earlier land mine incident have been authorized to receive the Purple Heart.

A German official told Reuters the United States would likely strike Somalia next. "It's not a question of 'if' but of 'how' and 'when,' " the official said. "Anyone who rules out Somalia would be a fool." A U.S. envoy arrived in Mogadishu today on the first visit in years by an American official to talk to political leaders in the Somali capital.

Interim Afghan Defense Minister Mohammad Fahim told reporters the first elements of an international peacekeeping force would be in place by Friday. He said the British-led force would operate out of a single base in Kabul, and total 1,000 peacekeepers and 2,000 more for logistical support. He said their mission would be completed in six months.

The count of dead and missing at the World Trade Center stands at 3,000. New York City officials say 494 people are missing. The medical examiners office has issued 529 death certificates, and 1,977 death certificates have been issued without a body at the request of victims' families.

ABCNEWS'Martha Raddatz and John McWethy in Washington contributed to this report.