US Detects Bin Laden In Caves

TORA BORA, Wednesday - Al-Qaeda fighters here were facing an ultimatum to surrender or die on Wednesday, as US officials gave their strongest indication yet that top terror suspect Osama bin Laden was in the area. US intelligence services said there were indications that bin Laden and members of his inner circle were in the Tora Bora region. “There were some indications that bin Laden was in the area” when a 7.5-tonne (15,000-pound) “daisy cutter” bomb was dropped on a cave in eastern Afghanistan over the weekend, a government official told AFP late on Tuesday. The official said the anti-Taliban fighters in the Tora Bora region had been successful in confining al-Qaeda fighters to “an increasingly smaller region.” ABC News reported on Tuesday that the blast had sparked a series of panicked radio and satellite calls among al-Qaeda members. Those communications provided confirmation that the Saudi-born dissident and his entourage were still in the region, the network said. AFP Ends