After nine weeks of siege, Afghan tribal leaders claimed victory today over the last major stand of al-Qaeda guerrillas in the Tora Bora area, but US officials insisted the fighting was not over.
With hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters killed and others on the run, no-one knew if leader Osama bin Laden was dead, fleeing, holed up deep in one of the region's thousands of caves - or if he had been there at all.
Commanders Hazrat Ali and Mohammed Zaman came down from the rugged cliffsides to declare they commanded all of the caves, a boast impossible to verify.
They said at least 200 Taliban were killed and they would be buried tomorrow. Many others were believed to be fleeing toward the nearby Pakistan border.
"This is the last day of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan," Zaman proclaimed.
But US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on a brief visit to Afghanistan, told reporters "a fierce battle" was continuing.
After a five-hour lull in US air strikes, at least two bombs fell on the area and an AC-130 gunship was hammering targets, although the action sounded further away, as if the planes were going after fleeing forces.
"There are people trying to escape and people trying to run them down," Mr Rumsfeld said.
He said Afghan leaders told him that in addition to the dead, they had captured 11 al-Qaeda fighters and about 2,000 were trying to flee toward the nearby Pakistan border.
There also were reports that one senior al-Qaeda leader had been captured, although Mr Rumsfeld would not identify him.
"They are making progress, but I think it's accurate to say that it's going to be a while before we have the area of Tora Bora fully under control," said General Tommy Franks, the US commander of forces in Afghanistan.
"It's physically a matter of digging out the al-Qaeda from these caves and tunnels. ... It's a matter of inching our way forward up the sides of these canyons and physically going into each one of these bunkers and caves," General Franks said.
Neither Zaman nor Ali could answer the most pressing question of the long, bloody campaign: where is bin Laden?
"A few days before I had information that he was here," Ali said. "But now I don't know where he is."
What was believed to be his fortified cave was the last to be taken today Ali said.
Inside were six fighters, one of whom was killed. The commander promised to scour the mountains "metre by metre" to find stragglers.
AP