Efforts by the US-led coalition to capture terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden have been stepped up, with reports of commandos closing in on a cave complex south of Jalalabad.
Special forces were reported to have landed close to Tora Bora, whose deep bunkers and tunnels are home to bin Laden's al-Qaeda Arab soldiers, and quite possibly the suspect himself.
A local military commander said yesterday that bin Laden was recently located in these mountains and was sent a message asking him to negotiate his fate.
News of bin Laden's sighting came from Haji Mohammad Zaman, military commander of eastern Nangarhar province.
He said he sent a message to bin Laden three days ago when he was in the mountains, offering negotiations to resolve his fate.
But he could not say whether the Saudi militant was still in the mountains.
Further west, more special units directed aircraft on to targets close to Kandahar as US marines continued their build-up on a desert airstrip south of the city.
Meanwhile, investigations are continuing into the bombing of a village on Saturday close to Tora Bora, as local police said the death toll now stood at 58 civilians.
The coalition has yet to explain how it came to bomb the village, which was hit by four separate attacks during the early hours of Saturday morning.
"It is not the case that these people were targeted as civilians by coalition aircraft. The coalition does everything it can to minimise civilian casualties," said the coalition's spokesman in Islamabad, Mr Kenton Keith.
"There are coalition forces in the area, and we will be trying to find out what happened," he said.
The caves of Tora Bora have long been rumoured to be the hiding place of bin Laden.
During the mujahideen war with the Soviet Union, his money and construction expertise were used in creating several underground labyrinths, providing bomb-proof hideouts against the Russians.
Now this complex is confounding the Americans. Elsewhere in the country a combination of US airstrikes and attacks by the Northern Alliance have been able to break Taliban resistance, but the units holed up here are proving tougher.
Mr Keith said there were coalition forces in the area, but refused to give details.
Having indicated last month that bin Laden may have fled Afghanistan, US officials clearly believe they have him trapped.
The US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, said it was "just a matter of time" before he was found.
Intensive diplomatic efforts are reportedly under way to ensure that Pakistan monitors its border to prevent him slipping out of the country.
The battle for Kandahar remains for the moment deadlocked.
The daily flurry of over-optimistic claims continues to swirl around the capital, Kabul.
But the fact remains that battles have been going on around the airport for three weeks, with no sign that tribal forces there, even with help from US air power, can take it from the Taliban.