Cornered

By Kathleen Adams

The last pockets of al-Qaeda forces--and perhaps Osama bin Laden himself--remained holed up in the mountains of Tora Bora last week. It was al-Qaeda's final stand against advancing alliance forces and U.S. special ops. From the air, U.S. planes blasted the mountain caves hoping either to bury or unearth the holdouts and bin Laden.

ON THE GROUND Aided by U.S. special forces, Alliance fighters, armed with Kalashnikovs, rocket-propelled grenades and a few tanks, have advanced over the treacherous terrain from the north and fought pitched battles against al-Qaeda forces, capturing caves and taking prisoners

PINNING DOWN OSAMA One Eastern Alliance group claimed to be closing in on a cave in the mountains of Tora Bora that held bin Laden. A barrage of ailed bombing ensued. U.S. officials didn't know bin Laden's exact whereabouts, and some reports even claimed he had escaped into Pakistan weeks ago

AIR STRIKES In an all-out air assault, both short-and long-range bombers, including F-18s, F-14s, B-52s and B-1s, have been targeting underground cave complexes and above-ground al-Qaeda forces with laser-guided bunker busters, earth-penerating JDAMs and several BLU-82s--the 15,000-lb. bombs known as "daisy cutters"

ALONG THE BORDER U.S. Predator drones and E-8C JSTARS planes scan the border for al-Qaeda fighters hoping to escape through remote passes and across the high White Mountains (Spin Ghar). When the fighters are spotted, AC-130 gunships as well as armed drones swoop in to strafe them. Just over the border, Pakistani troops have been deployed to seal the passes and other possible escape routes