In one encounter on Friday the Marines attacked a Taliban convoy that approached

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In one encounter on Friday, the Marines attacked a Taliban convoy that approached them at high speed, killing seven fighters with the help of air support. No Marines were injured.Officials have said the Marines are trained in distinguishing "friend from foe," but haven't specified their methods.More than 1,300 Marines seized a desert airstrip in the region on November 25 as a forward operating base known as Camp Rhino.Captain Upton said the road operations around Kandahar would continue."We are continuing to move Marine assest up north to operate at various key pieces of terrain at various locations around Kandahar," he said. "We continue to block roads and avenues of exit to capture al–Qaida and enemy forces."At the camp itself, Marines have been building a detention center for prisoners of war. Just outside the walls of the camp, the center – with a watch tower overlooking the pen – will house any battlefield detainees or prisoners of war that US military officials want to hold in Afghanistan.Currently the base houses only one detainee: John Walker, 20, of Fairfax, California, a Taliban fighter who surrendered near the northern Afghan city of Mazar–e–Sharif, where he was caught in a prison uprising before US authorities took control of him and flew him here.Captain Upton said that Walker was gaunt and dehydrated but in good condition as he recovered from a gunshot wound to his leg.. Anti–Taliban forces launched a three–pronged attack on Monday on eastern Afghanistan's White Mountains, working their way up mountains trails in small groups as tanks pounded positions of Osama bin Laden's fighters. Hafta Gul, a senior officer in the Eastern Shura's militia, said the planes were not bombing to avoid hitting anti–Taliban fighters on the ground."At 1:30 pm, we started the attack We started attacking from three sides," Mr Gul said.

He said each side was led by one of the three main militia forces that make up the eastern alliance, also known as the Eastern Shura, or council.More than 1,000 of bin Laden's fighters are believed to be in two valleys and surrounding ridges in the White Mountains, defending them with 82mm mortars and heavy machine guns. Eastern alliance forces returned fire with T–55 tanks.The objective is to capture the Milawa valley and the ridge overlooking the Tora Bora valley. Both valleys are full of dozens of caves, where al–Qaida fighters take shelter during US air raids.Haji Zahir, the son of provincial governor Abdul Qadir and one of the three militia commanders, said his men would use the same guerrilla tactics against al–Qa'ida that they used to fight the Soviet army during the 1980s. Only this time instead of defending the area collectively known as Tora Bora, this time they are attacking it.Mr Zahir said he hoped to route the al–Qaida force – most of whom are from Pakistan, Arab countries or from other parts of Central Asia – quickly, but acknowledged that the defenses and caves would be difficult to overcome. He said eastern alliance forces would not stop fighting until al–Qaida surrenders or fight to the death, which they have pledged to do.There have been several reported sighting of bin Laden in the White Mountains and eastern alliance commanders are confident that his is still with his men. But Mr Zahir admitted that there had been no firm evidence of his presence in the Tora Bora area since Friday..

American planes bombing Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida fighters in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan have accidentally killed three more soldiers of the Afghan mujahedin, the third "friendly fire" incident in eight days. The deaths came as the battle against the al-Qa'ida hide-outs came to a standstill, with intermittent firing in the steeply forested valleys of the Tora Bora region, but no new offensive by the mujahedin militiamen. Meanwhile disagreements between mujahedin commanders at the front boiled over in a tense confrontation in which soldiers from rival groups brandished their guns and took up firing positions in front of one another's headquarters.The three mujahedin died on Saturday night, as American BÂ52 bombers and fighter jets continued their daily bombard-ment of Tora Bora. Haji Zaman Gamsharik, defence chief of the ruling council of eastern Afghanistan, said: "I sent them up two days ago to observe from that ridge. At midnight the Americans dropped bombs there and killed them." Last weekend, 15 of Commander Zaman's men, as well as hundreds of Afghan civilians, died in two days of bombing directed at villages in the plains north of Tora Bora.

Mujahedin soldiers blamed the tragedy on members of the US special forces based in Tora Bora to co-ordinate the air strikes. "The American co-ordinators were too far away, but today they moved closer," said Paluwan Sayed Mohammed, one of the mujahedin's frontline commanders.About 20 commandos, known as Forward Air Controllers, have been travelling to and from the front line in the past two days from their base in a heavily guarded school building in the nearby village of Bechir. They have become a familiar sight in a Toyota Land Cruiser with dark windows and a blanket over the back.Last week, the mujahedin claimed to have captured the lowermost of the fortified caves in which the al-Qa'ida fighters have been sheltering from the bombing with their wives and children. But the momentum has been lost in the past two days as rival mujahedin commanders have failed to agree on a strategy and timetable for the ground offensive.Haji Zahir, one of the senior frontline commanders, said: "Al-Qa'ida has well-placed military posts, with wide fields of fire They control their area at the moment They're spread over a large area and control high peaks We will need about 2,500 soldiers We know the territory well and we know how to fight. If we sent any more, there would just be more casualties."An internal struggle is taking place within the ruling council of eastern Afghanistan between Haji Zaman Gamsharik and his rival warlord, Hazrat Ali. According to mujahedin sources, Commander Zaman wants to delay the ground attack until after the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which ends next weekend, while Commander Ali favours an early attack.