The opposition forces have been pounding away at al Qaeda positions with Soviet-era tanks, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. U.S. airstrikes also hit the al Qaeda positions.

In Washington, Marine Gen. Peter Pace said at Thursday's Pentagon briefing that anti-Taliban fighters had begun moving through the valleys of the Tora Bora mountains. Those forces are being supported by U.S. air support and are working with U.S. Special Forces teams in the area.

B-52 and B-1 bombers and an F-16 fighter jet struck targets in and around Tora Bora, and an EP-3 surveillance plane was flying over the area. Pace said the cave complexes are being hit with 500-, 1,000- and 2,000-pound bombs.

Anti-Taliban commanders said their fighters were meeting stiff resistance from al Qaeda forces but noted the capture of what they called important caves in the lower reaches of the mountain range. Opposition forces took electrical and water supplies, machine guns, munitions and a number of four-wheel-drive vehicles from the caves.

Warplanes pound Tora Bora area
December 7, 2001 Posted: 6:21 AM EST (1121 GMT)
In eastern Afghanistan, near Jalalabad, warplanes roared overhead Friday as anti-Taliban forces of the Eastern Alliance traded blows with al Qaeda forces in the mountains near Tora Bora. 

Clear skies aided U.S.-led airstrikes by both fighter jets and bombers. At the Pentagon on Thursday, Gen. Peter Pace of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said U.S. forces were dropping 2,000-pound, bunker-busting bombs on the entrances to some of the cave complexes. 

As many as 3,000 anti-Taliban fighters have begun moving up the mountains and into complexes of caves and tunnels in the area where al Qaeda fighters -- possibly including terror mastermind Osama bin Laden -- are thought to be hiding. 

But Eastern Alliance commanders said the fighting was slow-going, with their troops often in close combat with the al Qaeda fighters. 

To help bolster the forces, Abdullah Towheedi, alliance deputy chief of intelligence in Kabul, said he was sending 2,000 additional troops from Jalalabad to the Tora Bora mountains to boost the total number of fighters to about 5,000. 

One Eastern Alliance fighter said there are reports of al Qaeda members having their families with them in battle and other reports of some family members, maybe even women, taking up arms against the opposition forces.