TORA BORA, Afghanistan (AP) -- Tribal fighters said they took the last al-Qaida positions in Tora Bora on Sunday, killing more than 200 fighters and capturing 25 but finding no sign of Osama bin Laden. In the south, three U.S. Marines were wounded by a land mine at Kandahar's airport.
The declaration of victory in the Tora Bora area of eastern Afghanistan culminated nine weeks of U.S. airstrikes in the area, with fighting on the ground.
But commanders conceded some al-Qaida fighters could be fleeing toward the Pakistani border, and it remained unclear whether bin Laden had slipped out of Afghanistan, buried himself deeper in a cave hide-out -- or whether he was even alive.
The first C-130s landed with troops and equipment at the Kandahar airport. And U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld became the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Afghanistan since the U.S.-led campaign began. He was meeting the new interim prime minister, Hamid Karzai, at Bagram airport outside the capital, Kabul.
Gen. Tommy Franks, the U.S. commander of the war, qualified earlier statements by U.S. officials that they had picked up bin Laden's voice last week on short-range radio in the Tora Bora area.
"We have certainly been receiving an awful lot of transmission traffic," Franks told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. He said "we're not sure" whether it was him.
Relentless U.S. bombing in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan was first reported on Oct. 15, eight days after the U.S.-led military campaign began. Tribal fighters have been attacking al-Qaida forces in the area ever since.
Commander Hazrat Ali was ecstatic as he announced that the eastern alliance had taken control of all caves in the area. His claim was impossible to verify in these mountains dotted with caves and tunnels both natural and manmade.
"This is the last day of al-Qaida in Afghanistan," said Mohammed Zaman, the eastern alliance defense chief. "There is no more need for American bombing. Our men have the situation under control."
Smiling eastern alliance forces chanted "Al-Qaida is finished! Al-Qaida is finished!" U.S. planes continued to circle the area but halted airstrikes.
The Tora Bora region was the last major pocket of al-Qaida resistance in the country. Franks said Friday that other holdouts include the Shindand area in western Afghanistan, Helmand province northwest of Kandahar, and the Kandahar vicinity itself.
Zaman said he had no information on the whereabouts of bin Laden, who many in these forested mountains believe was with the fighters. Other officials believe he is elsewhere in Afghanistan or may have slipped out of the country.
A cave where alliance commanders had thought bin Laden might be hiding was the last al-Qaida holdout in the Tora Bora area.
"There were only six people. One was killed by our forces and the others were captured," Ali said. "A few days before today I had information he was here, but now I don't know where he is."
Zaman said several hundred routed al-Qaida men might be on the run toward the border with Pakistan, only miles south of the caves and tunnels of Tora Bora. He and Ali said their forces were pursuing the fleeing fighters.
"Anyone who paves the way for al-Qaida forces to live in the White Mountains will be given capital punishment," Ali said, adding that his fighters were searching the area "meter by meter" and would bury the al-Qaida dead Monday.
U.S. Marines completed a prisoner-of-war camp at their new base at Kandahar airport for captured al-Qaida fighters from across Afghanistan.
The first airplanes landed at the airport Sunday. Six C-130s brought in troops and communications equipment, with more on the way, Marine Capt. David Romley said.
But not everything went smoothly.
Romley said three Marines were wounded Sunday when one stepped on a land mine at the airport, where they have been checking for mines and booby traps. All three were in stable condition, Romley said, but one could lose a leg.
Elsewhere in Kandahar, four of 13 armed Arabs holed up in the city's hospital escaped early Sunday, apparently with the blessing of their guards, said the hospital's head nurse, Ghulam Mohammed Afghan.
The guards are loyal to tribal leader Mullah Naqibullah, a fierce rival of Agha, the governor. Afghan predicted a battle if Agha's men tried to seal off the hospital.
Across Afghanistan, civilians and fighters alike poured into mosques for Eid al-Fitr, Islam's most festive holiday, and mullahs leading their prayers appealed for peace.
Even near Tora Bora, eastern alliance fighters emerged from the mountains, their hair matted with dust, to stack their Kalashnikov rifles outside mud-walled mosques and celebrate the feast marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
"I prayed to God to bring peace to our people," said eastern alliance commander Haji Qadir, who attended celebrations at a mosque in Jalalabad.
In Kandahar, the Taliban's former stronghold, celebratory gunfire filled the city and pink flares shot through the sky as residents visited relatives with gifts of new turbans, money, clothing and dried fruit. Gunmen standing guard outside the compound of Gov. Gul Agha sported spotless new shoes.
One group of unaccompanied women and girls, some holding hands, walked down a road in shiny red, embroidered dresses. Under the Taliban, females could face severe punishment for leaving their homes without a male escort.
Many people gathered to pray at Kandahar's Khalqa Sharif Mosque, and 500 more prayed at the Eid Mosque in the capital Kabul.
"People of Afghanistan, you are a great nation, but now we must unite and live like brothers, and rebuild our country," the mullah, Abdul Jalil, told the crowd. ------ EDITOR'S NOTE: Associated Press writers Christopher Torchia in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and Laura King in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.
