KABUL, Dec 4: About 2,000 Afghan tribesmen set out on Tuesday to chase Taliban forces from eastern mountains where Osama bin Laden may be hiding, a spokesman said.

“The Jalalabad shura has mobilized around 2,000 locals to kick the Taliban and their supporters out of Tora Bora,” Amin, spokesman for Jalalabad military chief Hazrat Ali, said by satellite telephone from the eastern city.

“They are on their way to the area, but fighting has not yet begun. We expect it to start tomorrow morning,” he said.

Amin, who like many Afghans uses only one name, said the anti-Taliban force had left Jalalabad in four-wheel drive vehicles for Tora Bora, about 50kms to the south.

US warplanes have frequently bombed the Tora Bora area, where Osama is reputed to have built an underground lair.

Amin said bombers had pounded the region again overnight, but he had no word on casualties or damage.

Asked earlier about reports that tribal forces were mustering for a push on Tora Bora, a spokesman for the US-led coalition said local leaders had been switching sides, but could not confirm that anti-Taliban warriors were on the march.

“We have definitely seen activity in the area as far as the political development is concerned,” Kenton Keith told reporters at his daily briefing in Islamabad on Tuesday.

“We have seen shuras in that area that have signalled a shift of alliance in some cases, and we have also seen some changes of alliance, but I can’t speak of specific military movements in the Tora Bora area,” Keith said.

The Afghan Islamic Press reported on Tuesday that US warplanes struck at possible Osama hideouts in the caves and mountains of Tora Bora and Paktia province south of Jalalabad.

It said 115 civilians had been killed in eastern Nangarhar province, where Tora Bora is located, over the past five days. There was no independent confirmation.—Reuters