US Central Command said yesterday that what was first believed to be a ground-to-air missile attack on two military planes in Afghanistan was nothing of the kind.
Marines Major Ralph Mills, spokesman for US Central Command in Florida, said flashes on the ground in the southern Afghan desert may have been part of celebrations marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
In the eastern Tora Bora mountains, an anti-Taliban commander said the operation against Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network was over, but there were reports that bombing in the area continued.
A Marines spokesman in the southern Afghan town of Kandahar said two C-130 transport planes came under fire from missiles believed to be US-made Stingers.
If true, it would have been the first such attack since the Marines last week took over the airport near the southern city of Kandahar, the former stronghold of the routed Taliban.
"Two different aircraft saw two different missiles shot in their general direction," Captain David Romley, a US Marines spokesman, said in Kandahar.
The C-130 aircraft fired flares to avoid being hit and neither aircraft was damaged, he added. Romley said the incidents happened separately early yesterday, about 30 minutes apart.
But Mills dismissed the report, although he said the planes did take evasive action after seeing flashes from the ground.
He said there was no evidence to support any anti-aircraft fire. Muzzle flashes observed from the ground were believed to have been part of the Id al-Fitr celebrations marking the end of Ramadan.
"No bursts were seen and no tracer rounds were fired," said Mills, explaining why initial fears of anti-aircraft fire against the planes were later discounted.
US Marines are clearing Kandahar airfield of mines and building a detention center for captured al-Qaeda fighters loyal to bin Laden.
CNN said Federal Bureau of Investigation agents had arrived at Kandahar airport to interrogate al-Qaeda prisoners caught in the eastern mountains of Tora Bora that have come under relentless US bombing.
They wanted to find out if any more assaults were planned on US targets.
As officials met in Kabul to put the finishing touches to a new interim government due to take power on Saturday, anti-Taliban commander Hazrat Ali said the assault on al-Qaeda in the snow-dusted mountains of Tora Bora was over.
The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press quoted him as saying "there is no information from anywhere that the al-Qaeda were still hiding in the mountains."
An anti-Taliban official said captured fighters of the network would be handed over to the central government.
There was still no sign of the Saudi-born millionaire militant who stands accused of the worst-ever attack on US soil.
Fugitive Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was said to be holed up with 500 men in another mountain range to the south where ethnic Pashtun forces were preparing to attack.
Pakistan forces have picked up close to 100 enemy fighters trying to slip over the frontier.
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