GARDEZ, Afghanistan ? Hundreds of U.S.-allied Afghan troops swept into the frigid mountains Tuesday to battle al-Qaida holdouts even as Afghan leaders were considering a plan that could allow enemy survivors to leave the area unharmed. U.S. officials said any halt in fighting was unacceptable.

High-flying U.S. B-1 bombers pounded remaining al-Qaida and Taliban positions on a ridgeline that U.S. officers dubbed “the whale” as Afghan fighters moved tanks into position for what commanders described as a final push to eradicate al-Qaida fighters hunkered down for a last stand.

U.S. CH-47 Chinook helicopters flew what appeared to be small tanks into the battle area of Operation Anaconda at the base of the Shah-e-Kot mountains of eastern Afghanistan.

“We broke through the battlefield front line last night,” said Abdul Hanan, a local Afghan commander. “We saw some caves completely destroyed, but I’m sure inside there were dead people.”

At the same time, however, local Afghan leaders were considering a proposal, suggested by an Afghan commander from Kabul, to allow all the remaining Taliban and al-Qaida fighters to leave the province.

U.S. commanders rejected the plan, officials said Tuesday.

“We have made it very clear that we are not going to halt things … we are not going to stop the fighting to make any deals,” said Lt. Col. Dave Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman.

The offer was made by Gul Haider, commander of an Afghan force sent here last week by interim leader Hamid Karzai, according to the deputy police chief of Surmand, Ghulam Mohammed Farooq.

Farooq said Haider told local leaders that if they wanted to extend a peace offer, he could guarantee a 10-day halt in the fighting if the al-Qaida and Taliban commander “is ready to join us or leave the area.”

Local Afghan leaders were considering whether to extend the offer. Farooq said Haider guaranteed that the Americans would accept the peace offering if the Afghans decided to extend it.

Under Afghan tradition, reneging on a peace offer once it has been extended would be considered unthinkable. It was unclear whether the Americans had been consulted about the suggestion, but it could affect the relationship with the Afghan allies.

Efforts to contact Haider were unsuccessful. However, several local officials confirmed that discussions about a peace overture were underway.

The leader of the enemy force, Saif Rahman, was a major Taliban commander before last year’s collapse of the militia’s hardline rule and comes from a prominent Paktia family.

Despite talk of a peace overture, preparations for battle were underway. The plains at the foot of the mountains that had served as a gathering point for coalition tanks and trucks were empty by midday.

Hanan said he saw the bodies of five non-Afghan fighters killed in the fighting as well as the bodies of three villagers apparently killed in the bombing campaign.

Radio traffic overheard at Hanan’s border post indicated that troops were exchanging fire with al-Qaida fighters. The extent of the firing was not immediately clear.

“We will continue combat operations in this area until we remove these parasites from Afghanistan,” said Maj. Bryan Hilferty, spokesman for the 10th Mountain Division.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday in Washington that he hoped the U.S. and allied forces would finish “mopping up” the area by the end of this week.

Afghan commander Mohammed Ismail Khan estimated that three-fourths of the enemy force, once estimated at about 1,000 fighters, had been killed.

As the ground fighting has subsided, hundreds of U.S. troops from the 10th Mountain Division and the 101st Airborne Division have rotated back to Bagram air base north of Kabul.

Several Chinook helicopters set down Monday at the base, in the shadow of the towering Hindu Kush mountain range, disgorging muddy, weary soldiers from the front lines.

Rumsfeld said more than 800 U.S. soldiers were operating with a similar number of Afghan and other allied troops in the 60-square-mile Shah-e-Kot Valley.

“The al-Qaida and Taliban extremists seem to be in much smaller pockets now not the larger groups that we saw the first few days,” Hilferty said.

Hilferty refused to say whether U.S. Special Forces had actually entered any of the mountain caves used by Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. However, Khan, the Afghan commander, said none of the caves where enemy fighters were believed hiding had been entered.

“Today I got close enough to see two tents of the enemy, and I could see bloodied shoes and a jacket,” Khan said. “The enemy were dead.”

Many Western journalists who had been staying at a hotel in Gardez left Tuesday for the capital of Kabul after commanders in the area said they had received a threat that the hotel would be the target of a mortar attack.

The apparent winding down of Operation Anaconda coincided with ceremonies six months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks that triggered America’s war on global terrorism. U.S. soldiers returning from battle said they were proud to be in Afghanistan.

“It feels great knowing that all of us are doing our part,” said Sgt. Michael Dickenson, 21, of Battle Creek, Mich., who is attached to the 101st Airborne Division. “I just hope the people back in the States can live life free and not worry about terrorist attacks.”

The offensive, which began March 2, was the largest yet in the Afghan war. Although fighting has subsided, troops returning from battle said the early stages were marked by intense combat.

Pfc. Jason Ashline, 20, of New York, said he was struck by two bullets in the chest but he survived because the rounds lodged in his bulletproof flak vest.

“For a couple of seconds, everything was, like, in slow-motion,” Ashline said. “I was pretty scared because I didn’t feel no pain. I thought, ‘what’s wrong?’ I thought maybe I was dead.”

Soldiers returning for the front lines suggested that the bombardment was taking its toll on the al-Qaida forces. Lt. Col. Chris Bentley, 38, of Nacogdoches, Texas, said air power either neutralized or destroyed at least 20 cave complexes.

It took only five minutes for fighter planes and attack helicopters to hit a target after a soldier on the ground called the target in, he said.

“We hope none are left,” he said.

Khan said that in the past two days, Australian commandos and vehicles had been dropped into the battle area, presumably to search for small pockets of al-Qaida members who might try to slip away through narrow gorges.

Hilferty said some enemy fighters had been captured and were being interrogated, but he declined to say how many. He also said one man had surrendered.

One captured Arab fighter claimed other Arabs, Tajiks and Uzbeks were still in the caves and that the tunnels had collapsed, Afghan intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, Haji Mohammed Ishaq, the police chief of Gardez, a town near the battle area, said the brother of a former Taliban commander has surrendered to Karzai’s government. Ibrahim Haqqani is the brother of Jalaluddin Haqqani, who was known for his close ties to the al-Qaida network in Paktia.

Karzai, who is visiting Germany and Russia this week, was expected to accompany his country’s former king when he returns home later this month after nearly 30 years in exile, an Italian Cabinet minister said Monday.