Somalia Firefight Clue Found in Afghan Cave

American soldiers searching a cave in the Afghan mountains have discovered a satellite positioning device that apparently belonged to a US commando killed in the disastrous raid in Somalia in 1993.

Defence officials said that the global positioning receiver, found in an ice-covered cave near Gardez in the east of the country, might confirm what they have suspected for years - that it was Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network that masterminded the deaths of 18 American special forces troops in a firefight in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

"We've said all along that we suspected al-Qaida of being a worldwide network," Brigadier-General John Rosa, of the US Air Force, told reporters at a briefing yesterday. "This piece we currently think originated from Somalia will obviously tie - could obviously tie - al-Qaida to Somalia."

The discovery came as US military and intelligence chiefs warned of an upsurge in guerrilla-style attacks from al-Qaida and Taliban forces in Afghanistan when the snows melt in a few weeks' time.

As concern continued to grow among British backbench MPs of a possible "mission creep" in Afghanistan, the CIA director, George Tenet, warned that al-Qaida terrorists were poised to step up their activities following the spring thaw. He told the Senate armed services committee that the conflict was "entering into another phase here that actually is more difficult because you're probably looking at smaller units who intend to really operate against you in a classic insurgency format".

The GPS device, which allows its user to determine their precise location anywhere on the earth's surface, came complete with its original carrying pouch and a label reading "G Gordon" - linking it to Master Sergeant Gary Gordon, who was 33 when he was killed in a firefight with militants.

He was one of two soldiers to receive the prestigious Medal of Honour for his role in the bloody Somalia debacle, currently being retold on the cinema screen in the movie Black Hawk Down.

But a Pentagon spokesman told the Guardian that the GPS device's 2,700-mile journey might instead be the result of a black market transaction between Somali fighters and al-Qaida.

"We're still going through the verification process, to see if it is in fact tied to him, and these are all things that will be taken into consideration," said Lieutenant-Colonel Rivers Johnson.