Final Push Set Against Al Qaeda Holdouts
March 11 -- With al Qaeda and Taliban forces in eastern Afghanistan's desolate Shah-e-Kot mountains nearly wiped out, Afghan tanks and troops and U.S. forces are preparing for what may be the final assault in Operation Anaconda.
Exactly six months since the terrorist attacks in the United States, a convoy of some 1,000 Afghan fighters and a dozen tanks moved today toward the front lines of the battle, where a few hundred fighters were still reported hiding in scattered positions, some protected by minefields.
U.S. military spokesmen estimate 700 out of roughly 1,000 Islamic extremists have been killed in the past nine days of fighting, which has cost the lives of eight Americans and three allied Afghans.
"Fighting continues to be very light. In fact in the past four days we have not received sustained or accurate enemy fire," said Maj. Brian Hilferty, a Marines Corps spokesman at Bagram Air Base.
On Sunday, about 400 U.S. troops pulled out of the battle and moved back to the U.S. base in Bagram, north of the Afghan capital of Kabul, as U.S. military officials in Afghanistan said the guerrilla fighters appeared to be in "smaller pockets" unlike the resistance U.S.-led troops met with at the start of the operation.
Hundreds of American soldiers remain in the mountains there, including special forces commandos.
U.S. officials believe the bombing campaign has destroyed many of the caves where al Qaeda troops are hunkered down.
One local commander, Haji Nawab Zardran, told The Associated Press that U.S. forces were on the front lines clearing mines. Australian commandos are also reportedly in the area to look for al Qaeda soldiers trying to escape.
Local Afghan commanders warned that some of the fighters — believed to be of mostly of Arab, Chechen and Pakistani origins — could slip away under the cover of snow and bad weather.
Looking Ahead to Other Holdouts
Some U.S. troops have been pulled out of the Gardez battle to be repositioned to fight other pockets of enemy resistance.
