Final Push Set Against Al Qaeda Holdouts

March 11, 2002 -- 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.

Afghan ministry sources say armed remnants of al Qaeda and Taliban have also now regrouped in four provinces around Kabul: Khost, Paktia, Ghazni and Wardak.

U.S. special forces are reportedly already in position planning attacks, and up to 5,000 men of the new Afghan National Army are expected to join them over the next two days.

Marking Six Months Since Sept. 11

U.S. soldiers and officials in Afghanistan held somber ceremonies today to mark the passage of six months since the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

In Kabul, the Stars and Stripes flew at half-staff at the American Embassy.

"Never again, never again," said acting U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

American soldiers at the Kandahar air base held a flag-raising ceremony to mark the occasion and remember those killed on Sept. 11 and in the ensuing Afghan military operation.

"I can speak for just about all my soldiers when I tell you that even if they hadn't had a personal friend or a family member that was directly affected by this, the fact that it was an attack on the homeland — these guys take it personally and they feel a sense of commitment to it. Months after the fact now," Lt. Col. Tom Pirozzi, a New Jersey native, told The Associated Press.

In other developments:

ABCNEWS has learned a deployment order to send approximately 200 U.S. troops to Yemen will be signed this week. The troops will eventually go into the field, hunting with Yemeni forces for terrorists. Another order will send U.S. troops to Georgia, where they will be limited to training and equipping the former Soviet republic's military.

A 35-page document published by the British government has revealed that the war against international terrorism has a long way to run. The document, published six months after the Sept. 11 attacks, also said the war could include military action on targets other than Afghanistan.

Interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai said former King Mohammed Zahir Shah, deposed in 1973, would return from exile in coming days and play an "important role" in Afghanistan.

A British government minister denied weekend reports that Prime Minister Tony Blair's government was divided over whether to back possible U.S. military action against Iraq. Labor Party Chairman Charles Clarke told the British Broadcasting Corp. that reports of a split are completely wrong.

ABCNEWS' Bill Blakemore in Afghanistan and John McWethy and Jim Sciutto in Washington contributed to this report.