WASHINGTON – The number of al-Qaida fighters holding out against a U.S.-led offensive in eastern Afghanistan is down to about 200, a senior U.S. military officer said Friday.
Brig. Gen. John Rosa of the Air Force said “several hundred” enemy forces have been killed since the battle, dubbed Operation Anaconda, began March 2. He said “a couple of hundred” remain.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said foul weather slowed the pace of U.S. aerial bombing, but Rosa, the deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said later that the weather Friday night in Afghanistan had improved.
“The intensity of the battle has calmed down,” Rumsfeld told CNN in an interview at the Pentagon.
Rosa described the fighting since Thursday as “sporadic,” reflecting in part the al-Qaida’s heavy losses and reduced ability to organize their defenses. He said U.S. warplanes flew 200 missions Friday and dropped 75 bombs.
In an interview with Fox News, Rumsfeld said he expected the battle to last another seven to 10 days. On Thursday, he said it could end as early as this weekend, although in both instances he cautioned it was impossible to know for sure how long the al-Qaida could hold out.
In St. Petersburg, Fla., President Bush spoke of the ferocity of the battle, in which about 1,000 American troops, about 2,000 U.S.-allied Afghan soldiers and smaller numbers from Germany, Australia and other allied nations are engaged in ground combat against al-Qaida fighters.
“We’re fighting fierce fighters,” Bush said. Noting reports that the enemy is showing no inclination to surrender, the president said, “That’s OK. If that’s their attitude, we’ll just have to adjust.”
In the CNN interview, Rumsfeld refused to indicate what U.S. intelligence may know about Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts.
“We’re looking for him,” he said. “We’re ultimately going to find him. Wherever he is, he is not happy.”
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