By Kathy Gannon
Associated Press
GARDEZ, Afghanistan – Fierce fighting raged for a fifth day as the United States deployed hundreds of reinforcements Wednesday and gathered 5,000 Afghan troops for an offensive aimed at finishing off al-Qaida.
The U.S.-led coalition mounted punishing, round-the-clock airstrikes above the rugged terrain in eastern Afghanistan, and some U.S. officers predicted the operation could be wrapped up in days.
The Pentagon said opposition fighters were still putting up stiff resistance after five days of battle, some of it above 10,000 feet in snow-covered mountains. As fighter jets and bombers hit targets, more attack helicopters were called in to boost the firepower in the largest U.S.-led offensive of the 5-month-old war.
The al-Qaida and Taliban forces are armed mainly with motars, cannons, rocket-propelled grenades, shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles and AK-47 automatic rifles.
Afghan soldiers urged residents of the region in Paktia province to turn in al-Qaida warriors, offering a $4,000 reward for each foreign fighter captured alive.
The commander of the operation, code-named Operation Anaconda, said U.S.-led troops had the upper hand after killing hundreds of fighters – about half the estimated 600 to 700 al-Qaida members holed up in the hills around the village of Shah-e-Kot. U.S. troops were searching their cave hide-outs.
“We own the dominant terrain in the area,” Maj. Gen. Frank Hagenbeck told reporters Wednesday at Bagram air base north of the capital, Kabul. “We truly have the momentum at this point.”
Gen. Tommy Franks, the U.S. commander in the war in Afghanistan, said he has increased the number of Americans in the operation by 200 to 300 over the past two days, for a total of about 1,100.
“I think the days ahead are going to continue to be dangerous days for our forces,” he said in Washington, D.C. “But the alternative to taking such a risk is not acceptable.”
About 1,000 or so more Afghans have been fighting alongside the Americans, and their commander said they were also bringing in fresh units, drawing from parts of Paktia province as well as Logar province to the north and Ghazi province to the west.
Hagenbeck said more enemy fighters, most of them from Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network, but also some Afghan Taliban, have been infiltrating the 60-square-mile area battle zone south of Gardez – up from some 200 at the start of fighting Saturday to as many as 600 to 700 by Wednesday.
“I’m convinced from the evidence I’ve seen that we’ve killed at least half of those enemy forces,” he said. Franks said he had no confirmation of more fighters entering the battle, but did not doubt reports from his field commanders.
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