WASHINGTON?The U.S. commander of the war in Afghanistan said Sunday that American forces have made new advances against the last known major pocket of al Qaeda resistance but have yet to find any sign of Osama bin Laden or other leaders of the terrorist network.
“I have not found any top al Qaeda leaders,” Gen. Tommy Franks said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Franks disputed the notion that the battle in rugged terrain south of Gardez, which began March 2, was winding down. He said it was evolving and that U.S. troops were being repositioned within the battlefield or on its perimeter. In some cases, he said, fresh troops were rotating in.
U.S. defense officials said there were an estimated 200 al Qaeda fighters still holding out, with at least 500 and perhaps as many as 800 killed in nine days of fighting. Instead of emerging from their caves to fire on U.S. and allied soldiers or moving to new fortified positions?as they did in the early days of the battle?enemy forces recently have hunkered down to avoid U.S. fire.
That change of tactic may explain why the battle, dubbed Operation Anaconda, was shifting Sunday. Better weather conditions Sunday might also have offered more opportunity to reposition forces.
Franks took issue with a statement Sunday by a spokesman for the Army’s 10th Mountain Division, whose troops are involved in the fighting. Maj. Bryan Hilferty told reporters who witnessed the return of several hundred U.S. soldiers to Bagram air base, “The major fighting of the battle is over.” Bagram is about 100 miles north of the battle area and is headquarters for Anaconda.
Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that soldiers who withdrew to Bagram would “rearm and refit” and return to the battlefield.
In a distinctly different characterization, Secretary of State Colin Powell said U.S. troops were now “mopping up,” suggesting the heaviest fighting was over and that resistance was waning.
“It seems like we now have the upper hand and our troops are mopping up,” Powell said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“I can’t say it might not turn back into a battle if [U.S. forces] run into a pock of resistance,” he added.
Franks offered no prediction of how long the fighting would continue.
“In the last 24 hours or so, we have, in fact, moved on one of the intermediate objectives in this area,” he said. “We have U.S. forces on that objective now.” He did not say what the objective was.
“I think the operation will continue until, in fact, as I think we’ve said on a number of occasions, we have either killed or captured the enemy forces inside the area,” Franks said.
At Franks’ headquarters in Tampa, Fla., Col. Rick Thomas, a spokesman for Central Command, said there were no U.S. battle casualties over the weekend, although one soldier was hurt in a fall. Eight U.S. troops have been killed in the battle, none since March 4.
In his comments on ABC, Franks acknowledged that in the early stages of the battle, some U.S. troops got drawn into much fiercer fighting than they had expected and face a stronger-than-anticipated enemy force.
“I think we’ve seen it in the past and, to be very honest with you, I think we’ll see it in the future,” he said.
Asked about bin Laden’s whereabouts, Myers told CNN the best estimate of U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden is hiding in eastern Afghanistan. “My guess is bin Laden is moving fairly frequently,” he said.