Playing the waiting game

About 400 marines went into Ginger Valley

The BBC's Ben Brown In Afghanistan

Whisky, X-ray, Yankee and Zulu are the four companies of Royal Marines now firmly ensconced at Bagram airbase near Kabul, waiting patiently to wage war on what is left of al-Qaeda and the Taleban.

In between operations 'Gibraltar camp' - as the British call their part of the base - bears a passing resemblance to a holiday camp.

Marines relax by sunbathing in Afghanistan's spring sunshine, reading tabloid newspapers flown out from home and playing endless games of football and rugby.

There is training too of course, but for the most part it is a waiting game.

My men are highly trained and highly motivated and they're champing at the bit

Lt Col Tim Chicken

Waiting for intelligence from the Americans about where their enemy actually is and waiting for orders to go out on another operation from their commander, Brigadier Roger Lane.

Reporters based here sleep in tents just a few metres from the runway.

In the hours of darkness it is frantically busy with night-time take-offs and landings but we are told little of what missions may or may not be underway.

"Operational Security" is the first priority of both American and British commanders on the base, and that means little hard information is released to the press.

What we do know is that Whisky and Zulu companies have already been out on their first mission.

It was a relatively straightforward sweep of high terrain near Gardez in south eastern Afghanistan, where al-Qaeda were driven out by the Americans in Operation Anaconda earlier this year.

Guerrilla campaign

Now intelligence reports suggest that al-Qaeda fighters may have decided to disperse into small groups.

They know they can never win set-piece pitched battles against either the British or the Americans, so it seems likely that they will avoid concentrating their forces in one particular area and instead focus on mounting a classic guerrilla campaign of hit and run attacks on the coalition troops now massed in Afghanistan.

Some al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters may well not be in the country at all, according to analysts here.

Rather they are hiding out just across the border in the tribal areas of Pakistan, where the British and Americans have no mandate to go.

Theoretically, the marines are here for a three month tour of duty.

'Ruthless'

But their commander Brigadier Lane has also said they are in this "for the long haul," which implies they could be part of the war in Afghanistan for some time to come.

The marines know they have to be patient and that finding their enemy may be almost as hard as fighting them.

"They're a ruthless enemy who we do not underestimate but my men are highly trained and highly motivated and they're champing at the bit," said Lieutenant Colonel Tim Chicken of 45 commando.

Traditionally in Afghanistan, fighting grinds to a halt in deep winter and then resumes in the spring months of April and May, so American and British commanders are expecting an upsurge in al-Qaeda activity.

British military spokesmen here at Bagram have warned of a possible attempt to assassinate the former king of Afghanistan, Zahir Shah, who has now returned to his homeland from exile.

Brigadier Roger Lane is in charge of the marines

They have also warned of a possible attack on coalition forces inside Bagram, either from a suicide bomber who manages to infiltrate the base or from some kind of rocket or mortar attack from outside the perimeter fence.

The British have brought in three radar units which will help protect Bagram by locating the source of any such attack within seconds.

Once pinpointed, the gunners of the Royal Artillery have rehearsed how they would then pour 105 mm shells onto any group of fighters attempting a rocket assault.

It may sound far fetched, but the British say al-Qaeda have offered a bounty of tens of thousands of dollars to anyone who manages a successful attack on Bagram and the thousands of coalition troops now housed here.

But the marines say they have no intention of letting their enemy come to them - they want to go out and hunt down the remnants of al-Qaeda and the Taleban.

"We are gagging for some action, it's what all the years of training have been for," one marine told me.