With the surrender of Kandahar, the US war against the Taleban regime may well be over.

But military operations are likely to continue for some time as US special forces and their Afghan allies try to hunt down senior al-Qaeda figures and the Taleban leaders who supported them.

The fighting is likely to retreat into the shadows as the overt struggle against Taleban ground forces is replaced by the manhunt for the key figures on America's wanted list.

US air power may still be used if suitable targets are identified.

Any Taleban forces - and there are other pockets of Taleban fighters around the country - who do not lay down their arms may also come under attack.

But the chief job now for the Americans is to go after the al-Qaeda leadership.

Dangerous place

A number of senior al-Qaeda people have reportedly been killed in the fighting so far.

But it will now be the job of US special forces teams along with their Afghan allies to try to find others.

Even if the large-scale fighting is over, Afghanistan is going to remain a dangerous place.

Nobody knows how many Taleban may simply have taken to the hills.

A few die-hards may seek to carry on fighting.

The environment in which US forces will be operating is far from benign for them.

What is not clear at this stage is whether the Pentagon will now want to deploy additional ground troops in the country to conduct sweeps or to bolster the security of its special forces teams.

As ever, the fundamental task will be to bring together intelligence material from a variety of sources to pinpoint the areas in which the special forces should focus their operations.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan's interim government will be trying to establish itself and a huge humanitarian relief effort will be getting underway.

The days of uncertainty in Afghanistan are far from over even if the large-scale shooting war has ended.