Al-Qaeda stronghold under siege

More US troops are being deployed into the area

United States-led forces conducting a major offensive in the mountains and caves of eastern Afghanistan say they have killed hundreds of al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters.

As long as they want to send them here, we'll kill them here

Major General Frank Hagenbeck

Major General Frank Hagenbeck, commander of Operation Anaconda, said he believed the US, coalition and Afghan forces had killed about half of the al-Qaeda and Taleban force in the mountains.

In what is said to be the toughest ground fighting of the war so far, the US-led forces have overrun one of the cave complexes used by al-Qaeda and Taleban forces in the mountains near the city of Gardez, in Paktia province.

US officials say al-Qaeda and Taleban resistance is weakening in the face of a relentless onslaught on the ground and from the air.

	Click for a detailed map of the Gardez operation

"In the last 24 hours, we have killed lots of al-Qaeda and Taleban. I won't give you precise numbers but we've got confirmed kills in the hundreds," General Hagenbeck told reporters at Bagram air base, north of Kabul.

Only about 150 to 200 enemy fighters had been in the area when the US-led attack was launched on Saturday, he said, but local leaders had subsequently infiltrated their fighters into the battle zone.

"In our estimation, in the last 24 to 48 hours, the number of enemy that we've fought over time is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 600 to 700.

"We have intelligence from a variety of sources... that the local fundamentalists have called a jihad (holy war) against the Americans and their coalition partners.

"As long as they want to send them here, we'll kill them here. Should they go somewhere else, we'll go with our Afghan allies and coalition forces and kill them wherever they go."

Click here for a guide to US military options

General Hagenbeck also said that the offensive had been launched following intelligence that Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters in the area had been plotting terrorist attacks against the new interim administration in Kabul.

The operation has so far cost the lives of at least eight American soldiers and several of their Afghan allies.

The US lost seven men when two helicopters were downed

Despite the loss of US life and the arrival of enemy reinforcements, General Hagenbeck insisted that the US-led forces had the initiative and had suffered no casualties in the last two days.

But he added that the battle near Gardez was unlikely to be the last battle of the war, given that thousands of Taleban fighters were still at large in Afghanistan.

A BBC correspondent in Gardez says the Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters in the mountains are unlikely to withstand the onslaught indefinitely.

But they are demonstrating that the opponents of the US in Afghanistan are still capable of putting up a fierce fight.

A US military spokesman has said that hundreds more Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters were killed when American warplanes attacked a heavily armed convoy which was heading to reinforce those already fighting in the mountains.