AFGHANISTAN - March 10 - US Withdraws 400 Troops But Battle Is Not Over.

The US withdraws 400 troops from the east of the country, with US army spokesman Maj. Bryan Hilferty saying: "We are obviously repositioning our forces, but the operation has not ended. This phase is over, but we will continue the war on terrorism here". He adds that the US troops have encountered "no sustained or accurate fire" and have suffered no casualties in the past three days. "We will continue to track and kill Al Qaida and Taliban extremists", he says. It is not immediately clear whether the withdrawal - nearly one-third of the estimated 1,200 US forces that have been fighting around Shahikot - means that these troops would be sent elsewhere, replaced by Afghan forces or returned to combat in the same region later on. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers says on CNN that the US troops have returned to "rearm and refit themselves and perhaps go back in and finish the job".

He says there are still "certain pockets" of Taliban and Al Qaida fighters in the area and it would "take some time" to eliminate them. The US withdrawal comes on a day of less intense fighting in the snowy mountains around Shahikot, about 160 km south-east of Kabul. Afghan commanders in nearby Gardez reported that the battle mostly paused while they and their US counterparts prepared a possible final offensive for the next few days. But tension flared between rival Afghan forces on the US side, as local militia commanders demanded that reinforcements from northern provinces sent by the central government in Kabul turn around and go home.

From interviews in Bagram with more than a dozen of the returning US troops, it was evident that the unexpectedly stiff resistance the US forces initially encountered had dwindled dramatically in the past several days. On March 11, the US forces continued their withdrawal from the Shahikot valley. US commander Gen. Tommy Franks said that while some US troops had been moved out of the battle area in Pakhtia province, others would take their places. He added: "I don't know that I could characterise it as winding down". The bulk of the fighting was turned over to Afghan commanders, who moved 500 additional troops towards the valley from Gardez, the provincial capital. Meanwhile, Taliban and Al Qaida rebels regrouped in Wardak, Ghazni, Khost and Pakhtia provinces, and up to 5,000 government troops will be deployed in the next two days to head off a fresh uprising. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said several Al Qaida members were captured in the mountains south of Gardez, and were being questioned.