AFGHANISTAN - March 4 - Rumsfeld Says 9 US Soldiers Killed.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says at the Pentagon that nine US soldiers have been killed since the US-led offensive code-named Operation Anaconda began on March 2. He says enemy forces have sustained "much larger numbers of killed and wounded, and there will be many more. We will continue to add pressure until they have been taken care of". Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers warns that Al Qaida fighters face certain doom, adding: "It seems they have chosen to stay and fight to the last, and we hope to accommodate them". (The comments follow the downing of a MH-47 US army transport helicopter during the raid of a US-led coalition force of about 1,500 ground troops, representing six countries and allied local fighters, on the mountains south of Gardez. The offensive, the first to involve conventional US ground troops, started on March 2, when a ground assault met unexpectedly heavy resistance. Some of the coalition forces staged a hasty retreat. US warplanes continued an exceptionally fierce bombardment on March 3-4 over the Shahekot and Kharwar mountain ranges, aimed at Al Qaida and Taliban fighters taking shelter in caves and tunnel complexes).

Rumsfeld says there were several well-entrenched pockets "of enemy forces in reasonably large numbers". They were "fighting fiercely", he adds. Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke calls the assault "the largest military operation we have been engaged in thus far and in combat, the most loss of life". She says about three dozen US soldiers have been wounded in the operation. US officials say Al Qaida and Taliban fighters, estimated to number from 450 to 4,000, have been regrouping in the east of the country and Pakistani border areas. Myers says they are well-fortified and "have lots of weapons". He estimates it could take a month to overcome resistance from fighters who include many non-Afghan Arabs, Chechens and Pakistanis. One American and at least three anti-Taliban Afghans died in fighting Saturday. A White House spokesman says the casualties are "another tragic reminder" that the campaign in Afghanistan is far from over.