GARDEZ, Afghanistan — Sandstorms and high winds eased over the battle area in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, enabling U.S. and Afghan forces to step up attacks on al-Qaida from the ground and air. Afghanistan's interim government rushed fresh troops to the fight.
U.S. commanders said the die-hard al-Qaida fighters in the region were not surrendering, and American troops came under fire late Thursday and early Friday in the southern part of the 60-square-mile area of operation.
Fighting in the southern sector was heavy with "lots of casualties" among the al-Qaida forces, Col. Joe Smith, chief of staff of the 10th Mountain Division, told reporters at Bagram air base.
"I have not seen anyone surrender," said Col. Frank Wiercinski, a brigade commander in the 101st Airborne Division.
Wind and sandstorms slowed allied air and ground operations Thursday. However, skies cleared somewhat overnight, and the rumble of heavy explosions from the battle area could be heard more than 20 miles to the north.
With the fight intensifying, the interim Afghan government of Hamid Karzai decided to rush in reinforcements, bolstering an Afghan force made up largely of militias recruited by the Special Forces.
A member of the Gardez town council, Safih Ullah, said the central government was sending about 1,000 new Afghan fighters, of whom about 600 had already arrived. They were under the command of Gul Hydar and came with tanks and other fighting vehicles, the councilman said.
A convoy of 12 to 15 tanks was seen in Logar province Friday heading south from Kabul to Gardez. An Associated Press photographer saw another convoy in the same direction, including trucks carrying multiple rocket launchers and other vehicles with soldiers armed with rifles and grenade launchers.
The need for reinforcements became apparent after U.S. commanders, relying heavily on their Afghan partners, underestimated the size of the al-Qaida force.
Afghan fighters said they were told to expect about 100-150 al-Qaida foes. However, U.S. officials are now estimating kills in the hundreds — greater than their initial estimates of the entire force.
In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the offensive could end as early as this weekend but said al-Qaida was also rushing in reinforcements and supplies.
"We have seen some infiltration of additional fighters in small numbers, traveling in SUVs from the south," Smith said.
Wiercinski said al-Qaida remained "a determined force" but that seven days into the operation U.S. troops were no longer seeing large groups of fighters.
"We still see small pockets of resistance," he said. "They are determined. Whether you would call that martyrdom or whatever, they are still determined in their small pockets."
U.S. Special Forces teams established checkpoints along roads and smuggling routes to try to intercept al-Qaida fighters trying to slip in from the area along the Pakistani border.
An Afghan commander, Abdul Matin Hasankhiel, said some al-Qaida sympathizers managed to cross the Pakistani border early in the battle but he thought most had been blocked.
Hafeezullah, a member of the Surmad town council, said men from his region probably joined the fight on the al-Qaida side because of the prestige of the local commander, Saif Rahman, a former Taliban official whose family comes from the area.
Rahman issued a call earlier in the week for jihad, or holy war, against the U.S. campaign. In Surmad, loudspeakers repeated the call, saying it was the duty of Muslims to fight, said the deputy intelligence chief in Gardez, Ziarat Gul.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon is sending about 200 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., equipped with 16 Apache helicopters and four CH-47 Chinook helicopter transports. About 107 members of a Canadian infantry unit are also on the way.
"We will continue to build our power in the area concerning al-Qaida," Wiercinski said.
Land mines were complicating the advance. U.S. and Afghan mine clearing teams have been sent to the area to clear the way for infantry assaults.
Documents found by coalition troops conducting cave-to-cave searches have shed light on the tactics of the al-Qaida troops, who are using heavy weaponry including mortars, small cannons, rocket-propelled grenades and shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles.
"This hardened enemy are the same type of people that executed the events of 11 September," Smith said. "It's obvious from the documents we're getting that they're not just peasants. These are highly trained military soldiers."
However, he said the militants were surprised when the offensive was launched March 1.
"I think they believed that we were going to fight them head on and we hit them in the rear. And even though they knew for seven or eight days that we were going to attack, they just didn't know where or exactly when," he said.