Ice, Snow And Bullets

In some of the heaviest bombing of the past week's battle against tenacious Taliban and al Qaeda fighters, airstrikes from U.S. B-52 bombers rattled the ground Thursday as reinforcements were rushed to the latest front on the war on terror.

U.S. and allied Afghan soldiers are moving forward under al Qaeda fire, taking some ridges and caves in the mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan, according to Maj. Bryan Hilfery, a spokesman for the 10th Mountain Division.

U.S.-led infantry units have cleared out several cave hideouts and al Qaeda compounds, including some where troops found AK-47 ammunition, medicine, night-vision devices and documents, including a Saudi identification card.

Lieutenant Colonel Joe Smith said the U.S.-led force was facing hardened fighters of "the type responsible for the events of September 11."

"There were lots of al Qaeda casualties overnight in the fighting," said Smith, at a Bagram Air Base news conference early Friday.

The battle twists along a six-mile front line of bunkers and caves up to the top of 10,000-foot peaks around the village of Shahi Kot.

At least eight U.S. troops and seven Afghan soldiers have died in the operation and about 40 U.S. and 30 Afghan troops have been wounded since Operation Anaconda began March 1.

One of the fatalities was Navy SEAL Neil Roberts who fell out of his helicopter and was dragged away by the enemy, apparently still alive, reports CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin. He had written his wife a letter in case he didn't make it back. "If I died doing something for the (SEAL) teams, then I died doing what made me happy. Very few people have the luxury of that."

Most of the American casualties occurred when soldiers were sent into battle with inadequate intelligence about the enemy.

"The picture the intel painted was just a little bit different than the actual events happening on the ground by numbers of al Qaeda and the type of position they had set up and so forth," said Sergeant Major Frank Grippe.

Still recovering from shrapnel wounds, he was one of the first soldiers helicoptered in to what turned out to be a hornet's net of al Qaeda.

"We started receiving mortar fire, rocket propelled grenades, heavy machine gun fire, light machine gun fire, small arms fire - all from the hills above us," he said. "The al Qaeda, because they've been there for so many years, have all the low ground in the valley zeroed in with their mortars, so it didn't take long for them to bracket in on our mortar, and we sustained our first injuries."

Several U.S. troops have been treated for altitude sickness after spending days in the thin air and freezing cold.

Adding an unpredictable twist to the largest U.S.-led battle of the Afghan war so far, snow swept over the mountains where U.S.-led forces fought holdouts.

American forces back from the high-altitude front line in eastern Afghanistan reported sharp temperature drops, while Afghan soldiers worried they would lose crucial U.S. bombing support as bad weather closed in.

The next 48 to 72 hours are critical in this campaign, reports CBS News Contributor Dodge Billingsley. U.S. conventional forces in their blocking positions have relied on the Chinook helicopters for fresh supplies of food ammunition, water and cold weather gear. But, with the storm moving in they may lose these fresh supplies.

This is also a very difficult campaign as the elevation varies from about 7,500 feet to 9,000 feet. It's snowy and rocky and there were soldiers who had altitude sickness — some passed out along the way but all in all 99 percent of the combat soldiers made it up the hill.

Speaking with different soldiers, it was clear that they came in contact with enemy forces in nearly every landing zone. Soldier after soldier told of being shot at with rocket-propelled grenades, small arms fire and mortar rounds.

General F.L. Buster Hagenbeck, the commander of Anaconda, said militants were rushing to join a jihad, or holy war, against the United States.

Only around 150 to 200 enemy fighters were in the area when the U.S.-led attack began on Saturday east of Gardez, capital of Paktia province, he said, but this number rose rapidly.

Some Afghan commanders have put the number of regrouped al Qaeda and Taliban fighters as high as 2,300, scattered in forbidding terrain containing thousands of caves and bunkers built to fight Soviet forces in the 1980s.

It quickly became clear to troops on the ground they faced a formidable enemy, including Chechens, Pakistanis and Uzbeks. They are armed with mortars, small cannons, rocket-propelled grenades, shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles and Kalashnikov rifles.

Afghan soldiers returning to Gardez from the front line said the rebels were making hit-and-run attacks using tactics honed against the former Soviet army.

In Kabul, meanwhile, five international peacekeepers — two Germans and three Danes — were killed while trying to defuse a Soviet-era missile. Eight peacekeepers were injured in the first fatal accident since the force, which is separate from the U.S. military operation, was deployed to Kabul in December.

In southern Afghanistan, a fire at an ammunition depot sent shrapnel and other ordinance streaming over the heads of coalition troops Thursday, killing three U.S.-allied Afghan fighters, Canadian forces said. Canadian forces, who guard the perimeter of the Kandahar air base, said the fire was started inadvertently by the Afghan fighters as they tried to collect firewood.

Throughout Thursday, thunderous blasts from U.S. B-52 bombers shook the mountains southwest of Gardez. Dozens of U.S. Army Apache attack helicopters, armed with 30 mm guns and Hellfire missiles, pounded targets in the narrow, craggy gorges.

The air bombardment, felt 30 miles from the targets, appeared heavier than in recent days. Throughout the night Wednesday, U.S. transport helicopters shuttled between Bagram air base north of Kabul and the battle to the south, bringing in fresh supplies of food, fuel and ammunition.

In Washington, Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said the number of Americans in the operation grew by 200 to 300 over the past two days, for a total of roughly 1,100. U.S. officials said they joined about 1,000 Afghan fighters and a small number of elite, special operations troops from six nations.

Afghan commander Ismail Khan, however, said, "There are 5,000 soldiers collecting in Shah-e-Kot for a final offensive on the al Qaeda to finish them off."

Khan said a U.S. special operations unit moved into the battle area Wednesday.

"I think the days ahead are going to continue to be dangerous days for our forces," Franks said in Washington. "But the alternative to taking such a risk is not acceptable."

On Wednesday, Franks raised the possibility sending in even more firepower, including additional transport aircraft, infantry and special operations troops. He described the situation on the ground as "very messy," and increasingly dangerous.

Operation Anaconda is intended to crush al Qaeda fighters who came to this area after the collapse of Taliban rule last year.