US: We have upper hand now

US Commanders believe they are gaining the upper hand in air operations on Afghanistan because of the increasingly ragged response from Taliban forces. In many cases, according to the Pentagon, the Taliban are not firing back at US aircraft.

Winding up his tour of five front-line allies, including Russia and Pakistan, the US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld said America was not in for a long war over Afghanistan. "Do I think Afghanistan will take years? No I don't," he told reporters.

The chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, General Richard Myers, has said that his commanders are prepared to wait a couple of months to prepare the Northern Alliance for an all-out attack on Mazar-i-Sharif, the key city of Afghanistan's northern plain.

"We can be very patient," he said, adding: "One thing we are is resolute and determined. If it takes two months that's fine."

The Americans believe that the Taliban have been sustaining much heavier casualties - more than 300 wounded in one battle area, according to unconfirmed reports from the region. General Myers said that he thought that the spiritual leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Omar, had gone to ground. He has not been seen "out and about".

Mullah Omar's compound was the objective of one of the first Ranger and special forces attacks two weekends ago. However, according to the veteran correspondent Seymour Hersh, the raid on the compound was little short of disastrous for the Americans, who ran into heavy fire and a counter-attack by the Taliban. Hersh says that 10 of the US soldiers were wounded in the attack, and one had his foot blown off.

Later an American Chinook CH47 helicopter crashed its undercarriage in an emergency landing to avoid ground fire.

His reports of injuries have been dismissed by the Pentagon as false, although the US commanders have not followed up with similar attacks since then. The number of US special forces inside Afghanistan is still thought to be less than 100. It is now thought that the CIA has surveillance and intelligence teams working across northern Afghanistan.

American officers have been surveying air bases in neighbouring Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgystan for a sustained winter bombing campaign. This will prepare the way for a more extensive use of American and UK special forces, according to US military sources. US patrols have already been using an airstrip at Golbahar, 40 miles north of Kabul.

The Americans are using a variety of tactics and weaponry to keep the Taliban guessing while they prepare the Northern Alliance to take the Mazar enclave in the north. The latest weapon to be introduced to the Taliban is the 15,000lb "daisy cutter" bomb. This detonates a mixture of ammonium nitrate and aluminium powder to incinerate an area of 300 square yards.

Meanwhile, the US Embassy in Islamabad has denied that the body handed over by the Taliban is that of an American. The Taliban named him as John Bolton.