By GEOFF CUMMING and AGENCIES
More United States special forces have entered Afghanistan to support anti-Taleban rebels as military leaders admit the hardline regime still controls substantial troop numbers that will take time to thin out and conquer.
"We're settling in for the long haul," said Air Force General Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The US-led military campaign would continue to "resupply" the opposition Northern Alliance throughout the approaching winter. "We think that they have every chance of prevailing."
The general said two more teams of special forces went into Afghanistan during the weekend. Each team typically has about a dozen soldiers. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week he hoped to at least triple the number of special forces in that country, believed to number between 100 and 200.
The teams are likely to include Green Berets, US Army commandos who specialise in advising foreign troops. Special forces on the ground can also pinpoint targets for US airstrikes.
Myers said the war on terrorism was the most important assignment the US military had faced since the Second World War and would take "a long, long time" to complete.
President George W. Bush said the military campaign would continue throughout the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, starting mid-November.
"The enemy won't rest during Ramadan and neither will we," Bush said. "We're going to pursue this war until we achieve our objectives."
In a visit to Pakistan, Rumsfeld broke the news to military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, who had called for a pause in the bombing in the face of mounting domestic protests.
Rumsfeld said: " It's an important question and an issue that we are sensitive to. But the reality is that threats of terrorist acts are still there and ... they offer the prospect of still more thousands of people being killed."
The airstrikes, which initially took out Taleban air defences, communications and military facilities, have switched in the past 12 days to easing the path for Northern Alliance forces to attack the Taleban on the ground.
Yesterday, B52 bombers repeatedly carpet-bombed northern Takhar province, near the border with Tajikistan, as fighter-bombers made precision strikes.
US bombs also targeted caves and tunnels suspected as Taleban and al Qaeda hideouts .
Northern Alliance officials said they had begun a major offensive near Mazar-i-Sharif. Capture of the city would open a supply route from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
But the Taleban said it had regained Aq Kupruk and other areas south of Mazar after fierce weekend fighting.
Verifiable claims about effects of the bombing are hard to come by but American assertions that they are weakening the Taleban were given credence by petty smugglers who bring donkey-loads of tea, sugar and other goods to opposition-held towns.
The "donkey men" reported seeing dead Taleban troops in frontline posts that received direct hits, and pickup trucks loaded with the injured.
In other developments:
* An American arrested two weeks ago in southern Afghanistan has died of natural causes in hospital, a Taleban official said. John Bolton of California entered the country as a relief worker and was arrested near the Pakistan border. His body was handed over to the International Committee of Red Cross.
* US helicopters plucked a sick special operations agent from northern Afghanistan in a second rescue attempt on Sunday. Four crew were injured in an earlier attempt when a helicopter crash-landed in freezing rain.
* At least 1500 armed Pakistani tribesmen crossed into Afghanistan to support the Taleban in the "holy war" against the US.
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Links: War against terrorism
Timeline: Major events since the Sept 11 attacks
US bolsters special forces
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