Anaconda ends; battle winds on

There is no evidence that anyone senior is up on Mister Bill, but that shouldn't matter, he says. "The Americans are only thinking about a few big guys, but they're not thinking about all the other guys. Maybe they will make a new Osama, or change their name," he says, a Kalashnikov resting across his lap.

He didn't find it necessary to walk around in his own family-run military headquarters so well-armed up until a week ago, he says. But just outside his door, he and another brother – a senior military commander – were almost assassinated by unknown assailants. Three bodyguards took the bullets instead, and died.

Wazir Khan is the youngest of the seven Khan sons. He and his brothers have been scions of power here since their father served as a parliament member during the reign of KingMohammed Zahir Shah.

Wazir was born and brought up in Pakistan during his eldest brother's struggle against the Soviets in the 1980s.

There, he learned to speak a comfortable English. That has helped his older brother's militias communicate with US forces more smoothly in order to make sure these Afghans play an integral part in the war against Al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives.

But in the battle against Taliban and Al Qaeda forces, he says – echoing complaints that pop up as frequently as the flag-festooned tombs of martyrs that color the brown, mountainous countryside – American intelligence has been weak. The US forces, he says, are too focused on finding Osama bin Laden and Mullah Muhammad Omar – overlooking the possibility of new leaders springing up in their place. In a separate interview, the elder brother, Badsha Khan, says the US has been too slow to act on his information.

"I was the man telling the Americans that they were in Shah-i-Kot, but they did not take care of that soon enough, and that's why [Al Qaeda and Taliban forces] are getting stronger here," says Badsha, a massive man who holds court with a gleaming ammunition belt spread across his wide chest. "That's why they were not that successful there and suffered losses," he says.

Malik Jan, another commander in this area, also worries that the Al Qaeda forces are not just attracting local villagers, but are confusing some of their pro-government troops.

At one point during the recent fighting, an Al Qaeda fighter got on a megaphone and addressed the Afghans in Pashto. "They said, 'You are Muslims. We are Muslims. We don't want to kill you. Send the Americans in,' " says Malik Jan.

Later on, after the heaviest fighting of Operation Anaconda was past, he says, about 300 of the anti-Al Qaeda Afghan forces were captured. They had gone into the caves looking for evidence, thinking most of the fighters who had been holed up in them were dead. They were not.

Instead of killing them or taking them prisoner, the Al Qaeda forces tried to sway them, and then set them free.

"When we sent everyone into the caves, our men were surrounded, and the Al Qaeda took them," says Malik Jan.

"They arrested 300 of our men, they took our weapons and jumpers and uniforms," he says. "They said, 'Go back to your bosses, and tell them we don't want to fight you and kill you. We want to kill the Americans.'"

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