Taliban sympathisers warn of revenge

Taliban sympathisers in Afghanistan have told an American television station their tribes will defeat the US.

They were speaking from a cave, around 50 miles from the Shah-e-Kot Valley, where Operation Anaconda was fought.

Jallad Khan, a leader of one pro-Taliban tribal group, says he has 400 gunmen ready to fight. He added: "Disappearing from the battlefield does not mean the Taliban have completely disappeared. They can come back to life again."

Another man, named only as Nasrullah, told a CBS reporter "revenge is in the air".

He said: "The tribes will put up every kind of resistance until they have defeated the Americans."

American officials acknowledge some al-Qaida and Taliban fighters may have escaped Operation Anaconda.

Major General Frank L Hagenbeck, the commander of coalition troops in Afghanistan, said: "What we do know is that there are some folks down there right now with money in their pocket trying to regain support of the local population."

CIA director George Tenet told a Senate hearing that al-Qaida's leaders are still at large and its foot soldiers are becoming harder to track down.