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Operation Anaconda may be winding down

SUMMARY:

U.S. airstrikes targeted al Qaeda positions Tuesday in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan's Paktia province, while Afghan fighters took the lead on the ground, seizing two key sites and making progress on others.

A U.S. military spokesman said al Qaeda and Taliban forces were offering light resistance.

"We have not received accurate or sustained enemy fire for more than five days," said Maj. Bryan Hilferty.

Some U.S. troops were returning Tuesday from the eastern Afghan mountains to the main U.S. base at Kandahar International Airport in southern Afghanistan, an indication that Operation Anaconda may be winding down. (Full story)

Meanwhile, an Afghan war detainee participating in a hunger strike at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said "nobody cares" about their plight. In a recording heard by CNN, the prisoner yelled, "We are on a hunger strike. We've been on a hunger strike for 14 days, and nobody cares. We need the world to know about us." (Full story)

UPDATE:

Summary Update Key questions Who's who  CNN.COM SPECIAL REPORT  CNN NewsPass Video  Agencies reportedly got hijack tips in 1998  MORE STORIES Intelligence intercept led to Buffalo suspects Report cites warnings before 9/11  EXTRA INFORMATION Timeline: Who Knew What and When? Interactive: Terror Investigation Terror Warnings System Most wanted terrorists What looks suspicious? In-Depth: America Remembers In-Depth: Terror on Tape In-Depth: How prepared is your city?  RESOURCES On the Scene: Barbara Starr: Al Qaeda hunt expands? On the Scene: Peter Bergen: Getting al Qaeda to talk

A U.S. fighter jet killed 14 people, including women and children, during a strike last week on a single vehicle believed to carrying al Qaeda forces near Shikin in eastern Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Tuesday. Most of dead were adult males, an official said. A wounded child was evacuated to a military hospital and is listed in stable condition.

The Pentagon says an enemy fighter died of illness while in U.S. custody Tuesday, one day after he was captured on the battlefield in southeastern Afghanistan. The prisoner -- who has not been identified -- was suffering from tuberculosis and pneumonia at the time of his capture, and apparently died of a resulting kidney failure, a senior Pentagon official told CNN. The official said the man was "in pretty bad shape" when he was captured Monday, and was given "the same medical treatment available to U.S. troops."

The Pentagon is hoping that an "execution order" to send initial forces to Yemen will be signed by the end of this week, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday. The order would send 40 to 80 U.S. troops to the country on the Arabian Peninsula's southern tip to train and equip the Yemeni military in counterterrorism. (Full story)

Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge said Tuesday that a new color-coded threat advisory system will create "a national framework and a common vocabulary" so that government and the private sector can deal effectively and efficiently with threats of terrorist attack. Ridge unveiled the system Tuesday to an audience of federal officials and representatives of local law enforcement. (Full story)

For the third time, a Pakistani judge Tuesday extended the deadline for prosecutors to file charges against suspects in the kidnap-slaying of American journalist Daniel Pearl --including those against chief suspect Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh. But the judge warned there would be no more delays and charges must be filed by March 22. (Full story)

The United States and Saudi Arabia have acted jointly for the first time to freeze assets suspected of supporting terrorist activities, blocking the funds of a Saudi-based Islamic group's offices in Somalia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill announced. (Full story)

"Sleeper cells" of al Qaeda members are operating around the world six months after their comrades struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, according to intelligence experts. Sources said more than 1,000 al Qaeda members began slipping out of Afghanistan before the U.S.-led war on terror and even before the September 11 attacks. (Full story)

KEY QUESTIONS:

Will the war on terror result in nuclear weapons proliferation?

How long will Operation Anaconda continue? Does it represent al Qaeda's final stand?

Will the United States need to send more troops into eastern Afghanistan?

WHO'S WHO:

Osama bin Laden: Saudi Arabian-born leader of the al Qaeda terrorist network who is accused of masterminding the September 11 strikes on the United States.

George W. Bush: U.S. president

Donald Rumsfeld: U.S. defense secretary