Martin Savidge: Drawing out al Qaeda

CNN's Martin Savidge

(CNN) -- The pace of Operation Anaconda in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan has slowed, but sporadic fighting continues as U.S.-led forces search for remaining pockets of al Qaeda and Taliban loyalists.

CNN Correspondent Martin Savidge reported the latest Sunday from Bagram air base near the Afghan capital, Kabul.

MARTIN SAVIDGE: Operation Anaconda is continuing. It is now two weeks and two days since it began. And though there has been no significant fighting in almost a week, there are continuing to be clashes with forces up in an area of topography that's known as "the whale."

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Canadian forces and members of the [U.S. Army] 10th Mountain [Division] continue to work over that very large mountain ridge, looking for remaining pockets of al Qaeda and Taliban. And, in some cases, they're finding them. They are specifically trying to find them, trying to draw their fire.

As part of this operation, what they do is purposely make contact with what remaining cells of fighters are out there. Once an exchange of gunfire or a firefight takes place, then they can quickly identify where the terrorists are hiding and then call in close air support or use what are called AT-4s. These are a shoulder-launched missile that quickly goes in and destroys the cave and those that are inside as well.

A number of bodies have been discovered up there, large supplies of weapons. But most important of all, they are finding documents, diaries and journals that were kept by the al Qaeda and Taliban forces themselves. They're written in other languages besides English.

Most of the fighters that were in the mountain area there are believed to have been non-Afghan Taliban. And that information could give [allied forces] more insight into the operation of al Qaeda itself and where al Qaeda could be heading next, and most important of all, where the leaders of al Qaeda and the Taliban may still be.

This may seem like a rather tedious and perhaps not-so-hazardous job, but that would be incorrect. It is still very dangerous, the mopping-up procedure. Some soldiers have begun returning; for the Canadian forces, that's significant -- they haven't been in a combat operation for more than 50 years.

All of the soldiers, now veterans of Operation Anaconda, say they don't necessarily look forward to getting into a fight on the next operation, but they know what they're up against now. And forewarned is forearmed.