BAGRAM, SHAHI KOT

While US military officials are declaring "Operation Anaconda" a success, Afghan Commanders and other officials are providing a different report saying many fighters simply slipped across the border along secret mountain paths. They also said only few bodies had been found.

Speaking at the Bagram airbase north of the capital Kabul, General Hackenback was adamant that Operation Anaconda had been an unqualified success.

"Escaped? Of course, some people got out of Shahi Kot," he was quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency.

"But I take exception to any supposition that large numbers escaped," he said.

"We destroyed hundreds of al-Qaeda's most experienced fighters and terrorists. We destroyed their base of terrorist operations and we eliminated their sanctuary," he told reporters.

Amanullah Zadran, the Minister of frontiers and tribal affairs said, "They have only killed the small fighters," who argues that there were no more than 800 fighters in the area to begin with, making it highly unlikely that 500 of them were killed. "They haven't killed anyone important. The important thing is to remove the key figures of Al Qaeda," Zadran says.

"They [Al Qaeda and other anti-Western forces] are waiting for the summer," said Zadran. "The climate will change completely, and if the US and the ISAF don't strengthen their troops rapidly and take serious measures, there's a real danger of a guerrilla war being launched against them."

Some Afghan mullahs are calling on Muslims in provincial areas to sign up for a new Jihad to drive out the latest invading 'infidels' - the US-led coalition and the interim administration they helped install.