On The Mop-Up Patrol

The U.S. forces have learned to respect their adversaries. "Small-sized teams can do a lot of damage," says special-forces soldier "Alabama Chris," wearing a Crimson Tide cap with his camouflage pants. The enemy can slip away easily: surrounding Shah-i-Kot are countless villages that offer succor to al-Qaeda fighters. "Part of the focus is to seal off their supply routes, or what we call rat lines," says Alabama Chris. That isn't easy. Covert supply routes between villages run along dried-up creeks. Cave entrances to the bunkers can be almost impossible to detect. Subterranean complexes have been discovered between buildings in the middle of villages. The arsenal on hand is formidable. "If it's man portable or can be carried over the mountains on donkey, then most likely they've got it," says Oklahoma Chris. South of the valley, Afghan forces trained by the Americans have set up roadblocks to prevent fighters' escaping over the mountains to Pakistan. Balaclava-clad soldiers search every vehicle and passenger while the barrels of heavy machine guns and RPGS poke through windows. "We intend to make sure none of them escape," local warlord Pacha Khan Zadran tells TIME.

That's a fine sentiment. But it begs a question: How many al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters survived the battle of Shah-i-Kot to fight another day? The Pentagon has boasted of hundreds dead, but they aren't evident in the valley. In Sarkhankhel, only three bodies are visible. Farther upstream, another lies in pieces in a garden. The special forces are cagey about numbers. "Even if we did have them," says a soldier, "we wouldn't be authorized to disclose them." But the Americans insist that the death toll is high. "I've seen them," says Alabama Chris, of al-Qaeda corpses. "I can definitely corroborate that what we've done in the valley has been effective." At the company HQ, another American commando reflects for a while about how many dead al-Qaeda fighters he has seen. "All I can say," he muses, "is that business has been good." That may be; but this business isn't over.