The US military says blizzards in east Afghanistan have interrupted a battle to rout al Qaeda fighters in remote mountain caves, frustrating Washington's hopes of a swift end to fighting.
US military spokesman Major Bryan Hilferty said today driving snow, rain and strong winds had slowed the fighting in the freezing mountains near the eastern city of Gardez.
The US military says eight U.S. troops and seven Afghan soldiers have also died in fighting near Gardez that aims to destroy what the military calls a hardened core of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.
More than 1,000 Afghan troop reinforcements and at least 10 tanks sent to Gardez in the past 24 hours were bogged down on muddy roads near the battle.
Major Hilferty said the weather, currently classified "red" for the worst possible conditions, was expected to improve later today in the battlefield area, 95 miles south of Kabul, in mountains that soar 12,000 feet.
US soldiers have taken up blocking positions around the Shahi Kot valley combat zone, and the al Qaeda fighters - said to number now around 200 - have gone to ground in the southern end of the valley after going head-to-head with US forces in the first days of the attack.
The weather forced Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Washington to back down from forecasting the battle could end over the weekend. He said the it might now go on for another seven to 10 days.
"The intensity of the battle has calmed down," he told CNN on Friday. "We're still continuing to bomb and there is some ground fire coming out from the al Qaeda but it's relatively modest at the moment."
The US military estimates there are just 200 al Qaeda fighters of the 1,000 who were active at the height of the battle still holding out against a coalition force of more than 3,000.