Al Qaeda Firepower Changed U.S. Plans

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, March 12 -- They stagger off the big black helicopters, bent low under enormous packs with ammunition and pieces of disassembled machine guns or grenade launchers strapped on top.

Their faces are burned from sun and cold, their hands caked with dirt. Most of them are infantrymen in their early twenties who had never been in combat before Operation Anaconda. Some had never seen snow before they were dropped onto 8,000-foot slopes in the Shahikot mountains.

Over the past three days, more than 600 U.S. soldiers have returned here from the fighting in eastern Afghanistan, where majestic ridges hid treacherous sniper pockets, the air was pure but nearly impossible to breathe, and starry nights were filled with the roar of bombing.