Calling the current situation in Afghanistan fluid and dynamic, a Defense Department spokesman says the United States still believes it has a difficult job ahead that may take time to accomplish.

Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem told journalists at the Pentagon November 14, "To believe that we have a collapse and therefore are now ... watching the dismantlement of the Taliban to the point where they are ineffective -- that could be a dangerous assumption. We still believe that we have a hard job in front of us. And it may still take some time," he said.

Stufflebeem said that Taliban forces are abandoning cities that they formerly controlled, but noted that their motivation remains unclear. "It may be that they are regrouping. It may be that they are abandoning and retreating," he said. Some Taliban forces may be heading west of their traditional stronghold of Kandahar, while others may be trying to cross the border into Pakistan, he added.

Defections among Taliban forces are occurring, Stufflebeem said, but he did not venture an estimate of their extent. He pointed out that ac
tion by opposition groups in the north and U.S. efforts to air-drop leaflets are both working to encourage the Taliban to defect.

On November 13, U.S. and coalition forces flew about 80 strike aircraft on missions into Afghanistan, Stufflebeem reported. About 60 were carrier-based aircraft, while approximately 10 were land-based jets, with a similar number of long-range bombers involved. They flew against three planned targets and several engagement zones, and concentrated on terrorist and Taliban cave and tunnel complexes.

Three C-17 transport aircraft delivered 39,000 humanitarian daily rations, bringing the total number of food packages air-dropped into the country to almost 1.5 million, he said. Two psychological operations -- the Commando Solo radio broadcasting flights and the air-dropping of leaflets in six locations around the country -- also took place.