The Taliban regime is no longer in control of about two-thirds of Afghanistan and opposition forces continue to make gains in certain areas, a Defense Department spokesman says.

Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem told journalists at the Pentagon November 16, "I think it's fair to say that the Taliban have now lost control of over two-thirds of Afghanistan." However, he later noted that it should not be inferred that opposition forces are in charge in all the areas not under Taliban control. "There may be places -- there are pockets of resistance where we're not sure who has control," he said.

"Opposition groups continue to make gains south of Kabul and around Herat," Stufflebeem said. They are also consolidating gains made at the end of last week, especially around the town of Konduz, he said. Opposition groups in the south are attacking Taliban forces and approaching the towns of Ghazni and Jalalabad, he added.

As Defense Secretary Rumsfeld had done earlier in the day, Stufflebeem asserted that the United States has intelligence information -- which it considers authoritative but which has not been confirmed -- that Mohammed Atef, considered to be Osama bin Laden's principal deputy, was killed in an air strike a couple of days ago. "[I]f, in fact, Atef has been killed, that will have an impact on future operations. That's good for us," he continued. "It probably has no impact on operations that have already been planned...."

On November 15, U.S. and coalition forces flew about 75 strike aircraft on missions into Afghanistan, Stufflebeem reported. About 55 were carrier-based aircraft, while approximately 10 were land-based jets, with a similar number of long-range bombers involved. They flew against five planned targets and several engagement zones, and concentrated on terrorist and Taliban caves and tunnel complexes, as well as Taliban military forces when and where they could be identified.

Three C-17 transport aircraft flew November 15, Stufflebeem said. One of them delivered 17,000 humanitarian daily rations, bringing the total number of food packages air-dropped into the country to about 1.54 million, he said. The other two brought in containers of blankets and wheat. Two psychological operations also took place: Commando Solo radio broadcasting flights were made, and leaflets were air-dropped in several locations around the country.