U.S. and coalition warplanes -- long-range B-1 Lancers and B-52 Stratofortresses and carrier-based jets in the Indian Ocean -- flew 118 sorties and struck four times at targets in the Zawar Kili and Khost areas of eastern Afghanistan January 6, a Pentagon spokesman says.

"The job is not complete. We're finding stuff, and we're attacking that stuff," Navy Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem said at a Pentagon briefing January 7.

At Zawar Kili, he said, U.S. Special Forces and anti-Taliban troops found armored personnel carriers, artillery, munitions and other war materials. They pulled the equipment and munitions out of hiding places and called in airstrikes to destroy them, he said.

At Khost, he said, U.S. forces found a small number of anti-aircraft weapons.

Stufflebeem also said the tunnel and cave complex at Zawar Kili, which is a former al-Qaida equipment, command and support haven, is now becoming a focal point for al-Qaida forces to regroup. He said it has become "a relatively active area."

Victoria Clarke, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, outlined during the Pentagon briefing the primary U.S. objectives of current military operations in Afghanistan.

"The military operations are focused on achieving the following outcomes: to make clear to the Taliban leaders and their supporters that harboring terrorists is unacceptable and carries a price; to acquire intelligence to facilitate future operations against al-Qaida and the Taliban regime that harbors the terrorists; to develop relationships with groups in Afghanistan that oppose the Taliban regime and the foreign terrorists that they support; to alter the military balance over time by denying to the Taliban the offensive systems that hamper the progress of the various opposition forces; and to provide humanitarian relief to Afghans suffering truly oppressive living conditions under the Taliban regime," she said.

Efforts last week [December 30-January 5] to arrange for the surrender of some Taliban forces in the Baghran region did not produce any new prisoners, Stufflebeem said.

"Whether [Taliban leader] Mullah [Mohammed] Omar was ever there, we don't know," he said.

Stufflebeem said the number of detainees transferred to U.S. forces continues to grow, and stands at 346. "There are 300 in Kandahar, 21 at Baghran, 16 in Mazar-i-Sharif, and nine aboard the USS Bataan.

"We expect to be able to begin transfer shortly of many of these detainees to the facilities in Guantanamo Bay [Cuba]," he said.