U.S. forces performing sweeps through the area north of Jalalabad June 24 were fired on with rockets or mortars, according to a Defense Department spokesman.

Air Force Brigadier General John Rosa said at a Pentagon briefing June 25 that there were no U.S. casualties from the attack. He said U.S. forces responded with mortar fire, and also called in close-air support by F-18 jets. No battle damage assessment is available yet, Rosa said.

Rosa, deputy director for current operations on the Joint Staff, said Operation Mountain Lion's recent sweeps have uncovered several weapons caches, including one June 24 that included 107 millimeter rockets, anti-personnel mines and two towed howitzers -- 57- and 76-millimeter anti-aircraft guns. The focus area is eastern Afghanistan, he said.

Asked whether any al-Qaida or Taliban fighters had been captured and detained as a result of the sweeps over the previous month, Rosa said several had been detained, but that it takes time to screen them. In the past, he said, many detainees have ended up being released. He later added that possible enemy forces are mixed in with the civilian population, which makes finding them a difficult task.

Responding on the same topic, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Victoria Clarke noted U.S. defense officials have been saying for months that "the further along you went, the harder it was going to be to find the remaining pockets" of enemy forces. "[T]he pockets that remain are, as the secretary said, the dead-enders. It's very hard to find them," Clarke said.

Rosa also noted that 564 detainees currently are being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; 83 more in Afghanistan; one in Charleston, South Carolina, and one in Norfolk, Virginia.