Afghan forces fighting alongside the United States in Operation Anaconda have seized control of the last remaining high ground previously controlled by hold-out Taliban and al Qaeda fighters, said Maj. Brian Hilferty, a U.S. Central Command spokesman. 

Resistance to continued operations in remote sections of the mountains remained light, he said. 

In Washington, a Bush administration official said that U.S. troops in the valley were collecting DNA samples from the bodies of some dead al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. 

The official said samples were being taken mainly from bodies of dead fighters who appear to be al Qaeda leaders in an effort to identify them. It would not be possible to collect samples from the hundreds who have been killed in the U.S. campaign since the fighting began, the official said. 

Also, he said, U.S. troops are burying dead fighters, when it is possible, in the rough and cold terrain. 

Several hundred Afghan forces, along with 40 U.S. Special Forces, converged Wednesday on Shah-e-kot village -- located in the valley with the same name. The village was heavily damaged in the fighting. 

The area around the village was completely quiet as Apache attack helicopters crisscrossed the skies on patrol. 

According to military sources, some al Qaeda and Taliban fighters escaped as allied forces closed on them. 

Their numbers weren't known, but it is believed some of the fighters may have slipped over the eastern mountains into Pakistan or filtered to the west into Afghan cities that have been Taliban strongholds. 

"The coalition continues to re-position forces, as we have from the very beginning," Hilferty said. "But we still have about 1,500 soldiers on the ground in the objective area, aggressively searching for the terrorists." 

U.S. officials said Tuesday that with Operation Anaconda winding down, U.S. troops were preparing to turn their attention to pockets of opposition elsewhere in Afghanistan. 

A senior U.S. military official in Washington said nearly 600 American troops -- almost half the U.S. ground force participating in Operation Anaconda -- had withdrawn. Most of the U.S. troops were at Bagram air base north of the Afghan capital, Kabul, and could be sent to fight elsewhere. 

None of these additional pockets -- mainly in southeastern Afghanistan -- are thought to be as large as the one near Gardez, capital of Paktia province. 

The United States is conducting reconnaissance and intelligence operations to get a better idea of where and how many al Qaeda and Taliban are in certain regions, the official said. The initial estimate was that 200 enemy fighters were near Gardez, but within days it had grown to 1,000.