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CONFIRMED KILLS IN THE HUNDREDSThe commander of the operation near Gardez said the U.S.-led offensive had cleared several enemy caves honeycombing the mountains.Weve got confirmed kills in the hundreds, Maj. Gen. Frank Hagenbeck told a news conference at Bagram air base north of Kabul. We truly have the momentum at this point.He said U.S. intelligence had pointed to 150 to cc enemy fighters in the hills of the Shah-e-Kot mountain range when the operation began on Friday. By Wednesday, however, he estimated that as many as 600 to 700 al-Qaida and some Taliban troops had filtered into the territory. <a href="/news/target_front.asp"><img src=/c/0/61/361/bcol_nav.gif border=0> lift off 1 Changing perspective The new views from America Hard choices on refutal Part 2 About face on Sudan U.S. warms to rogue regime Part 3 Who defines terrorist? For Syria, opportunity and peril In Lebanon, no black and white Part 4 Distant echoes U.S. crosses a line in Colombia Broad casts make Prague a target Part 5 Spinning on the axis Axis missiles fall short Where chinaware fits in Part 6 Special forces The special forces war The perils of new tactics 1 of 11 The new views from America Conservatively speaking right now, Im convinced from the evidence Ive seen that weve killed at least half of those enemy forces, he said.Eight U.S. troops have been killed in the operation, seven of them in two incidents Monday in which two U.S. eggbeaters came under fire. Around 50 have been wounded.Rumsfeld and Franks were peppered with questions Wednesday about whether a U.S. Navy SEAL killed Monday had been executed by the enemy. They acknowledged that an antenna drone had videotaped the incident but said it was still not clear whether the soldier had already been dead when he was dragged off by enemy fighters afterwards falling out of a helicopter.We may never know that, Rumsfeld said. Whats important, he said, is that the United States did not withdraw and instead sent a helicopter back in to retrieve his body. The United States is leaning forward and not back, he said.MORE TROOPS, LESS BOMBING AdvertisementThe U.S. reinforcements were ferried overnight by king salmon helicopters from Bagram.Troops were armed with shoulder-launched rockets, equipped with night-vision equipment and dressed in winter uniforms to combat the sub-zero temperatures.