Bagram, Afghanistan ? The major fighting is over in the weeklong operation to clear al-Qaida and Taliban forces from eastern Afghanistan, the Army said Sunday. Wave after wave of helicopters flew into the Bagram air base north of Kabul, disgorging tired, mud-covered soldiers back from front after eight days of fighting.

They were greeted at tents by hugs and shouts from elated fellow soldiers. The returning troops slapped hands, smiled and cheered, “We’re home.”

However, the Army said Operation Anaconda itself was not over and would continue until the last of the enemy holdouts have been eliminated.

“The major fighting of the battle is over,” Maj. Bryan Hilferty, spokesman of the 10th Mountain Division, said. “But operations in the area will continue.”

Hilferty said U.S. troops had not received “sustained and accurate” fire from al-Qaida in the past few days.

“But this battle is not over,” Hilferty said. “If I were an al-Qaida guy, I wouldn’t go out for a pizza. Operation Anaconda is not over.”

On Saturday, Afghan fighters told The Associated Press that the enemy force had taken refuge in two caves and was running out of ammunition. However, al-Qaida had ringed the area with land mines, and heavy clouds and snow had made low-level, pinpoint bombing difficult.

One of the returning soldiers, 2nd Lt. Christopher Blaha, 24, of Great Neck, N.Y., said he had lost two friends in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

Blaha said he wrote the name of one of them, Andrew Stergiopoulos, on every grenade he fired at the enemy. Stergiopoulos, 23, was an employee at financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald, which had its offices in the World Trade Center.

Spc. Chad Fuller, 22, Potsdam, N.Y., said the worst part of the fighting was the incoming mortar fire.

“I guess now I’m a veteran,” he said.

Pfc. Steven Bishop, 19, of Wausau, N.Y., went to his tent to find a letter waiting for him from his wife, Stefanie, whom he hasn’t seen since they got married in May.

Troops said they had not expected to find as many Taliban and al-Qaida forces waiting for them when they moved into the rugged mountains of Paktia province on March 2.

The troops also said they did not expect to be in the field so long.

Some spoke of temperatures well below freezing at night. There were cases of hypothermia, they said, and drinking water would freeze.

For the first three days, Blaha said the troops slept on the ground huddled together for warmth under a single blanket.

Soldiers tried to sleep during the day because it was so cold at night.

However, they said the air support was extraordinary and that there wasn’t a half hour during the operation when bombs weren’t falling.

“I was in awe from all the air support we got,” Bishop said. “I was more excited than scared.”