Washington ? After one of the most difficult weeks for the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan, the Pentagon delivered a harsh message: Be prepared for more of the same.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said a fierce battle to crush al-Qaida and Taliban holdouts in the east of the country could be finished in “seven, eight, 10 days.”

But even if coalition forces killed every last enemy fighter in the Shah-e-Kot valley, there are others to be had.

“We’ve got a lot of cleaning up to do,” Rumsfeld said