The New York Times is reporting that the cave-by-cave hunt for Usama Bin Laden is losing steam:

The American- backed effort to comb the caves of Tora Bora for signs of Osama bin Laden, his fighters and intelligence on terrorist attacks that might be in the works has made little progress and seems to be fading as a top priority, American and Afghan officials said today.

More than 50 American Special Operations troops remain in the region, but they are not searching any caves themselves, military officials said. The Afghan militia members carrying out that task are relatively few in number, poorly clothed for scouring the rugged terrain in increasingly harsh winter weather and unenthusiastic about the mission.

Apparently, many of the caves are being looted for profit; consequently, Special Forces soldiers are “focused on examining materials recovered from the caves and positioning themselves to call in daily airstrikes,” according to Pentagon officials.

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