Inside Centcom

By Mitch Frank

As al-Qaeda leaders huddled in their caves in the Shah-i-Kot mountains last week, enduring allied bombs, howling snowstorms and temperatures that fell to 15[degrees]F, their counterparts were prosecuting the war from sunny Tampa, Fla. High-tech warfare allows General Tommy Franks and his Central Command officers to run the battle from MacDill Air Force Base, 7,700 miles from Kabul. The command center at MacDill monitors all the intelligence from the region and beams Franks' orders to his field generals. Last week he directed the largest fight of the war so far. A few days before Operation Anaconda began, Centcom gave TIME photographer Christopher Morris a rare opportunity to capture the action.

--By Mitch Frank