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CNN Live Saturday

Nighttime Attacks on Kandahar Continue

Aired October 13, 2001 - 16:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, for more on the accidental of Afghan civilians we are joined now by CNN's senior international correspondent Christiane Amanpour. She is live in Islamabad, Pakistan, roughly 100 miles or so from the Afghan border -- Christiane.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, we've been talking to our sources inside Afghanistan, and in the last few minutes there has been another wave of nighttime raids on -- air raids an and around the city of Kandahar. There have been reports of an army headquarters base inside the city being attacked as well as targets on the outskirts of the city.

In Kandahar, they are not reporting any civilian casualties over the last 24 hours, but obviously that's not the case in Kabul. The United States Pentagon, the officials there have confirmed that one so-called smart bomb did go astray, hitting a civilian neighborhood about a mile away from the airport in Kabul.

We've seen pictures and we have been broadcasting pictures of the aftermath of that attack, which came in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday. We can certainly see the rubble of modern straw-built houses that have collapsed. We can see people clambering over it to look at what has gone on. Reports from the ground say that perhaps one to four people may have been killed and up to about eight others injured. We have been shown also pictures, these of course were all taken by Al-Jazeera and Reuters who are inside Afghanistan in Kabul.

And pictures inside the hospital clearly show a wounded boy, other wounded people. There have been teenage girls, and you can see some men also with burn wounds. The doctors and some of the wounded describe what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last night, about 3:00, he came here and he is suffering from head trauma. And now he's in a coma.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I don't know whether a bomb or a rocket landed on our house. The war must be stopped. People are being hit.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I got wounded by a bomb which fell near our tent at nighttime. (END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Now, if that casualty toll that we mentioned earlier is correct, it would fortunately for those people be fairly low casualty toll. Certainly, though, people are getting increasingly rattled. You know, it's very, very huge explosions, certainly in the city like Kabul that is surrounded by mountains, can reverberate very strongly, it can send very strong echoes and sounds and can be quite terrifying for residents to listen to nightly, and a lot of people now are trying to leave the city of Kabul.

Those who can are packing up their belongings, putting them in vehicles, and buses, and bicycles, trying to leave either by car or some kind of vehicle or on foot if they have to. We are not quite sure where they're going, nor are the U.N. officials sure where they're going, whether it's into the rural countryside, because certainly the borders of Afghanistan with Iran and Pakistan are still closed.

On another issue here inside Pakistan, military sources and other intelligence officials are telling us that nine U.S. investigators are due here on Sunday, apparently to follow up and discuss leads that may connect to the September 11 terrorist attack in the United States. Those are the only details we have on that at the moment -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right, thank you, Christiane. Before I go on with you, I want to clarify something that we just reported moments ago. We are still waiting for this statement, this videotaped statement by al Qaeda that they have delivered to Al-Jazeera, that television network, and we expect that to happen in about 23 minutes or so. Al- Jazeera is going to broadcast that tape.

We ourselves here have not decided yet whether or not we're going to any excerpts from this tape. So, stay tuned with us. We are going to listen it ourselves, monitor it, and then go over and then we'll make the decision about whether to broadcast any of it.

But Christiane, you do know, we've been broadcasting the fact that we did receive a statement directly sent to us here at CNN from the Taliban leader Mullah Omar. What do you make of what we did hear from him by way of this message that he sent, and why he would do such a thing at this particular time?

AMANPOUR: Well, from what I gather, this is a message that has been sent not just to CNN by to other news organizations, notably Al- Jazeera as well, and apparently sort of came in faxed form, and was then faxed to us and to Al-Jazeera and maybe to other news organizations.

That was the Mullah Omar fax that we are talking about. And it's, you know, it's an attempt to get the message out whichever way they can. They have been doing it previously, Mullah Omar, by radio message. He generally does not give -- or never gives television interviews. But you know, in the United States, the Voice of America and certainly Al-Jazeera and other organizations have picked up certainly voice interviews with him, voice transmissions on the local Kabul radio.

So it's not unusual that these messages are being sent out and that they are being sent to the media that can broadcast them around the world.

HARRIS: Christiane Amanpour, reporting live for us from Islamabad, Pakistan. We sure do thank you very much. Get some rest and be safe there. We will talk with you later.

Let's go back to John King standing by in Washington -- John.

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Leon, you have been discussing that errant U.s. bomb striking a civilian area outside the capital of Afghanistan. The Bush administration has said from the beginning, one goal would be to minimize any civilian casualties. Obviously, the Pentagon voicing some regret today, and for the latest on that we are joined by Kathleen Koch, standing by over at the Pentagon -- Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, what the Pentagon believes happened is that in the wee hours of the morning, a Navy, U.S. Navy F-18 Hornet swooped into the airspace over Kabul Airport and spotted what it believed was a military helicopter on the ground. It then targeted it with a JDAM, or joint direct attack munition, missile which apparently veered off course after launching, about a mile off course, striking what apparently was a residential neighborhood, destroying, as we saw in the video from Christiane, numerous homes and perhaps killing as many as four people, injuring perhaps eight.

Now, the Pentagon cannot confirm those numbers. However, it did release a statement of regret. Quote: "We regret the loss of any civilian life. U.S. forces are intentionally striking only military and terrorist targets. They take great care in their targeting process to avoid civilian casualties."

The Pentagon is in the process now of investigating this incident, and at this point what it believes occurred is what it calls "a targeting process error." Now, these JDAM munitions have been in use since 1999, and they are known to be very effective, very precise. They are guided not only by an intricate system of global positioning satellites, but also by a control system in the tail of the missile.

Now, this particular missile was launched by an F-18 Hornet, which are launched by the Navy off of some of the aircraft carriers in the Arabian Sea. They've been used quite a bit already over Afghanistan. The Hornet's flight velocity is about 1,100 miles per hour. They drop a variety of missiles and bombs. The F-18 is the first tactical aircraft designed to carry out both air-to-air and air- to-ground missions, which is why it's often referred to as a "fighter bomber."

As to any of the accusations on the part of the Taliban that the U.S. military might be purposefully in any way targeting civilians, that drew very forceful response a few days ago from Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, who said, quote, "it comes with ill grace for the Taliban to be suggesting that we are doing what they have made a practice and a livelihood of" -- John. KING: Kathleen Koch, checking developments at the Pentagon, thank you very much.

President Bush is following all this from Camp David, Maryland, the presidential retreat. Standing nearby is our Kelly Wallace. Kelly, what's the latest?

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, President Bush following all these developments, and there are a lot to follow, of course.

One we do know that the president was informed early Saturday about this accidental bombing of a residential area near Kabul, Afghanistan. White House not really issuing any formal comment. As we know, President Bush has said that there will be costs to this war, this campaign, and that there could be military and civilian casualties.

We know the president huddled for about 30 minutes with his national security council team via video conference. This is something the president has been doing really almost weekly since September 11. Joining him at Camp David, CIA Director George Tenet, the president's National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. All of the other advisers to the president joining him from back in Washington. Clearly, certainly, the U.S. going over military developments.

And in the president's weekly radio address, something he's been doing every week, giving a status report to the American people on this campaign against terrorism. And the president saying that the first phase of the military campaign is a success. He says that U.S. forces have been able to weaken the Taliban military and cripple their air defenses, but Mr. Bush also saying there's still plenty of work to do.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE. W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This campaign will not be completed in one attack. Our enemy prefers to attack the helpless. He hides from our soldiers, but we are making a determined effort to take away his hiding places. The best defense against terrorism is a strong offensive against terrorists. That work continues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: And as Christiane reported a short time ago, more defiance coming from the Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and the Taliban also formally rejecting President Bush's second chance offer, an offer he put forward Thursday night during his prime- time news conference, in which he said the U.S. would reconsider its military campaign if the Taliban turned over Osama bin Laden and adhered to all of the other demands of the United States.

An administration official telling CNN earlier in the day, expressing not a lot of surprise by what has been coming from the Taliban, saying, quote, "the military actions will continue until the president's demands are met or our objectives are reached, whichever comes first."

And then, John, of course, lots of focus on the United States on these concerns about another case of anthrax, now in Nevada, obviously a case Friday in New York and three cases in Florida. The president really doing what he's done almost every day really this past week, in his radio address saying Americans are feeling uneasy. The president, though, trying to calm the public, saying that the government is doing everything it possibly can to protect the American people -- John.

KING: And Kelly, any word at all today from the White House about why the president decided to go forward with this trip to China? Why does he view it so important? The president leaves, obviously, in the middle of next week, in the middle of the military campaign.

WALLACE: Well, a couple of reasons. Number one, as we know, the president did shorten that trip, of course, so that he could spend more time in the United States while this campaign against terrorism continues, but two reasons, really. Number one, just as the president is encouraging Americans to get on with their business as usual, this is an example of the president getting on with business as usual and dealing with other issues besides this campaign against terrorism, focusing on free trade, having some meetings with other leaders around the world.

Also, though, John, it will be an opportunity for the president to spend some time with key leaders in this fight against terrorism. He will have a meeting with the Russian President Vladimir Putin. He will also meet with the leaders of South Korea, China and Japan. Also, the president of Indonesia will be there, so it's an opportunity for the president to do some more face-to-face diplomacy in this campaign against terrorism, but really a focus to show that the president is focusing on other important international priorities, as well as focusing on this war against terrorism -- John.

KING: Kelly Wallace, keeping track of the president this weekend near the Camp David presidential retreat in the mountains of Maryland. Thank you very much.

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