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American Morning

Operation Anaconda, War Continue

Aired March 08, 2002 - 08:02   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get right to the fighting in the remote mountains of eastern Afghanistan. There is stormy weather there now. It is hampering air operations, but the ground operations are pushing ahead.

Barbara Starr joins us from the Pentagon now with the very latest -- good morning, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

Well, there was a touching brief ceremony earlier this morning at Bagram Air Base, where several of the soldiers, who were wounded in the opening hours of Operation Anaconda, were awarded the Purple Heart for their courage under fire. These were the men who suffered shrapnel wounds to their arms and their legs. Their cavalier vests had protected their torsos. Many of their other colleagues, who are more seriously wounded, of course, remain in hospitals across Afghanistan and back in Europe.

Here at the Pentagon this morning, there are new photos of September 11, when American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon. These photos were taken by that security camera on the Pentagon perimeter. They show the plane coming in very, very low over the helipad. You can see here along the right-hand side a white spot, which disappears and then explodes into a fireball in the Pentagon. That fire would burn over the next two days. We have never seen these pictures until yesterday, when they were obtained by CNN.

In Afghanistan, as we said, Operation Anaconda is continuing. The weather is not very good. Some flight operations are restricted. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is making no predictions about exactly when the operation will end, though he appears to be slightly optimistic that the final elements of the operation are in sight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I don't think it's knowable at the moment. One would assume days, not weeks or months. I would be reluctant to be any more precise than that.

It is very difficult to know the number of al Qaeda and Taliban that are there. If you have watched the press, the press is not terribly far distant from the internal intelligence information, and the numbers have been changing dramatically; that is the speculation as to how many are there, and I suspect we will not know how many are in there, until it's over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: And that really is the key question. What does the enemy force look like? CNN has been told that the estimate is now there were as many as 1,000 al Qaeda and Taliban fighters up in those mountains, when the whole operation started several days ago. Perhaps 450 to 500 have now been killed. But the Pentagon is watching this very carefully, because they believe that reinforcements are being snuck in across the border from Pakistan and other places in Afghanistan. So they are not exactly sure just yet what they are facing -- Paula.

ZAHN: And, Barbara, given the horrendous weather that has blown into this region, what will be the impact on operations there today?

STARR: Well, when the weather is bad, when there are dust storms, when there is low visibility, the military cannot readily fly those attack helicopters in. Those are some of the key weapons that are used to protect U.S. forces on the ground. If the weather gets bad, it's hard for the helicopters to fly in dust, and if the weather -- if the visibility is really poor, those fighter and bomber aircraft overhead are going to have some trouble lining up their targets with some of the weapons they use.

So it's going to be a hamper on flight operations, but sources tell us that what they hope is the final assault on these mountains will take place over the next several days -- Paula.

ZAHN: OK. Barbara Starr, thanks for the update -- appreciate it.

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