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CNN Live At Daybreak

Operation Anaconda Completed, Troops Move On

Aired March 19, 2002 - 06:09   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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: U.S.-led forces are moving forward with their anti-terror campaign in Afghanistan after completing Operation Anaconda. We get an update now from CNN's Martin Savidge, who is live at Bagram Air Base -- Martin, Anaconda, as promised, over now.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol -- absolutely right. This was the largest military operation in the Afghan war so far involving coalition forces. And now, it is officially in the history books as announced by General Buster Hagenbeck this morning a couple of hours ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. F.L. HAGENBECK, MILITARY SPOKESMAN: Operation Anaconda is over. It ended last night, and this morning when we extrapolated the remaining Canadian and U.S. forces who were exploiting the valleys in objective Remington (ph) and south of the Shah-e-Kot Valley.

The world is a safer place than it was on the 2nd of March, when we inserted several thousand coalition forces, including soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines that put their lives on the line to confront al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Soldiers and coalition leaders say they are very pleased with the outcome of Operation Anaconda. It went on a lot longer than the original projected 72 hours. It went 18, almost 19 days, but that was because the number of Taliban and al Qaeda fighters that they ran up against was higher, not so much that they were greater in numbers, but they expected a lot of those fighters to flee when the initial battle began. They did not. They stayed to fight, but they say as a result of that they had destroyed a base of terrorist operations and what was a sanctuary for the al Qaeda and Taliban forces.

General Hagenbeck was asked what lessons have been learned from this operation, and he said, "Well, we have determined that we were up against a well trained enemy, that they are not lacking for any money, not lacking for equipment." In fact, he said that some of the equipment that the Taliban fighters had was rivaling the coalition forces. But he also points out that they found out the enemy is not 10 feet tall, that they can be defeated on their own turf and in their own territory, and that they are no match, he says, for trained soldiers.

There was a price to be paid, though, for Operation Anaconda; 11 coalition soldiers lost their lives in that operation, 3 of them Afghan, 8 of them American. There were over 70 soldiers that were wounded and thousands of soldiers rotated in and out of that valley. As the general is quick to point out, the end of this operation is not the end of the war in Afghanistan -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And I wanted to ask you about that, Martin. "Time" magazine is reporting that the next move for the military will be the area north of Kandahar, the former home of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban leader who is still missing somewhere out there. Have you heard anything about that?

SAVIDGE: Well, yesterday when General Tommy Franks was here, who is the commander in chief of this whole war that is going on, he said he had his sights on a specific area. When questioned as to what that area might be, he declined to answer for obvious security reasons. There had been talk of at least maybe five different areas. Some in the north, some actually in the southeast, even in areas possibly to the west, which U.S. forces -- coalition forces are either being dispatched or may already be on the ground at work. Not all of the operations are going to be made public as largely as this one was.

So no way to confirm that exact account. We do know there are a number of places that U.S. forces are planning to go -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And you have to believe, Martin, that the Taliban and al Qaeda fighters have learned something about the battle of Shah-e- Kot Valley too. I mean -- I don't know. "Time" magazine also was reporting that...

SAVIDGE: Very true -- yes. It is...

COSTELLO: ... that the troops are now -- that al Qaeda and Taliban troops are spreading out. They are not in one big clump like they were in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan.

SAVIDGE: Well, there are lessons for both forces to be learned from. Obviously the al Qaeda and Taliban have learned that they cannot go toe to toe in large numbers against the overwhelming force that the coalition brings. So whether they will continue to fight or show up in large numbers remains to be seen. They didn't win trying it this way. It's clear that the Taliban, like the military here, flexible. The next battle will be vastly different. The commanders here know that -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Thank you, Martin Savidge -- reporting live from Bagram Air Base this morning.

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