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CNN Live Today

Quakes Rock Afghanistan; Reports of bin Laden Sighting Unverified

Aired March 26, 2002 - 10:01   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.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Up first on CNN, a pair of deadly earthquakes rumble across Northern Afghanistan and leave as many as 5,000 people dead. The quakes are reported to have leveled a district capital and a number of villages, and strong aftershocks are making rescue efforts difficult and dangerous.

CNN's Walt Rodgers was close enough to feel the unmistakable jarring, and he joins us from Kabul. Walt, what did it feel like when it struck?

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Felt like an earthquake, Carol. I was sitting at a table, and at that point, the table started shaking. You knew instantly it was an earthquake, and I moved to the nearest doorjamb because that's the safest place to be. Of course, Kabul was scarcely hit at all, but about a hundred miles north of here in the Baghlan province and the Nahrin (ph) provinces, the earthquake was very severe. It registered a magnitude of about 6.0. An accurate death toll probably won't be known for days, perhaps even weeks as rescue workers begin sifting through the rubble.

The interim Afghan leader, Hamid Karzai, said 1,800 people were killed. Other Afghan officials have told CNN that the death toll will go in the thousands. This country is very disorganized. The government has only been on its feet, as we say, for perhaps three months now. So, they are quite ill prepared to deal with this kind of tragedy.

The epicenter, as I say, of the earthquake is up around Nahrin and in Baghlan province in Northeastern Afghanistan, and the rescue efforts to get there -- the efforts to get rescue workers there are going to take some time before all of this can be sorted out, and many people are, of course, afraid that people will be suffering, if for no other reason, than 30,000 homes were destroyed. One of the French nongovernmental agencies has rushed 2,000 blankets to the area and a thousand tents, but nothing like what is going to be necessary because remember, nights here in Afghanistan are still quite wintry -- Carol.

LIN: Walt, how do you account for the sheer number of deaths and people left homeless -- thousands, and tens of thousands left homeless?

RODGERS: That's easy, and the reason for the high death count, of course, is that the construction of buildings in that part of the world is shoddy at best. They still build houses here in Afghanistan the way they did 3,000 years ago. There are no building codes. Adobe bricks are laid atop adobe bricks, no foundation whatsoever, and most in the epicenter of the earthquake were inside their homes when the quake struck last night. Consequently, walls and roofs just collapsed on them. They really didn't have much of a chance, and those who decided to stay indoors afterwards could have been struck down by subsequent aftershocks -- Carol.

LIN: All right, thank you very much. Walter Rodgers reporting live from Kabul, Afghanistan.

No U.S. troops are thought to have been injured in the Afghan quakes, and there has been no official Pentagon comment on any U.S. role in recovery or relief efforts, but CNN has learned of new information on another front. The regrouping of al Qaeda forces in the south, and reports that Osama bin Laden has been sighted by locals. CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr has been working her sources, and she joins us with the latest on this. Fascinating.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, you know, ever since Operation Anaconda ended several days ago, the question has been what's coming next. The U.S. military is clearly now turning its attention to Southern and Eastern Afghanistan. There are continuing reports from local Afghans that Osama bin Laden and some of his top lieutenants have been sighted in the region.

Now, none of these reports can be verified to the extent that the U.S. military says it can launch any particular action. But there is a growing sense that Southeastern Afghanistan may be, may be the most likely place that Osama bin Laden is hiding out. Sources say that there are reports that are being looked at very closely. One official said they are looking at reports that he may have even occasionally crossed back and forth in Pakistan. This part of the border, of course, is extremely difficult to monitor.

The intelligence community is also looking at an assessment that as many as 2,000 al Qaeda may have regrouped along the entire border area from Khost all the way south along the mountain range that runs close to the border of Pakistan. Some of these pockets are said to be fairly large, a couple of hundred fighters, some are quite small, and that's providing no particular comfort to the U.S. Military.

What concerns them now is that with the coming of spring, the melting of the snow, some of these pockets of al Qaeda are going to find it much easier to move around than they had in the past, and that there could be some raids and counterinsurgency actions launched and that the fighting simply will continue now into the spring while the U.S. military tries to root out these pockets of al Qaeda that seem to be emerging in this area -- Carol.

LIN: Barbara, though, isn't a reality of life that this is how the al Qaeda movement is going to continue in the region? Small pockets, hard to find. It seems almost an impossible task for the U.S. military to hunt down every single one of them.

STARR: That's right. This is going to be what officials say is the new era. After Operation Anaconda, it appears the al Qaeda have learned their lesson. They are not going to regroup in several hundred members in one place, providing an easy target for U.S. military. They are now going to be, the assessment is, in these small groups, perhaps staging lightning raids.

And this is one of the reasons that the U.S. has now moved A-10 aircraft into the region. They will be able to go after some of these smaller pockets. And, of course, the British are sending in 1,700 troops, all part of the effort to get ready for what the U.S. believes is going to be this era of back and forth with the al Qaeda for the next several months.

LIN: I have got to quickly follow-up with you on this sighting of Osama bin Laden. Given that the U.S. military is getting these intelligence reports, how seriously do they take them, and once they get this information, are there any dedicated resources to actually hunting Osama bin Laden down?

STARR: Well, they get these reports quite frequently, of course, from local Afghan factions. And one of the big concerns is that these warlords, these factions, may have their own agendas that are driving some of this.

The problem has always been with Osama bin Laden, there's plenty of reports about where he may be. You know, he is -- quote -- "seen" quite often, but none of them can be verified to the point where the U.S. military says they can locate him at a particular point, at a particular time, that will allow them to then launch a specific military action to go after him. But what is going on, of course, is lots of reconnaissance, lots of intelligence. They continue to gather information, and they say when they can find the right piece of information, they will then take action, but not yet.

LIN: Got you. All right, thank you very much. Barbara Starr reporting live from the Pentagon.

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