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CNN Live Today

Four U.S. Soldiers Killed in Kandahar

Aired April 15, 2002 - 12:56   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Four U.S. soldiers were killed today in Afghanistan. Captured enemy rockets went off during a clearing operation. One soldier was wounded in that accidental blast near Kandahar. Someone who knows the heaviest fighting all too well. Our CNN's Martin Savidge who spent eight weeks with these soldiers. And he's back home now to talk a little bit about this story and his time there. Welcome home.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Kyra. Thank you very much.

PHILLIPS: You look good.

SAVIDGE: Thank you, I lost a lot of weight.

PHILLIPS: Yes you did. Twenty-five pounds and much more knowledge.

SAVIDGE: Much more. The EOD work, we should talk about that first.

PHILLIPS: Okay.

SAVIDGE: The four soldiers that were killed. I didn't know them personally although the names have not been released yet. The work they do is tremendously dangerous, that goes without saying. We went along with a number of missions that the Explosives Ordinance Demolition Teams did in the Kandahar area.

Kandahar that area of Afghanistan is one big weapons cache. After over two decades of warfare, there are literally tons and tons of weapons. We went along on one such mission similar to one in which the incident took place today. And the-- what you are looking at here are actually, remnants of a cluster bomb. They deal with these.

These are U.S. cluster bombs that are all over the area, that they have to - decontaminate as they say which is essentially removing from the area. They could be stepped on by friendly Afghans in the area. Thousands upon thousands of them dropped during early days, the early months of the confrontation. Now, still potentially lethal though to many innocent people.

This is an EOD explosive person here. These people are highly trained. They can deal with every sort of explosive all the way up to a nuclear device. But they are finding so many of these weapons, especially those that have been hidden by the Taliban. That, there are so many of them that have been buried for so long. In this particular case, some of these weapons have been buried for maybe ten years maybe 20 years. Some of the weaponry dating back to the 1970's.

That makes it unstable, makes it unpredictable, and tragically that may have been the consequence that they came upon today. They work carefully now.

PHILLIPS: Well, you no doubt. You've made that point very clear. You spent a lot time at Ground Zero and in Afghanistan. How did both situations affect your views on war? And duty of soldiers? And, also personally as a journalist?

SAVIDGE: Well, first of all, all war is terrible. And, I think it was remarkable though to go from being at Ground Zero to see what prompted this war. And then to see those fighting it. Remarkable opportunity. And I felt greatly honored to be there.

PHILLIPS: Well we're glad that you...

SAVIDGE: A lot more could be said but time is always short.

PHILLIPS: Absolutely, well we'll talk more with you, Mike. Thank you so much for coming in and sharing some of your feelings with us.

SAVIDGE: Thank you.

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