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U.S. Special Forces Clash with Suspected Taliban

Aired May 13, 2002 - 14:35   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Sometime on Saturday, 60 miles north of Kandahar, U.S. special forces had it out with suspected Taliban fighters. It was a deadly clash. To the Pentagon and Barbara Starr, who has more on this now. Barbara, good afternoon.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Bill. Yes, over the weekend U.S. forces killed five suspected Taliban and captured 32 others in this incident just north of Kandahar. It all began when the suspected Taliban apparently opened up on a group of U.S. special forces. They returned fire and the incident ensued.

Now, this comes as Operation Snipe is winding up in eastern Afghanistan. But there have been other operations ongoing that we should bring everyone's attention to. Over the weekend there was a small but important operation near Khowst in eastern Afghanistan. This was a separate mission.

About 150 U.S. soldiers, including special forces, fanning out around their forward operating base at the airfield near Khowst. That airfield has come under a number of rocket attacks in recent weeks. And the U.S. forces went out into the countryside to see if they could find who was conducting those rocket attacks against them. No early word on the results of that mission.

But as Snipe has been winding up, there have been some really remarkable things going on. They have found huge, staggeringly huge, stockpiles of weapons throughout the region. We are told today in just one site that the British forces blew up, they found 1.7 million rounds of ammunition, 600 rocket-propelled grenades, over 700 mortar rounds and five tanks, all inside one set of caves.

And now what is the next step going to be in this region? And that's what nobody really knows. There are ongoing reports of course that al Qaeda, large numbers of al Qaeda, are hiding out in villages just across the border in Pakistan. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today he has no doubt that there are al Qaeda across the borders from Afghanistan.

But intelligence sources say right now they have no indications of large regroupings of al Qaeda. Everyone believes there are probably indeed smaller groups spread out throughout that border region. No indication of when they will present a significant large enough target that the U.S. and Pakistani forces will be able to go after them. That's the next step, but it's not happening yet -- Bill. HEMMER: Operations continue nonetheless. Thank you, Barbara. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon.

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