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CNN Live Today

Search for al Qaeda and Taliban Continues in Afghanistan

Aired May 14, 2002 - 12:30   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: The latest now on the war on terrorism: Operation Iron Mountain.

Patty Davis standing by live at the Pentagon to bring us details on this procedure -- Patty, good afternoon.

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Bill.

Well, the Pentagon says that Operation Iron Mountain and Operation Snipe are over. Now, those involved British forces and U.S. forces that were doing a sweep of the mountains of Southeastern Afghanistan looking for al Qaeda and Taliban, also looking around the area of Khost for who was firing rockets into and around the airport there where the U.S. is based.

Now, they didn't find any al Qaeda or Taliban, but did find two very large caches of weapon. That involves hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition, even five tanks. And the U.S. says it either plans to give the weapons, the tanks, the ammunition to the Afghans or to destroy it.

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VICTOR CLARKE, PENTAGON SPOKESWOMAN: One of our military objectives is to ensure that Afghanistan doesn't return to what it was, which was a free running field, a free open haven for the terrorists to operate. And so one of the things we have to do is make sure those sorts of things are either destroyed so the bad guys can't use them or they're put in the hands of the appropriate authorities who will use them for the right reasons, such as establishing the Afghan national army.

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DAVIS: The Pentagon announcing today that it is setting up a joint task force to be based in Kandahar that will direct all U.S. troops in Afghanistan as early as the end of May -- a senior Pentagon official saying that, while that clearly shows that the U.S. will be more involved in Afghanistan, that U.S. troop presence will be measured more in terms of months rather than years.

Now, meanwhile, the Pentagon says that it had intelligence that a senior Taliban official was at a compound that U.S. forces raided over the weekend. Five suspected Taliban or al Qaeda fighters were killed in that, 32 others captured. They are now being questioned. But officials say that it now appears that they may be let go, that there is no one of significance in that group -- Bill.

HEMMER: Patty, thank you -- Patty Davis at the Pentagon.

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