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CNN Live Today

U.S. Troops Launch Air Assault on Eastern Afghanistan

Aired June 03, 2002 - 10:05   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now we move from the finger pointing on Capitol Hill to the lightning raids on the front lines.

Our Mike Boettcher joins us now. He has an exclusive firsthand look at a U.S. military offensive in eastern Afghanistan. He is just back to Bagram Air Base a short time ago.

Mike, hello.

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Daryn.

Well coalition commanders here suspect that al Qaeda and Taliban were trying to infiltrate back into Afghanistan to disrupt the political process here. In about a week there's the loya jirga in which they're going to select or try to select the new Afghan government. And they believe that there will be or the possibility that al Qaeda will try to infiltrate and launch terrorist attacks during that period.

Now they received intelligence at one location where they thought al Qaeda and the Taliban were using to infiltrate from Pakistan. They launched a mission, and we were there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOETTCHER (voice-over): More than 150 airborne troops made the surprise assault at sunrise Sunday morning. Their objective: a suspected al Qaeda camp located in eastern Afghanistan less than a mile from Pakistan. Cautiously, soldiers from Bravo Company of the 101st Airborne's Second Battalion, 187th Infantry approached the suspected al Qaeda camp.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger, I got my (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in -- over.

BOETTCHER: Intelligence reports indicated more than a dozen al Qaeda were using the base known as the Gorko Camp (ph). But if the al Qaeda were here, they had left before Bravo Company arrived. A search of several caves of the camp turned up papers written in Arabic that are now being analyzed. After the search, caves were blown by Bravo Company's demolition team.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOETTCHER: They continued to search the area after the caves were blown for another few hours. We left the area today and came back. It was a successful mission, according to the military commanders, even though they did not encounter al Qaeda at the site. They believe they did show al Qaeda and the Taliban that they can respond to a location quickly and shut it down and left the message that before the loya jirga, the political process here, that they will be on the watch for al Qaeda and Taliban trying to cause trouble -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Mike, so incredible to get to see that kind of expedition up close and personal. A question for a lot of people though, still, where is Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar?

BOETTCHER: Well I can tell you the troops from Bravo Company I was with were hoping they'd find Osama bin Laden there. You know we were operating very close to the Pakistan border, within a mile. And the belief still holds, no one knows where he's at or they'd launch a mission to go get him, but the belief is that he is along that border somewhere and they keep launching these raids.

And there's more to this raid than we're able to show right there, and throughout the day we'll show more from it. It was very fascinating, Daryn. The cameraman, Dave Rust (ph), was on the front leading edge as this team was assaulting this area and not knowing if they were going to encounter the enemy. They fully expected to encounter them and they were hoping that it would be Osama bin Laden.

KAGAN: Incredible pictures. Congratulations to Dave Rust as well.

Mike Boettcher at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, thank you very much.

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