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CNN Live At Daybreak

No Word on Who Killed Afghan Vice President

Aired July 08, 2002 - 06:32   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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: There is still no word this morning on who killed an Afghan vice president. The country's president has set up a delegation to investigate the assassination, which the Afghan government has called a terrorist act.

In the meantime, the hunt is still on for remnants of suspected al Qaeda and Taliban. Our Nic Robertson has been with the U.S. and British Special Forces as the new security checkpoint system targeting the city of Khowst is put into place. He joins us live now from Bagram Air Base -- good morning, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Well, I have been with the British Royal Marine commanders, and they have been putting into effect what they call Eagle VCPs. Now, the Eagle bit is the helicopter. The VCP is the vehicle checkpoint.

What they do is fly around the remote region between Khowst in eastern Afghanistan and the border with Pakistan, and any vehicles they see on the road, on these remote mountain roads -- and these are the roads that the Taliban and al Qaeda are believed to use to get between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It's believed that they come and go between the two countries using weapons dumps inside Afghanistan to get weapons. And what the helicopters do, they drop the troops down on the ground when they see a vehicle. The troops rush out of the helicopter and immediately search the vehicle.

Now, what they are looking for is heavy weapons, anything bigger than a small machine gun. But the point of this operation goes beyond the immediacy of finding those weapons. What they are trying to do is send a message to Taliban and al Qaeda that this is an area you cannot operate in. They are trying to make it too difficult, too hard for Taliban and al Qaeda to operate there. The message they are sending is, if you come in here, then the chances are we may have a helicopter up, we may spot your vehicle, and you may get picked up -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Boy, the people in that truck seem so calm, Nic. I mean -- I don't know. I can only imagine if something happened to me like that, it would make you a little nervous.

ROBERTSON: Well, that's what we thought when we were out there today. There is an Afghan family driving along, perhaps going to the market early in the morning. And then out of the blue sky descends two large helicopters, and they are suddenly surrounded by troops. But what the troops tell us here is that most people they talk to say that they really want the help of the international forces here to help get rid of the war (ph) from Afghanistan, al Qaeda and the Taliban as well. They want to see peace in the country, and they see the activities by the international coalition force as achieving just that.

Now, one soldier did comment, he said, look, you know, right now we are doing a good job. We don't want to get in the faces of people here too much. But the mission objective is to deny the territory to Taliban and al Qaeda, and right now, yes, people are surprised. But at this time, they are still very accepting, because they know the gains from this, we are told, that they'll accept it continuing -- Carol.

COSTELLO: There is some anti-American sentiment in Afghanistan, though, isn't there?

ROBERTSON: There is, and perhaps some of that has been felt most recently in the south of Afghanistan in and around Oruzgan Province in the area where coalition forces had an operation last week that resulted in the deaths and injury to some civilians.

Now, not only has President Bush offered sympathy and condolences, but yesterday, the coalition commander here, General Dan McNeil, traveled down to those villages, met with those villagers. And we are told by journalists who were traveling with him that they barely mentioned the bombing, that most of the villages there were very supportive of coalition forces, that they saw this opportunity of inviting coalition forces to base themselves there, and that was something General McNeil said he was very open to the idea of.

They see that idea as perhaps bringing a little prosperity to their region, bringing in the attention of international aid groups. They say that they are so remote -- they are a 12 hours' driving from Kandahar, the nearest large city. They say that they are really not seeing the benefits of the international involvement in Afghanistan. They are not seeing the humanitarian projects. These are people living in mountains. Their needs are perhaps as great as some of the people living not far from this air base here, and they feel that they have been too far away from that international support -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Lots to think about. Thank you, Nic Robertson, reporting live for us from Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan this morning.

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