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Breaking News

Rumsfeld Acknowledges Innocent Afghan Civilians May Have Died in January raid

Aired February 06, 2002 - 07:08   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We have some breaking news now from the Pentagon about the late January raid in Afghanistan involving U.S. special forces. Just on Monday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged innocent Afghan civilians may have died in the raid. And now it looks as though U.S. troops may have taken the wrong people into custody.

CNN Pentagon Barbara Starr joins us now -- good morning, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

Well, yes, as you remember, in that raid 15 people were killed. Twenty-seven were captured by U.S. commandos. This morning we have been told by military sources that today the U.S. is releasing all 27 of those detainees in Afghanistan that it's been holding since January 24.

After questioning these people, the U.S. military has determined none of the people that they took into custody were either Taliban or al Qaeda. So as we speak, an operation is under way in Afghanistan right now to release these people. They are all being returned to local Afghan authorities. No Taliban in the group. No al Qaeda. The military says they do believe there are a couple of common criminals in the group -- Paula.

ZAHN: So, Barbara, in releasing these detainees, is the U.S. government basically admitting that it was wrong?

STARR: Well, it appears so. Now, an investigation is under way by General Tommy Franks, the head of U.S. Central Command, the man who runs the war. That investigation is supposed to be done by the end of this week. But if they're releasing these people now it appears that this entire raid may have been a mission that went wrong.

ZAHN: All right, Barbara Starr, thanks for that late update.

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