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CNN Live Saturday
Taliban Fighters Report Heavy Combat With Opposition Forces
Aired September 22, 2001 - 12:24 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: We want to bring you the latest news from Afghanistan. It turns out that Taliban fighters report heavy combat with opposition forces today in Northern Afghanistan.
Our Chris Burns is joining us from the region, where rebels, who are known as the Northern Alliance, are based. This is the same organization that Judy just talked with a representative here in the U.S.
Chris, what can you tell us from Afghanistan?
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, in fact the Northern Alliance is considered by most governments to be the government of Afghanistan, even though they only hold about 5 percent of the land area in this Texas-size country.
And there have been fighting -- there has been fighting going on over the last couple of days or so. Very unclear exactly if anybody is making any kind of advance, but the Northern Alliance is claiming to be launching various probing attacks along the front line hoping to cut off eventually -- cut off a supply line for the Taliban and try to make an advance eventually toward Kabul. That's the capital that they lost some five years ago.
The Northern Alliance says that they -- that in fact that the Taliban anticipated all of this even before the attacks in New York and in Washington by assassinating Ahmed Shah Massoud, who was the military leader of the Northern Alliance, hoping to put the Northern Alliance into disarray. At this point, the Northern Alliance is trying to show that it is a credible opponent to the Taliban, and that it wants to be a credible ally of the United States in whatever the United States plans to do.
A lot of anticipation about what the United States might end up doing here in the region, but the Alliance is trying to gird itself and position itself for any kind of activity like that.
Conflicting reports over the skies of Kabul today, where the Taliban claims to have shot down some kind of a spy drone. The Pentagon says it won't comment on various claims by the Taliban. It's not really clear what happened over the skies of Kabul. But what we do know, coming out of Kabul are refugees, perhaps thousands by the day, and that could aggravate -- that could become aggravated as the fighting continues and when the U.S. -- if and when the U.S. does attack in this region -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Chris, a couple of questions for you. First, you mentioned the assassination of the Northern Alliance's leader. A lot of people believe this was in anticipation of what eventually took place in the U.S.
Can you talk a little bit more about how those two events could be linked?
BURNS: Well, yes, the assassination -- the actual attack, it was two-men posing as a camera crew with an exploding camera -- exploding other equipment that eventually killed Mr. Massoud. That suicide attack was two days before the attacks in the United States. And so that is seen, at least by the Northern Alliance and some others, as being linked as trying to cause disarray within the Northern Alliance, so that the Taliban would not be threatened after those attacks in the States -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And, Chris, just to further show us that nothing is simple in this part of the world, and indeed the Northern Alliance is an opposition to the Taliban, but it's not the only opposition group. And as I understand it, there is fighting within the opposition groups. They all don't get along in different parts of the country.
BURNS: Well, that's nothing new, because there have been lots of splits within various tribal or ethnic rivalries in the more than 200 years of Afghani history. So this is nothing new, and that had been going on also after the Soviets left from their occupation of Afghanistan -- their 10-year occupation. When that ended in 1989, that fell again into ethnic conflicts that devastated the country.
In 1996, the Taliban took control of the country, raising some hopes of bringing some kind of stability. However, the Taliban, of course, is seen as a very fundamentalist -- hard line fundamentalist organization that as yet is only recognized by only three countries -- Daryn.
KAGAN: You mentioned the conflict with the Soviet Union. And isn't it indeed true that many of the weapons that are left behind that the Taliban is using, those weapons actually came from the United States -- that they were given to help in that fight against the Soviets during a time that was very different for the history of the U.S. and the Soviet Union?
BURNS: Absolutely. We're seeing some great -- some incredible irony here; also where the Washington, the Moscow are talking about possibly cooperating now after that conflict in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, where the country was awash in weapons. The Taliban received hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weaponry from Washington to try to defeat the Soviet occupation, which also helped to weaken the Soviet Union and lead to its collapse. So, yes, we are seeing some very, very strange ironies here.
Also coming in today, when we came in to Afghanistan, you see the country -- a very spectacular country, a very -- with a lot of incredible geography -- very, very stark mountain ranges. And along the way we saw a lot of former Soviet tanks, a lot of their army personnel carriers that were destroyed in that war. There are still remnants of that war all around the countryside -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Chris Burns in northern Afghanistan -- thank you for that report -- a fascinating look inside of Afghanistan. And, in fact, we have more for you -- a documentary running for you at 10:00 -- actually 11:00 p.m. tonight Eastern on CNN. CNN is presenting "Beneath the Veil," 11:00 p.m. Eastern, again at 7:00 p.m. Eastern on Sunday at CNN. I encourage you to tune in for that.
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