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CNN Live Saturday

Raids in Afghanistan: Effectiveness and Collateral Damage

Aired October 13, 2001 - 14:40   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We turn now to Afghanistan. After nearly a week of sustained air strikes, CNN's Matthew Chance takes a look at the effectiveness of those raids and their collateral damage. He reports from Northern Afghanistan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just some of the wounded in the U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan, these images, the unfortunate inevitable result of intensive bombardment.

Doctors say this Afghan child was injured in the latest rounds of air strikes and traumatized by the raids. She is not alone here.

The hospital in Kabul appears full of injured. Washington said civilians are not being targeted. The Taliban says more than 300 have already been killed. The figures are impossible to verify.

Refugees trickling across the front lines to the north have also spoken of civilian homes being damaged, but none have indicated large- scale civilian deaths. There are no figures on how many Taliban fighters or those trained by Osama bin Laden have died.

In the remote corner of Afghanistan controlled by the Northern Alliance, opposition forces have been keeping up their pressure on the Taliban front lines. Fighting is reported across the north of the country around the strategic city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

Reports of advances and defeats are proving hard to confirm, and despite a week of blistering air strikes around Kabul, there's still no sign of any opposition advance on the capitol.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Northern Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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