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CNN Live Saturday

U.S. Commandos Raid Former Residence of Taliban Leader

Aired October 20, 2001 - 17:13   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Once again from the Pentagon today, new details on that U.S. commando raid on a compound where it was believed that the Taliban leader, Mohammad Omar was living. Troops did not come in contact with any top-level al Qaeda or Taliban officials, but the Pentagon still declaring the first disclosed ground action a success.

At the Pentagon now, here's Jamie McIntyre with more from today's briefing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In the first U.S. paratroop assault since the 1989 Panama invasion, more than 100 U.S. Army Rangers descended on an airfield near Kandahar in Taliban-controlled southern Afghanistan.

In this infrared video taken by an escort plane, three C-130s can be seen disgorging more than 40 soldiers each. The first acknowledged U.S. ground operation in Afghanistan had two primary objectives -- search and secure the airfield and raid one of the compounds of Taliban leader Mohammad Omar that has not yet been bombed from the air.

The elite commandos gathered intelligence from the buildings, destroyed a small cache of weapons, but captured no prisoners.

GEN. RICHARD MYERS, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: We did not expect to find significant Taliban leadership at these locations. We, of course, were hoping we would, but we did not expect it and we did not find senior Taliban or al Qaeda leadership.

MCINTYRE: The U.S. special forces, who sources say have been rehearsing their mission for days, left heavily armed, but met only light resistance according to the Pentagon, who says the only casualties were on the Taliban side.

The troops also left behind calling cards, printed flyers with the words "Freedom Endures" over a photograph of firemen raising an American flag at the World Trade Center.

MYERS: One of the messages should be that we are capable of -- at a time of our choosing, conducting the kind of operation we want to -- we want to conduct. MCINTYRE: Myers insist the mission was a success and that its primary objective was to bring back intelligence, which is now being evaluated.

The Pentagon won't say how the U.S. troops were extracted after their several-hour mission, but with control of the airfield, the same planes that brought them in could safely land to take them out.

The mission served two other purposes -- building the confidence of U.S. troops that they can operated in the Taliban's backyard and sending a pointed message to the Taliban, that they know when U.S. commandos may show up uninvited.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: Once again, a fascinating briefing today from Washington. Let's talk more about with a former NATO supreme commander retired General Wesley Clark, now a CNN military analyst.

General, it's good to see you on a Saturday afternoon. Good afternoon.

Tell us more. We're going to take our viewers back to this videotape, which I found just absolutely amazing. When you look at this, how much can this help commanders learn about the situation on the ground and what are they looking for?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well the raid itself is going to prove out procedures, give us a real live fire rehearsal against apparently a lightly-defended target and perhaps bring back some intelligence. It'll certainly send a psychological message.

The tape is a good technique also. I'm sure we're only see a part of the tape and presumably we've filmed a lot of the actions on the objective there. I assume that we'll be using some of this in our own after-action reviews and helping sharpen our own operations with it, and it's also an excellent device for sending the message to the world, as we're doing right now, that the United States takes this operation very seriously. We're putting our troops in there on the ground and there's no place for them to run and hide.

HEMMER: General, I don't want to take you in an area where you're not comfortable, but some of the videotape we saw with these troops going through different rooms, it looked like, this airfield or wherever it was, can that be transmitted at times in a real time -- in other words, by satellite or that strictly a videotape procedure?

CLARK: Well, there are certainly means of doing real-time transmissions. Whether that was used in this case or not and whether that's standard or not, I wouldn't want to say.

HEMMER: Got it. OK. Nic Robertson in Islamabad earlier today, was saying that this is what the Taliban feared the most -- these quick hit missions, in and out. Why is it that the Taliban would be most afraid of that?

CLARK: Well first of all, they're deadly and when they go in there, they're going to take out the target. They're going to search every room. They're going to vacuum clean the building. So there's no hiding from this.

And they can come in at really any hour of the day or night, anywhere in the country. It's completely within our operational capabilities to do that and so, it means for the Taliban there's no sleep. There's no rest. There's no rear area. There's no secure area.

Every place is vulnerable. It's a huge message for the Taliban to digest and really it marks a significant advancement in the pressure on the Taliban.

HEMMER: General, quickly, the Pentagon did not say today how these soldiers were extracted. Is it possible they stayed behind -- some of them?

CLARK: Well, it's very possible. Some of them may have stayed behind. Some of them may have been brought out by helicopter. I heard Jamie McIntyre suggest maybe the C-130s brought them out. It could have been a combination of means.

HEMMER: General Wesley Clark, thanks, appreciate it.

CLARK: Thank you, Bill.

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