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CNN Live Saturday

Pentagon Denies Reports Pakistanis Rescued Some Taliban Fighters

Aired November 24, 2001 - 18:03   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.
JONATHAN MANN, CNN ANCHOR: The Pentagon today strongly denied reports that Pakistani planes were rescuing Pakistanis who had been fighting alongside the Taliban in Konduz. CNN's Brian Nelson is at the Pentagon with details -- Brian.

BRIAN NELSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Jon, those reports are coming from the Northern Alliance. They're saying that five flights of Pakistani aircraft have landed at the somewhat bombed-out airport in Konduz in the last couple of weeks, and have ferried out an untold number of Pakistani fighters who have been fighting alongside the al Qaeda troops and the Taliban troops inside the city of Konduz.

Now when asked about that here at the Pentagon, a Marine Colonel David Lapan (ph) told me absolutely not. He says there is no truth to it. "We control the skies over Afghanistan," and he also said, "Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has also said that foreign fighters should not be allowed to leave, so it makes no sense that we would allow aircraft into take them out."

And he said: "There are no -- there is no chance that any plane could land in Konduz without being detected by U.S. surveillance," and he finished by saying that "everyone seems to believe in a so-called conspiracy theory."

Now the U.S., both here at the Pentagon and at Central Command, is watching with great interest the surrenders taking place in Konduz and elsewhere.

The U.S. Central Command says there are U.S. military personnel on the ground right now monitoring some of those surrenders and the U.S. is also watching with electronic surveillance -- that meaning presumably drones and satellites. It -- the U.S. has left the prisoner issue, though, solely in the hands of the Northern Alliance. The spokesman said we have no idea how this is going to play out -- whether those prisoners will be interrogated by U.S. personnel there on the ground or perhaps flown out to the west -- some base there, or perhaps to a base in a third country.

The Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has maintained that the U.S. has no interest in becoming a jailer, but it does have a strong interest in not letting the foreign fighters aligned with Osama bin Laden to go free. So the situation there is very fast moving and the U.S. is waiting until the dust settles before they make any decisions on what they're going to do -- Jon.

MANN: Brian, a quick question about numbers. The most conservative estimates suggest that there may just be 3,000 armed men in Konduz and we've seen estimates that 1300 of them surrendered today. Does anyone know how many soldiers are still left in the city and whether those would be enough to put up a fight?

NELSON: No the U.S. has always all along been estimating about 2,000 to 4,000 Taliban -- I'm sorry, al Qaeda fighters still inside Konduz and they really have no way of knowing because they don't have anyone inside there. It's the Northern Alliance that is in contact with some of the Taliban and al Qaeda commanders inside the city. And they've been saying upward of 10,000 maybe even 20,000.

So I would say judging from what we've seen today, the numbers you've just mentioned that perhaps the Northern Alliance has a better track on that number.

MANN: Brian Nelson at the Pentagon. Thanks very much.

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