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CNN Live Saturday

Afghans in Tora Bora Report Heavy Civilian Casualties From U.S. Air Strikes

Aired December 01, 2001 - 15:03   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Heavy civilian casualties are reported today in the Tora Bora area where U.S. fighter jets are targeting al Qaeda.

Let's pick up now with CNN's Jonathan Aiken, who is standing by at the Pentagon this day. Hi, Jon.

JONATHAN AIKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Leon.

Well, U.S. officials say they're looking into these reports which are coming out of eastern Afghanistan that U.S. war planes hit two villages not far from Tora Bora, the villages of Takil (ph) and Balrut (ph).

Local officials, security officials in these provinces say at least 50 Afghans are dead and several more, probably about half a dozen, have been wounded.

We have a map to show you where Tora Bora is in relation to things, to give you an idea of what we're talking about and where, so let's show that to you now. Tora Bora is about 35 miles to the south of Jalalabad, and as Catherine mentioned, it is a key target of U.S. warplanes.

It is a mountainous area. It's been hit hard and it's been hit often in air strikes because of that cave and tunnel complex, a massive complex thought to be there and that has been used, at least according to some reports, by al Qaeda forces and perhaps by Osama bin Laden himself.

Now that you have an idea of what area we're talking about, we want to show you some video that was taken earlier today of some of the people said to be victims from this attack. These shots are coming to us from reporters who went to a hospital in Jalalabad. Some of the victims, as you see, are children. And five people in this hospital said to have been victims of these attacks. At least one of these people told reporters what they saw.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He says that there were 12 persons in our family. I was outside of my room, my home, and the airplane bombs entered my home and I saw all of the people were killed. (END VIDEO CLIP)

AIKEN: Now, the U.S. Central Command base at the McGill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, the operation headquarters for the U.S. effort in Afghanistan, they say they can't confirm these reports. They're looking at imagery that comes not only from the warplanes themselves but from any guided weapons that may have been dropped and also from reconnaissance fly-overs. They also have to talk to the pilots and get debriefed -- debrief these pilots after these missions.

They say it's going to take some time before they're going to be able to assess all the information, collate it, and come up with a conclusion as to whether or not this was an errant hit by U.S. warplanes. Leon.

HARRIS: Interesting. Well, Jon, in the meantime, while we're waiting for them to collate all that information, do we know how close these people's homes may have been to this cave complex we're talking about? Or were they actually living in caves in that area, or what?

AIKEN: No one is really sure about that, but most of the targets -- we spoke to someone at the Central Command just a few hours ago on exactly that topic, and this gentleman told me that most of the targets in these areas are within the mountains themselves. This is pretty rugged terrain. It would be the equivalent of, you know, having targets in the Rockies.

So, I mean, you have some villages. You have some places where people do live. But the caves themselves that they're going after are said to be more in the wilderness. These are said to be areas that are somewhat remotely located, specifically for defensive purposes for the people who use them.

HARRIS: Yeah, and we've heard the Pentagon say plenty of times throughout this entire campaign, in fact, from the very beginning, that civilian casualties happen in war. In fact, civilian casualties is how this whole thing got started; that's what happened on September 11th.

Now, let me ask you, finally, about other bombing campaigns underway right now in Afghanistan. What's the Pentagon saying about that?

AIKEN: Oh, you bet. Not only was there activity around Jalalabad, these reports coming in. The air strikes Friday into Saturday in Afghanistan focused on two areas: around Jalalabad again, and in particular an area called the White Mountains. This is again some pretty rugged real estate, and there it is thought that about 600 al Qaeda forces and non-Afghan Taliban fighters, these are the volunteers who have come in from other Islam -- from countries in the region to fight a jihad. They are thought to be held up in some of these caves located in the White Mountains.

U.S. warplanes have been targeting that group. In addition, there was some activity, and we're told it was heavy bombing, from people on the ground who were able to see it. Some heavy bombing in Kandahar, the Taliban stronghold to the south, especially focused around the city's airport. And it was a result of that action that the Taliban was making a claim this morning that it had shot down a U.S. warplane and that was a claim emphatically denied by the Central Command. Leon.

HARRIS: Yeah, we did hear that report. Jonathan Aiken at the Pentagon. Thank you. We'll check back with you later on.

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