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CNN Live Saturday

Pentagon Denies Claims U.S. Bombs Killed 50 Villagers in Eastern Afghanistan

Aired December 01, 2001 - 17:06   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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, we have developing news coming out on the U.S. air strikes going on in Afghanistan. Let's go right to the Pentagon, speak with CNN's Jeff Levine, who has some late-breaking news for us -- Jeff.

JEFF LEVINE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Catherine. The U.S. military is now officially denying that U.S. bombs and weapons killed some 50 villagers in eastern Afghanistan in raids Friday morning. What they're saying is it's not true that U.S. bombs hit those villages. It's not true that villagers were killed and injured as a result of these strikes.

Now this comes just minutes ago, literally, as Major Brad Lowell of Central Command tells CNN "the weapons hit their targets. There were no buildings in view to depict residential areas."

In other words, no people were hit as a result of these attacks. And the Pentagon analysis went back, all the way back to Thursday morning. Now specifically, the locations under attack by the U.S. military are near Tora Bora. That is a tunnel and cave complex south of Jalalabad. The region has been under assault since it's believed that Osama bin Laden may be hiding there.

Meanwhile, CNN has visited a hospital in Jalalabad where five of the alleged victims from the village are being treated for their wounds. The injuries include a child who had both hands severed in those attacks.

Now here's how one of the villagers described what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He says that there 12 persons of the family. I was outside of my room in my home. And the airplane bombs entered to my home. And I saw all of the people were killed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVINE: Now, the Pentagon is also denying a report that a U.S. military plane was shot down near Kandahar. That initial report came from a Taliban envoy in Pakistan.

Catherine, back to you. CALLAWAY: So Jeff, what is the Pentagon saying, you know, about these injuries that we're seeing the video of?

LEVINE: They're not specifically saying anything about those injuries. What they're saying is they used an extensive analysis. They looked at all the available, as they call it imagery, Catherine. They went back over a period of time. They looked at where their ordinance was aimed and targeted. And they looked at the juxtaposition of these villages. And they said well, based on that analysis, we don't think that that happened. We don't believe that that happened. And we're denying it. They're not specifically talking about what happened or what's on TV or what we're seeing those images in the hospital.

CALLAWAY: All right, CNN's Jeff Levine at the Pentagon. Thank you, Jeff.

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