Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Saturday

U.S. Special Forces Still at Work in Afghanistan

Aired December 29, 2001 - 16:01   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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Now to Afghanistan, where there's no let-up in the work being done by U.S. special forces. They're still heavily involved in the search for Osama bin Laden. And they're rounding up and transferring captured al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. CNN's Walter Rodgers is covering the story in Tora Bora.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: U.S. special forces have especially been busy in Afghanistan this weekend in the Mazar-e Sharif area. They were drafted to move prisoners, al Qaeda prisoners who used to fight for Osama bin Laden, from a fortress up there, which may not have been as secure as the United States would have liked.

The U.S. special forces wearing body armor carrying semiautomatic rifles moving these al Qaeda forces to the airport and then south to Kandahar where they were flown, where there is a much more secure Marine garrison there. The United States did not want to risk any escapes of the al Qaeda prisoners like the Pakistanis experienced about a week ago when the al Qaeda prisoners rose up, overthrew the Pakistani guards, and killed half a dozen Pakistanis.

So, the U.S. drafted its elite forces to help move the al Qaeda and Afghan prisoners out of here. Here in the Tora Bora region, there are still pockets of U.S. special forces troops operating. We were up on a ridge earlier Saturday. At that time we chanced upon about half a dozen, perhaps a few more, U.S. special forces soldiers, they did not want to be photographed and indeed their colleagues, the eastern alliance Afghan soldiers made it very clear we were unwelcome.

We were invited to leave the mountain very, quickly. That's curious because earlier in the day the same U.S. special forces officers drove their all-terrain vehicles right past our live camera position here and at that time they almost wanted to be seen, wanted to be photographed.

But unlike previous nights, most of these special forces soldiers that we see here now go up the mountain in the morning, operate up there during the day, and then return to their base camp a few miles away from here for the evening. One interesting footnote today, a U.S. B-52 was seen flying over the Tora Bora region. This is the first time a strategic bomber has flown over this area in at least two days now. It did not drop any bombs, by way of footnote. Again, the new government in Kabul has called on the United States to stop bombing. Of course, to the best of our knowledge, the U.S. hasn't dropped any bombs in Afghanistan for a number of days now.

Walter Rogers CNN, in the Tora Bora region of eastern Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com