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CNN Live At Daybreak
America Strikes Back: Look at Taliban's Military Capabilities
Aired October 22, 2001 - 08:41 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're here in the map room and joining me is retired General Don Sheppard to give us a little sense of the coalition and the alliances that are being built. We'll start big and kind of zoom in kind of zoom in on Afghanistan. I'm standing on Turkey, which is a key place, because there is U.S. forces on the ground there, U.S. bases.
The trick, general, has been getting those forces into the region. What's the route?
GEN. DON SHEPPARD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Indeed. Well, remember, Turkey is also involved with northern watch in Iraq, keeping the Iraqis above the parallel there. The route is basically through Armenia, Azerbeijan, over Turkmenistan, into Afghanistan. That reportedly is the route taken by C-17s on humanitarian airlift, escorted by fighters from Turkey. A long way, an-hour mission just out of Turkey to get this far.
Let's get a sense of the kind of ring around Afghanistan here and the coalition that has been built to stage attacks inside Afghanistan. The Taliban are hurting. Uzbekistan, we've got bases in Uzbekistan here, 10th mountain division reportedly there, can bring in more forces, can act as bases for special operations. Tajikistan, we have airspace, they are talking about bases. Reportedly there are three, now perhaps four bases in Pakistan can be used for certain things, and of course Iran now has given us the ability to rescue our downed pilots.
O'BRIEN: That's pretty significant, isn't it?
SHEPPARD: It is, indeed. You want a sanctuary to go, places to bail out if you're in trouble, and that's very important. It's an important diplomatic thing also.
You have the Navy down the Arabian Sea, so if you look from here all the way around, Afghanistan is surrounded. The Taliban's resources are being taken away. Every bullet they fire has to be replaced. The Taliban will be hurting soon.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about those resources, take a look at some of the graphics we have put together, showing you the kinds of resources the Taliban has. Of course, most of this is former Soviet weaponry in the armored category. We have -- this is a hundred millimeter gun that's mobile. It's a Soviet-built T-54. I guess should be a main battle tank, correct?
SHEPPARD: Right, about 650 vehicles the Taliban had before this conflagration started, and so basically, they've got a lot of vehicles. We're taking them out one by one, wherever they happen to be.
O'BRIEN: Let's look at anther one as we stay in the armored category, the T-62 tank. This is another former Soviet, last built in '72. This kind of a famous Soviet-era tank, right?
SHEPPARD: Yes, laser-guided weapons and GPS weapons. Will take them out if they are stationary. We have other things to take them out if they are on the move.
O'BRIEN: All right. Continuing on down the list as we look at the armored category, now we are getting actually into the surface-to- air missile, which is a big concern when you talk about helicopter attacks in Afghanistan.
SHEPPARD: It is. Helicopters are vulnerable. Any low-flying aircraft are vulnerable. They have reportedly about 100 of the Stinger missiles left. We don't know how many are in good condition. Also SA-7's can be bought on the black market, show up any time. This is a danger to low-flying airplanes.
O'BRIEN: And just remember, the Stinger was supplied by the CIA to the Mujahedeen during the Soviet occupation kind of coming back to haunt the U.S. in some ways. Let's go one more, the SA-7, which is the Russian or Soviet lineage, which is a similar thing. It's a fire- and-forget, heat-seeking kind of thing. Let's get our close-up view of Afghanistan, and give us a sense, now up until this moment, general, we have seen fighting around the periphery, and then all of a sudden over the weekend we see Bagram, which is right on frontlines. That is a significant change in tactics, and what does that tell you about the timeframe here?
SHEPPARD: It tells us that we are trying to set the conditions for the Northern Alliance and other forces to move forward with their ground forces. Now one problem, they are small force, 10,000-15,000 fighters in the Northern Alliance. They are talking about marching here. They own Bagram, marching into Kabul, which is about 30 miles, if you will, through trenches, tunnels, minefields. It's tough stuff. At the same time, they are trying to take Mazar-e-Sharif. We have to encourage the Northern Alliance and other opposition forces and get the Taliban on the run.
O'BRIEN: All right, and just to give a sense of scale here, we are talking about a place the size of Texas, to date, all we know about is probably on the order of a hundred special operations troops that engaged in activity over weekend down near Kandahar.
SHEPPARD: Reportedly around Kandahar. A hundred people in there in the size of Texas, so it gives you some idea of the scale. The thing is, though, again, the Taliban are being squeezed, their money is being cut off. They also have to resupply everything they fire, so this is tough for them. O'BRIEN: As you look at this map, though, you have to look at the map in a different way than you would in a conventional military type of endeavor, where you'd be looking at taking ground and holding it.
SHEPPARD: Right. The Northern Alliance up here in this area. We normally think of wars as being this city falls, this city falls, that city falls, that city falls. What you may see is a rapid, a rapid demise of the Taliban regime, a coalition government in the Kabul capital up here, and then all of these opposition force coming together, and no territory taken, no cities falling in the same sense we normally look at war.
O'BRIEN: General Don Sheppard, taking it from the big picture all the way down to local view. We appreciate your insights as always.
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