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CNN Live At Daybreak

America Strikes Back: Airstrikes on Afghanistan Enter Day Four

Aired October 24, 2001 - 08:18   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: With the help of U.S. airstrikes, opposition Northern Alliance forces are planning to push toward Kabul, the capital.

Let's get some insights now on the logistics of such a mission -- and we have just the man to do that for you this morning: Miles O'Brien is standing by in the map room in Atlanta.

Good morning, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

I'm standing in the map room -- actually I've got my feet in the Black Sea. We're going to get our feet wet a little bit on another part of the region, if you will.

Joining me with some insights, as always, is our military analyst, Gen. Don Shepperd.

And before we get to the taking of Kabul, let's just talk briefly, picking up on the vice president's words when talking about other nations that might be harboring terrorists. We're standing around Iraq. Give us a sense of the kind of forces which are there already, on the event that there might be some target that is identified in Iraq.

GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: We know about the Gulf War, and ever since the Gulf War, for the last 10 years, we have been conducting operation Northern Watch, keeping flying of the Iraqi air force out of the area north of the 34th parallel, and out of the area south of the 32nd parallel. Conducted from Turkey, for Northern Watch; Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, for Southern Watch, down here -- a boiling cauldron of trouble throughout here.

The big question on Iraq is what is the source of the anthrax. Is it here or is it not? And if it's tied to here, what do we do?

O'BRIEN: There wouldn't be much deployment necessary to do something quickly if need be.

SHEPPERD: We have a lot of bases and a lot of forces there already.

O'BRIEN: To get closer to the region around Afghanistan, we've been talking about how the area's encircled the bases and areas that are OK to fly through for U.S. planes. Let's run through that very quickly and then talk briefly about what's going on in Peshawar with the diplomatic front.

SHEPPERD: Importantly, we have access to the airspace coming in from Europe, through here to Turkmenistan. We have bases (UNINTELLIGIBLE), we have airspace in Kazakhstan that we can come through and airspace in Tajikistan. So we've got bases here. We have four bases now announced in Pakistan. We have the Navy down south in the water over here. We have pilot recovery rights in Iran over here.

So Afghanistan is now encircled; that's a good picture for the U.S. military.

O'BRIEN: But in a sense, the military is ahead of the diplomatic front here, and that leads us eventually to Kabul. Let's talk a little bit about what's going on there.

SHEPPERD: Yes. The diplomatic solution -- of course, the military is a means, Diplomacy is a means, and the idea is to force a political solution. Over here in Pakistan, we have reports this morning of eight or nine of the coalition factions agreeing on a coalition government for Kabul, which, of course, will be the next step, hopefully. The purpose of the military action is to force a coalition government in Kabul.

O'BRIEN: Let's go back to the military front for a moment. Let's take a look at some of the pictures that have been coming. These are attacks by either F-14s, F-15s or F-18s. We're not sure. And these are very close to the front lines between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban, and some of the fiercest Taliban fighters, right between Kabul and Bagram.

And this is where it gets very tricky, because to get this close air support, as the military calls it -- in other words, dropping bombs near the so-called friendlies -- gets very challenging.

SHEPPERD: Very much so. Right back to close air support in the Vietnam War and also close air support in the Gulf War.

The area in question right now is the Northern Alliance coalition forces in the Bagram area and down to Kabul, about 40 kilometers between the two here. A no-man's-land, a World War I battlefield of trenches, mine fields, very desperate. You got a lot of entrenched Taliban forces around here that are also retreating into Kabul and the populated areas.

Now as the Northern Alliance snugs up close to these Taliban forces, you have to pick them off with close air support. It means you have to have people on the ground -- air ground fort air controllers -- talking to the Northern Alliance, to pinpoint where these people are before you drop bombs. It's a really tough thing, close air support.

O'BRIEN: All right, but briefly we've been talking about this is a different kind of war. It's not the kind of war where you necessarily think about seizing territory. Is the U.S. military thinking about seizing territory in and around Kabul, seizing the capital?

SHEPPERD: What appears to be happening right now is to weaken the Taliban forces with air attacks so the Northern Alliance can become stronger, can advance toward Kabul, while a diplomatic solution is being worked out, but not go into the capital, let the diplomacy work, for a coalition government to be established, and then move into the capital with other forces.

O'BRIEN: So a proxy force on the ground, if you will, and we all know in Vietnam, that was a difficult situation at times, using proxy troops in a sense.

SHEPPERD: This is a dicey diplomatic political problem.

O'BRIEN: Gen. Don Shepperd, thanks as always. We appreciate it.

If you want to find out more about all of this, we invite you to check out our Web site, cnn.com. And one of the things you'll see there are some excellent maps, which lay out exactly where the Northern Alliance is strong, where the Taliban is strong, and also give you an indication of where some of those terrorist training camps of al Qaeda might be. We invite you to check that out at cnn.com; the AOL Keyword is "CNN ."

We'll send it back to Paula, in New York.

ZAHN: I have no doubts that you will never forget that AOL keyword, right?

O'BRIEN: That's right.

ZAHN: CNN.

O'BRIEN: CNN, is that a word? Those are three initials, aren't they?

ZAHN: It's a whole new language for me, Miles. I'm brand new here.

Thanks, appreciate it. See you a little bit later on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Let's quickly take you to northern Afghanistan, where our own Matthew Chance is standing by, to give us an update on the ongoing campaign there.

Matthew, what can you tell us?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, very significant developments under way now. We're actually witnessing live a U.S.-led coalition attack against the front lines of the Taliban positions here overlooking the Shomali Plains, north the Afghan capital, Kabul. I think we've just been seeing there some flashes on the horizon. We've seen at least three planes in the area dropping their payloads on those frontline Taliban positions. You can see in the distance on the horizon there just below those mountains a billowing, black flume of smoke. Within the last few seconds, literally, a fighter plane, U.S.-led coalition, dropped its bombs on those troop concentrations and artillery pieces that the Taliban occupy on those front lines just north of the Afghan capital of Kabul.

The mountains, you can see in the distance, there's a big defense controlled by the Taliban. They are the big defenses that stand in the way of the Northern Alliance opposition advancing for their ultimate military objective, to cause an advance on the Afghan capital of Kabul itself.

So we've got an attack under way now. In the distance there, you can hear those bombs slamming into what we assume here to be Taliban frontline positions; certainly, that's where the positions are located, in that area. A lot of anti-aircraft fire you can hear in the distance, the Taliban gunners firing up at those U.S.-led coalition jets. But I can tell you they're flying very high and in very tight formation. There's no way those guns are going to be able to reach that high, unless those planes come closer down to Earth. They're pretty much out of the range of the kind of capabilities the Taliban have, as far as anti-aircraft fire is concerned.

So a lot of planes still flying about in the skies now, a lot of military activity in these skies north of Kabul. Up until now, it's been pretty quiet. We've been standing here most of the day. We heard one jet fly over several hours ago, but it was nothing like this, no attacks on those Taliban frontline positions.

This now is the fourth consecutive day that U.S.-led coalition warplanes have been striking at these positions. Still, no indication at this stage, though, of any Northern Alliance advance out of their trenches to push towards their ultimate military objective, a push towards Kabul.

Paula, back to you in New York.

ZAHN: Matthew Chance.

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