Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Group of Correspondents Allowed into Kandahar

Aired November 01, 2001 - 08:04   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 ANCHOR: Let's start with the war effort: airstrikes today on Taliban targets near Mazar-e-Sharif and Kandahar. Kandahar is in Southern Afghanistan. It is believed the Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, is there or perhaps near there.

CNN's Nic Robertson is among a group of correspondents allowed into Kandahar, by the Taliban, and he's just filed a report on a tour with them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The Taliban took us today to a village about 60 kilometers north of Kandahar, a group of 26 international journalists on the trip. When we arrived at this village, it was a scene of quite some destruction. We were told that there were -- had been 15 houses in this village, all of them appeared to be destroyed.

We spoke with a mullah from the nearby village. The mullah is essentially the local official. He told us that on the night of the bombing, helicopters had been seen in the area, and there had been the sound of loud gunfire and explosions coming from the village. He also said that 92 people had been killed in the village and 16 injured.

Now, just over a week ago, CNN did report about this village. There were very few details, and we tried to get more details from this local village mullah. He told us that the night of the bombing, a convoy of about eight vehicles had gone out to the village of Chowker Korez. He said that the people on board this convoy were just people from the city of Kandahar trying to escape the bombing there.

We also spoke with another villager from the same area, who told us that he had seen the bombing. He said his own family had been very scared. They were a few miles away when the bombing happened. He also said that the village had been so full of people, leaving Kandahar that night, that some people had actually been sleeping outside of the village.

Now, it is impossible to verify these details independently. However, what we were able to see in the village, most of the houses -- mud houses turned into rubble, fragments of what appeared to be bombs and missiles, and also family belongings strewn around -- clothing children's shoes, boxes of washing powder, transistor radios -- and also livestock, some of it dead, and a few damaged cars in the village as well.

But it is impossible to independently verify these facts, and it's also clear that the Taliban wanted to take us, the group of journalists, to see sites of civilian devastation.

We also spoke to a survivor from the village, who said he had lost his brother and 30 members of his family. He was in a local village a few kilometers away.

Chowker Korez is just one of the sites the Taliban have taken us to in the last 48 hours. We are not free to visit military facilities, and we remain, at all times, under Taliban control and escort.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Kandahar, Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: As Nic alluded to, in that videophone report, his movement is tightly constricted and constrained by the Taliban, but what he says is not in any way censored. And we should keep in mind, after seeing these reports from Afghanistan, from Kandahar, exclusive reports on CNN, the Taliban continue to harbor terrorists, who have praised the attacks that left 5,000 people or so dead here in the U.S.

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