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CNN Live At Daybreak

Residents of Kabul Celebrate Freedom From Taliban; Forces Fight Near Talaqon

Aired November 14, 2001 - 05:15   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: Well, many residents are treating the fall of Kabul as though they have been freed from jail.

CNN's Matthew Chance entered the capital with the Northern Alliance and filed this report. But first, a warning. You may find a few of the pictures in this a bit disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the end, it was a rout -- a mad dash to Kabul along the road none of us expected to travel so soon. At the gates of Kabul, news of a Taliban collapse had already reached these thousands. They gathered to greet the troops and old friends, some lost for years across the front lines.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Long live Ahmed Shah Massoud. Down with Pakistan!

CHANCE: Through the crowds, we finally slipped past the Northern Alliance checkpoint and found ourselves in Kabul itself.

(on camera): So here it is. After a speedy military campaign and a rapid journey from the north, we're standing in the outskirts of the Afghan capital. Thousands have come out to cheer the Northern Alliance troops as they move past, many of them clean shaven and chanting "Death to Mullah Omar!"

It seems the Taliban have completely abandoned this city and moved their forces further south.

(voice-over): We had to leave our own vehicles behind us, so we simply took a local cab to the city center.

(on camera): Okay, we've taken a taxi and we're going to try and make our way into the center of Kabul, to the Intercontinental Hotel. I have been getting reports that there's sporadic gunfire in the streets of Kabul, so we are being a bit cautious. But I think it's best that we get there and see for ourselves what the situation is.

(voice-over): And we found this. They're spitting on the lifeless body of a Taliban fighter, a grisly example of the hatred among many people here for the hard-line regime. All around this Kabul city park, we saw bodies of men killed by Northern Alliance troops in their advance.

(on camera): Was he executed or was he fighting the Northern Alliance?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. He was fighting with military. Yes, about 10 -- 10 minutes or maybe 15 minutes they fight with Northern Alliance here. Northern Alliance captured this place, just this park.

CHANCE: And did they capture this man first and then kill him, or did they capture him and kill him during the fighting?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. First they captured here, this place, and then they killed him. Yes. They couldn't scare us. They have to die.

CHANCE (voice-over): Then, from a roadside stall, the sound forbidden in Kabul for years. Music, banned by the Taliban, now played freely on the streets. The men of Kabul are already crowding out the city's barber shops. Even beard trims were punished by terms of imprisonment here. No more. But a shave is quick. How much longer it will take this city to heal the real scars of its recent past?

Matthew Chance, CNN, Kabul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And it makes us wonder about the things we take for granted, huh?

CALLAWAY: Um-hmm.

HARRIS: Let's check in now with our Ben Wedeman. He is in Taloqan, which is also in Afghanistan, in the northeastern part of that country. And Ben Wedeman is back there in a place where the Northern Alliance is attempting to consolidate control of its headquarters city -- Ben?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon.

Yes, we are in the city of Taloqan and just a bit east of here -- I'm sorry, west of here -- is the last Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan. There we're told that there could be as many as 1,000 Taliban troops holed up and according to our producer and our cameraman there, they're, throughout the day they saw preparations for a Northern Alliance push into this area.

They say just a little while ago the fighting began. There were exchanges of artillery fire and tank fire in the area and apparently the Taliban forces are putting up quite a bit of resistance and, in fact, according to our producer there, the Northern Alliance forces are being compelled to move back a little, in fact.

That's after fairly rapid movement forward. This town was just taken yesterday, essentially, yesterday morning by the Northern Alliance. Elsewhere, there have been rapid advances throughout the country. At this point we've seen the Northern Alliance control of Afghanistan go from a fairly small five to 10 percent, according to who you talk to, to as much as 80 percent now.

Also, we're hearing that the head of the Northern Alliance, Burhanuddin Rabbani, is expected back in the capital, Kabul, within a matter of hours. The Northern Alliance is saying also that if and when they are able to capture Mullah Omar, who is the head of the Taliban movement, as well as Osama bin Laden, that they will try them for war crimes.

Now, another thing, I can't hear you, so I'm going to tell you that when we entered this area yesterday afternoon, we entered through territory that had just fallen to the Northern Alliance. It was a very eerie experience. We drove through village after village completely abandoned, no one around, not even farm animals.

We saw some dead Taliban soldiers by the side of the road and it was apparent that they had only recently been killed. And when I say recently, I mean only within an hour or two.

We saw tracers flying up through the night sky and we heard gunfire. So despite the fact that the Northern Alliance has gained effective control of the area, they're not completely in control. In fact, there still are Taliban troops on the loose scattered around the areas. So still a very -- and I hate to use this word -- but a very fluid situation, indeed -- back to you, Leon.

HARRIS: All right, very good.

Ben Wedeman reporting this morning live from Taloqan, Afghanistan.

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