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CNN Live At Daybreak

U.S. Bombs Important Al Qaeda Building; Aid Workers Released

Aired November 15, 2001 - 06:01   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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: First let's go to the Pentagon and speak with Jeff Levine about reports of a building that was believed to have been holding some top al Qaeda members struck by U.S. airstrikes. What's the latest Jeff?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well it's Bob Franken this morning Catherine.

CALLAWAY: I'm sorry Bob.

FRANKEN: And that's OK -- there's, of course, quite a bit to report and as you said, quite a bit of confusion now in Afghanistan and it really is one of those things that's going to alter the military strategy of the United States. Pentagon officials are telling us that because it's really hard to tell whose on the ground from so far above the bombing campaign is going to be reduced. It's really focusing now just on very clearly identifiable Taliban positions.

But on the ground you're seeing more and more involvement by U.S. special operations, the special forces troops operating into small numbers that they do in a variety of ways. First of all, as you pointed out, they were involved in the helicopter pickup of the released aid workers. It's still unclear exactly what kind of negotiation preceded that, but the U.S. special operation choppers were the ones that came down in a field about 50 miles from Kabul, picked them up, and took them into Pakistan. So that's one role, of course, that they took.

The other role is really almost like a sheriff's department. You will see across Afghanistan, if you could see it, patches of special operation's troops setting up roadblocks, searching for fugitives. The fugitives, the real big fugitives, Osama bin Laden for instance, and Mohammed Omar. That type Mullah Omar -- that type of fugitive they are looking for them. They're going to be patrolling, looking in caves. They've set up roadblocks just like it was some sort of police search. You're going to see quite a bit of that going on.

As far as the al Qaeda leadership is concerned, there has been bombing of a building, which was one of their major headquarters in Afghanistan, unidentified location. It is unclear at this point whether the senior officials who would often times gather there, were among the victims of that bombing and of course, when you asked the question, was Osama bin Laden there? Could he possibly have been killed? The only answer you can get is we don't know, although it is not -- it is not expected here that they're going to find that Osama bin Laden was there.

There is still an intensive search for him going on. But the type of operation that the United States has been conducting in the country is changing in character. It's changing now to the point that it's going to rely heavily on those commando troops the United States calls special operations forces in a variety of roles, search -- looking for fugitives, setting up roadblocks -- that type of thing, trying to help in getting rid of the al Qaeda leadership and the Taliban leadership, which has been the target of the United States military effort since the beginning. Catherine.

CALLAWAY: All right CNN's Bob Franken at the Pentagon. Thank you Bob. Now we're going to take you to CNN's Carol Lin who is in Pakistan. She's going to give us the latest on the situation in southern Afghanistan near the -- near Kandahar, near the Shaman border. Carol, what can you tell us? Carol, can you hear us? All right, we're obviously having some -- some difficulties.

CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Can you hear us? Can you hear us? Can you hear us?

CALLAWAY: We can now hear you Carol, go ahead. Go ahead Carol.

LIN: Terrific. All right. Here we go. We are here at the Shaman border. I am on the Pakistani side. It's been quite a setup here to get this to you. What I want to show you right now is the main crossing. That's an ambulance carrying injured people across into the Pakistani side that you're listening to right now.

I would describe the scene as controlled chaos at the Shaman crossing. Behind me what you see are a group of Afghans and Pakistanis trying to get across the border. The steady stream of people that you see over there are people who actually have their legal documents essentially immigration papers that allow them to go back and forth across the Afghan-Pakistan border.

And the trucks coming in right now are having to pay a tax in order to bring their goods into Pakistan. I'm going to walk you over here because what's interesting compared to what's happening at that scene over there, beyond me over there is a group of people, as you might be able to see, the men are walking through what are essentially metal barriers.

Those are the people who also have the papers. These are -- these are people who routinely will cross through here and once they cross through here, some -- there might be refugees mixed into the group over there, they -- if they are refugees, what they are going to do is cross this open space here -- I'm going to have Phil pan over. That open space there, as you can see, there is no border fence. So when we talk about a porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, that is what we're talking about, even though there is an official border crossing here, virtually anybody can cross through that desert and -- or through those mountains in the background.

In that open space over there, almost routinely, we don't see them today right now, but almost routinely we will see Taliban border guards on the other side of the border. You know who they are because of their black turbans, their white garb, and frankly, their automatic weapons and their rocket launchers. Usually they have a series of truck loads of rocket launchers and what, according to the UNHCR -- let me show you the significance of that.

Right beyond that open space where we usually see the Taliban gathering, that is the temporary camp Killi Faizo that the UNHCR is running and 3,000 refugees are being held there right now and what the UNHCR is telling us is that they often see the Taliban with their weapons, go into the camps and start hassling the refugees, telling them that they should go back to Afghanistan.

Killi Faizo is only going to be up and running for about another week or so. It was always intended to be a temporary campsite. We saw people, though, being transferred to a more permanent campsite, which is about five miles away from here. That campsite, Roghani, is capable of holding 10,000 people. They've managed to move about 1,000 people over there.

But what we're seeing at the border today, much bigger crowds. UNHCR says that they're now admitting 200 families a day since Mazar- e-Sharif fell to the Northern Alliance last Friday. That is a significant number and also the UNHCR said that's more cross border traffic. There were 800 people on the other side of the border yesterday that were not being allowed into Pakistan and for some unknown reason, the Pakistani government decided that they should be let through.

I'm going to take you back around here because joining me right now is Heather Hill. She is with the World Food Program. Heather, thanks so much for being here with us today. Heather has been telling me about the significance of the Shaman border crossing. This is the main border crossing where some 40-percent of the food that the World Food Program sends into Afghanistan has to cross through this border. How has the fighting affected the food trying to get into Afghanistan?

HEATHER HILL, WORLD FOOD PROGRAM: Yes this is a very important humanitarian corridor for us and for the last few days we haven't been able to use it because the drivers on the Afghan side are not willing to take the security risk and quite understandably.

LIN: Now these are drivers who have wartime experience?

HILL: Yes they do, but under the circumstances, they've decided that they would rather wait until the situation stabilizes. So we're going to hope that we can resume our operations along this route soon because it's from here that we send food into western Afghanistan.

LIN: Now I understand some 50,000 metric tons a month are needed inside Afghanistan to feed some six million people. What has the fighting and the delay of the food delivery mean to the people who are waiting for food to come. Do you have enough food inside to sustain these people?

HILL: Well at the moment, we haven't reached that target. We hope to very soon, but no, not yet. We are using all kinds of alternative routes to bring food into the country, for (AUDIO GAP).

CALLAWAY: Well we've obviously lost that interesting report from CNN's Carol Lin. We hope to establish that connection again. I know we had some difficulty getting it together. She is at the Shaman border, a lot of developments going on there. We hope to get back with her in just a moment.

But as we told you earlier today, aids of the Western Aid workers have been released. They were held by the Taliban for quite some time and now we're going to listen to CNN's Tom Mintier who's in Islamabad, Pakistan with the latest on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The entire process got underway Tuesday afternoon. As Northern Alliance troops advanced into Kabul, they found the eight international aid workers inside a prison that the Taliban had basically abandoned. One of the local commanders got in touch with the international committee for the Red Cross, they in turn notified the U.S. government, the German government, and the Australian government.

Early Thursday morning, a U.S. special forces helicopter touched down inside Afghanistan, picked up the eight and brought them to Pakistan. Waiting for them at the airport were at least one family member of the American detainee and representatives from the governments of Germany, Australia and the United States. They were taken to the embassies, and that's where they made their phone calls home.

Now at home people were starting to celebrate very quickly once this was announced. There have been a roller coaster of emotions for people involved in this since they were first detained the first week of August. It looked at times like they were going to be released and even at the last minute it appeared that the Taliban were going to take them to Kandahar. But that did not turn out to be.

Relatives in the United States were overjoyed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well I'm just so relived, you know, the last few days have been the most difficult few days since she's been in detention, and when I heard the possibility that she's been released, I really didn't know it until I came to church tonight and other members of the congregation had heard that there was confirmation of it. So I just heard just 10 or 15 minutes ago and so, it's just a tremendous feeling. I'm just terribly relieved and I'm just so happy.

MINTIER: Just how long they will stay in Pakistan isn't exactly clear. They may stay here for one or two days and then make their way back to their homes. Two American detainees have scheduled a press conference at the American embassy is going to facilitate and put together, and we may hear more about their time in captivity. But for now they are free and on their way home.

I'm Tom Mintier, CNN, Islamabad, Pakistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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