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CNN Live At Daybreak

Northern Alliance and Taliban Face Off Near Konduz; Noose Grows Tighter on Bin Laden

Aired November 19, 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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: As we were telling you, the last northern stronghold by the Taliban, Konduz is where our Satinder Bindra is and he can bring us up to date on what's going on there right now. Satinder.

SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Donna. All this morning U.S. planes have been bombing front-line Taliban positions. Now Taliban gunners have been busy. They've been firing at front-line Northern Alliance positions, which is where I am.

All this morning Donna, I've also been noticing refugees. These refugees have been fleeing Konduz on foot. They're walking just past where I am, and many of them are walking with women and children. Some of them tell me they've been walking now for 12 hours.

These refugees also claim that U.S. bombing is now causing civilian casualties. This I must stress Donna, I can not independently verify. In the meantime, there's some movement on the diplomatic front. The Northern Alliance claims it's sending in a team to try and negotiate a possible surrender with the Taliban.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

QADAM SHAH, GENERAL, NORTHERN ALLIANCE (through translator): We have a request from the Taliban side that they want to defect and hand over guns to our government. The government is now sending a delegation to meet Taliban side.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BINDRA: Now no one is spending too much hope on this delegation. In fact, the senior most commander here, General Atiqullah Baryalai is already saying if this delegation fails, if talks lead nowhere, then he may launch attacks in certain sectors. Of course, the Northern Alliance can not launch a major ground offensive because it simply does not have the ammunition. It does not have the weaponry to do so. Donna, back to you.

KELLEY: Satinder, what about that? They are lacking in supplies, but they're also worried about civilian casualties.

BINDRA: Yes, they're pretty worried about civilian casualties, so that is why the attacks will be very selective, they say. The attacks will be only at military targets. One must remember this is the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and Northern Alliance forces are under a great deal of pressure to keep civilian casualties to a bare minimum. Donna.

KELLEY: Satinder, what can you tell us about the hard line Taliban soldiers who have been killing the ones willing to surrender or committing suicide.

BINDRA: What we know for sure and these stories have been told to us by refugees and Northern Alliance commanders, the hard line Taliban, the Chechens, the Arabs, and the Pakistanis are controlling all of Konduz. Over the past few days, they've shot at local Taliban fighters who've been interested in talking with the Northern Alliance forces.

We're also hearing stories and this again from senior Northern Alliance commanders that a doctor was shot in the hospital in Konduz by Arab fighters. They were very upset, we are being told, when one of their colleagues died in hospital. Donna.

KELLEY: Near Konduz, our Satinder Bindra. Thanks very much. As we carry on here, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Donna the Pentagon at this point will not confirm that 30-square mile report, but what is definite is that they are going after Osama bin Laden. By the air he is being targeted. They are bombing bunkers that are near the city of Kabul and then by land, the special operations forces are scouring areas in the southern and southeastern part of the country.

Much of that being helped by the fact that dozens of additional special operations forces have been pouring into the country since the end of last week and again they are scouring the rugged terrain of southern and southeastern Afghanistan on horse, by dune buggy, on foot, doing everything they can to track down the accused terrorist mastermind.

Again the Pentagon administration officials say that they believe that he remains in the country despite some reports over the weekend to the contrary and they say that he will be caught.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

PAUL WOLFOWITZ, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: This is a man on the run who's doing his best to hide. If he does leave Afghanistan, I can't imagine any government in its right mind harboring him. So this is a man who is in very great danger.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

KOCH: Administration officials say that helping the special operations forces in the region, of course, are British special operations forces and also increased cooperation by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Administration leaders, Secretary of State Colin Powell and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice over the weekend made it clear that this will be a long struggle and that it will not stop with Osama bin Laden.

Both of them pointing out that the U.S. believes it must not only eliminate al Qaeda, but it must also break the Taliban. And a firm warning, though, from Deputy Secretary of State Paul Wolfowitz said to Americans that we must be aware that if the U.S. does indeed catch or kill Osama bin Laden, that his followers very well may be planning retaliatory attacks on the U.S., just one more reason Wolfowitz says why the U.S. must eliminate the entire al Qaeda network wherever it hides. Donna.

KELLEY: Kathleen, do we have any update this morning yet on searching for the two U.S. sailors that we missing after they boarded that ship allegedly smuggling Iraqi oil?

KOCH: Donna, no word on their whereabouts as of yet. We know certainly that an intense search effort is going on in the northern Persian Gulf. We have several U.S. ships involved, U.S. helicopters and planes, even some nearby merchant ships, one Australian ship that was in the area, looking for these two sailors that were based aboard the USS Peterson, that U.S. destroyer that is based in Norfolk, Virginia.

Again, just a very tragic maritime accident. They will continue looking for them obviously for days.

KELLEY: Kathleen, thanks very much. Kathleen Koch at the Pentagon for us today.

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