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CNN Live At Daybreak

Airstrike On Target Near Kandahar May Have Caught Mullah Omar

Aired November 28, 2001 - 05:01   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get more on the hunt for Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar and go to the Pentagon, where we find out Ed Lavandera -- Ed, any clues from the Pentagon on the whereabouts of either man?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is some of the information they will be sifting through today. As you mentioned, the two targets that were struck just southeast of Kandahar. Pentagon sources telling CNN that there is a possibility that Mullah Mohammad Omar might have been in one of the two targets that were struck yesterday. The two air strikes were planned, were carried out as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was touring the central command in Tampa, Florida yesterday.

While he was there, some intelligence reports came into central command so they quickly arranged air strikes on the two targets. It is not clear at this point, the secretary of defense says that the targets that were hit were completely destroyed and they have been demolished into rubble. But it is not clear, at this point, whether or not Mullah Mohammad Omar was in, was there at the time. Of course, the Taliban saying that Omar is safe.

But this kind of goes back to the bigger issue here, that U.S. air strikes in the region and U.S. patrols throughout the area tightening the noose, as the Pentagon has been saying, on Osama bin Laden and the leaders of the Taliban.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The Taliban and the al Qaeda situation is a difficult one. Some of their strongholds are falling. Their communications are being disrupted. Their leaders are being forced to move about the country to stay alive. As the president has said, we are tightening the noose around the Taliban and the al Qaeda and reducing the amount of real estate that they have available to move around on. We will pursue them until they have nowhere else to run.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: Rumsfeld says that Omar is the type of man, he believes, that if this attack did not kill him, that he is the type of man who will fight to the death. So that is something that the U.S. forces are preparing for as well. Now, other intelligence information that has been pouring into the Pentagon and the U.S. military also suggests that Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar have been hiding out in the regions, the two specific regions they're looking at is an area near Jalalabad and near Kandahar, which is the spiritual center of the Taliban government. But the U.S. military also quick to point out that this isn't the only two locations that they're looking at at this point -- Daryn, back to you.

KAGAN: Ed Lavandera at the Pentagon. Ed, thank you.

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