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CNN Live At Daybreak

Anti-Taliban Forces Making Some Slow Gains in Eastern Afghanistan

Aired December 07, 2001 - 05:18   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: We're going to take you back now to the situation in Afghanistan. We've been telling you all morning about the gains being made in Kandahar. Well, anti-Taliban forces are making some slow gains in eastern Afghanistan as well. That is where they are engaging al Qaeda fighters around the mountainous region that's called Tora Bora.

The U.S. is backing that struggle with air strikes in hopes of smoking out Osama bin Laden. It's believed he may be hiding in that mountainous area.

And CNN's Brent Sadler is traveling with some of those opposition forces and he is joining us now live with what's going on there -- Brent, what's the latest from there?

BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Catherine.

First of all, over the past three days we've seen a lot of U.S. air strikes against the al Qaeda network of terrorists, an occupation in the foothills of the Tora Bora White Mountains you see behind me. And we see for the first time today that tanks have moved forward in the past couple of hours, helping support the warriors of Afghan tribal groups going up the valley, up the pass towards Tora Bora.

Now, we also saw a short time ago, and hopefully we can show you some video of this, what appears to be a deployment of special forces on the ground here in the White Mountains. For the past week or so, the anti-Taliban force commanders have been confirming that there were as many as 20 special force operatives operating in eastern Afghanistan, but wouldn't say where.

Our cameraman, Christian Streib, picked up just a short time ago with a huge lens we have here a very, very distant shot, but you can see it very closely here, of what appears to be a special force deployment of men, several men with guides and with pack animals and equipment on board those animals and heading towards the Tora Bora region.

There's been some of the heaviest bombing I've seen for the past few days and I want to take you now over to where Ben Wedeman is, CNN's Ben Wedeman. He's on the front line. We're going to try this by radio contact because conditions, communications out here are very tough. I'm going to go to Ben Wedeman now -- Ben, can you update me on what you can see from the front line over there? You've been at the other end of some of those strikes today.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brent.

What we've seen is in addition to those fairly thick air strikes are some resistance by the al Qaeda forces. Just a little while ago we heard somewhere between four and five incoming mortar rounds zooming over our head, hitting, slamming into the hills behind us. That caused what seemed to be a general pullback by the Eastern Alliance forces. They've pulled back a good 200 meters.

At the same time, just below me a tank has moved in and it's aimed its barrel in the direction of the al Qaeda positions from where it appears the fire is coming -- Brent.

SADLER: Ben, how close do you think you are to al Qaeda there with those Afghan tribal warriors?

WEDEMAN: Probably about 600 meters. But they're spread all over these hills. We are in the hills below them. They occupy the heights and they have a very commanding view. But for the most part, throughout the day, until really the last hour, there was no return fire. It was relatively quiet. We were with these tribal forces who were basically just lying in the sun and chatting with us. But now it seems that the situation has changed -- Brent.

SADLER: All right, CNN's Ben Wedeman there on the front line by radio contact.

I went in that area myself just 24 hours ago. It's pretty dangerous up there.

Back to you, Catherine.

CALLAWAY: Brent, certainly the anti-Taliban forces have had their hands full there with the situation there. Do you know if the word of the fall of Kandahar has reached them?

SADLER: No. They're really preoccupied with what's happening on the ground here. They certainly listen to the radio. But there's been no sign of any jubilation here. They're focusing very much on the job in hand here, and that is a formidable challenge. They have to take Tora Bora, which is this high altitude mountain fortress of an underground complex of tunnels and caves. Some of it's close quarter fighting.

We had a report from one villager who had apparently fled an area close to where the U.S. bombing has been taking place, that villager saying the al Qaeda fighters were asking them, in fact, paying them to dig graves. Reports talking about perhaps 100 graves being dug.

We can't substantiate that, of course, but clearly the situation fluid on the ground here, and as I said earlier, we've seen today over the past few hours some of the heaviest bombing around Tora Bora in the past week -- back to you, Catherine.

CALLAWAY: Brent, you're there, I know you can give us a little bit better idea about this area. We've certainly heard a lot about it. A very mountainous region. Very -- is it sparsely populated?

SADLER: I'm sorry, say again, Catherine. You broke up on the last. Is it what populated?

CALLAWAY: Is it sparsely populated?

SADLER: Indeed, yes. Just take a look behind me here. You can see a few of the Afghan tribal fighters just mooching around behind me. Beyond there, you have a vast area of very barren, remote conditions. There are villages here, between here and Jalalabad, Jalalabad about one and a half hours rough ride by four wheel vehicle and villages with no power. A very primitive existence out here and the terrain is very rough. There's a mountain track up towards Tora Bora. I went along that and saw some abandoned positions of al Qaeda 24 hours ago. This, a first line of defense and very difficult conditions, indeed, here.

Back to you Catherine.

CALLAWAY: All right, CNN's Brent Sadler joining us from the area known as Tora Bora.

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