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CNN Live At Daybreak
Israel Has Struck Back Hard After a Bus Ambush by Palestinian Gunmen; Some 1,600 Taliban Prisoners Returning to Afghan Homes Today
Aired December 13, 2001 - 05:30 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: As we said Israel has struck back hard after a bus ambush by Palestinian gunmen left 10 dead. That latest Israeli attacks come as the Israeli cabinet delivers a stinging review to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. Let's go to CNN's Chris Burns who's in Jerusalem with the very latest - Chris.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Catherine probably the strongest statement of that is are the Israeli tanks who have moved into a number of neighborhoods in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, some of those tanks within 200 yards of Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah on the West Bank. Now as some of those tanks and bulldozers moved in, one Palestinian policeman was killed in a clash with the Israelis on the West Bank.
This, of course, comes within hours after the Israeli airstrikes struck at Palestinian positions on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip including Palestinian radio and radar installations, also security positions, installations. This also within coming around the time that the Israeli cabinet decided that they will no longer continue contacts with Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat - that Arafat is now irrelevant as far as they're concerned, that Israel will go ahead and conduct its own crackdown on Palestinian militants rounding them up and seizing their weapons.
This, of course, being prompted after what the Israelis see as a last straw. The 10 Israelis who were killed in an Israeli - in a Palestinian militant ambush of a bus on the West Bank - a bush that was heading toward an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. This, of course, press (INAUDIBLE) but certainly jeopardizing diplomatic efforts by the U.S. special envoy Anthony Zinni who is suppose to meet today, perhaps in the next hour or so with the Palestinian chief negotiator in what used to be a peace process, is now - is now on ice. Saeb Erakat, we asked him his reaction to the latest Israeli moves.
VOICE OF SAEB ERAKAT, PALESTINIAN CHIEF NEGOTIATOR: This is a grave decision. This is a terrible decision, and I believe (INAUDIBLE) President Arafat was very (INAUDIBLE) by the Palestinian people (INAUDIBLE) by the Palestinian people. And now Israel is dismantling the Palestinian authority and (INAUDIBLE) Islamic tactics of Sharon, you know, not shaking hands with Arafat, (INAUDIBLE) Arafat. Arafat is associated with terror and now (INAUDIBLE) what's next. Is it (INAUDIBLE) to kill Yasser Arafat. I believe that's what he's doing. I believe he's dismantling the Palestinian authority. I believe he's destroying the peace process and he's undermining everything.
BURNS: Mr. Zinni, General Zinni having a tough job cut out for him, not only with the Palestinians but also with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel - Catherine.
CALLAWAY: Chris, a lot of questions about how exactly the Israeli troops would go in and make these arrests of suspected terrorists.
BURNS: Well certainly it is a difficult undertaking because they're moving into neighborhoods and even into the Palestinian refugee camps in the Gaza Strip. It's very diplomatic to go after them. However, the Israelis through their intelligence have managed to compile a list of 33 top suspects who are accused of being involved in past or even future terror attacks and that's the people they want to go after. Now Arafat has arrested about half of them, but the Israelis have not been satisfied by that, especially in light of the latest attack on the West Bank - Catherine.
CALLAWAY: All right, CNN's Chris Burns joining us live from Jerusalem. Thank you Chris. And as CNN continues to monitor the struggle going on in the Middle East, you can find out more about the long-standing conflict. Just go to CNN.com - there you can take a virtual tour of the region and learn about some key issues that are diving the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Well, some 1,600 Taliban prisoners just freed are returning to their Afghan homes today. As CNN's Jason Bellini reports, their initial taste of freedom is a modest one.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're still rediscovering the little things like the scent of an apple.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It's been five and a half years since I had an apple.
BELLINI: The man puts his apples away for later observing the Ramadan fast. The big things, hugging their families, sleeping in their own beds still awaits them when they finally get home after years of Taliban captivity.
You don't look very happy. You look very tired.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I'm not tired, the man tells me. The trip here was hard, and I'm a little bit ill. I'm sorry, I can't speak very well. You should talk to some of the other men here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We didn't have any fruit or meat in prison, so I'm sick and weak. I can't go to the bathroom right now.
BELLINI: The men wait to receive money from the International Committee of the Red Cross -- $10 at most. Right after their release from prison, the new Kandahar government gave them a gift of 500 Afghan rubies (ph), less than 50 cents. In the evening the former prisoners get a lift to the security ministry. The mood has changed since the afternoon, more upbeat.
No tears as they describe what they've endured. (INAUDIBLE) Mohammed Gara (ph).
MOHAMMED GARA (through translator): The Taliban behaved very factious towards us like people in the Second World War. During my three years in prison, I witnessed 40 people die from beatings and starvation.
BELLINI: More men arrive from Kandahar just in time for dinner. They embrace. Tomorrow they'll go their separate ways. The prisoners say they lived on bread and water, some of them for more than seven years. Tonight they'll get a good meal - for some of them this will be their first good meal since being released from prison and tomorrow they continue their journeys home to unite with their families.
Nothing fancy, bread, (INAUDIBLE) cookies, and hot tea. If the men are disappointed by the menu, they give no indication. This meal could never compete with what they're expecting at home. Yaman Adan (ph) was 12 years old when the Taliban imprisoned him - now he's 16.
YAMAN ADAN (through translator): When my mother sees me for the first time, she'll hug me and hold me and cry of course.
BELLINI: The embrace of a mother, the taste of an apple, these men know better than most of us how cruel and how sweet life can be. Jason Bellini, CNN, Kabul, Afghanistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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