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CNN Live At Daybreak
Gunfight in Kandahar; Earthquake in Afghanistan
Aired January 03, 2002 - 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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, there was an hour long gunfight in Kandahar in Afghanistan overnight. Anti-Taliban fighters routed a small pocket of Taliban resistance. Four Taliban fighters were captured. One anti-Taliban fighter was wounded.
The Taliban holdouts were hiding in an abandoned building. They were taken to a local police station for questioning. Anti-Taliban forces and U.S. special forces have been patrolling Kandahar looking for any hard-line Taliban fighters who still remain in the city.
Now while U.S. officials insist the overall mission in Afghanistan is not a search for one particular person, sources say special forces are now looking for Mullah Mohammed Omar.
CNN's Bill Hemmer is in Kandahar with more on the search for the Taliban supreme leader.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. military sources confirm with CNN the hunt for Mullah Mohammed Omar apparently has stepped up a bit. Special forces now operating in northern Helmand Province in the search for the Taliban founder. In addition to that, the U.S. Marines have now completed, successfully, they say, the largest ground operation since coming here in southern Afghanistan back in late November.
Two hundred Marines were out searching a compound said to be an al Qaeda target, looking for more intelligence and more information. They say they found computer disks. And right now they'll bring those back here to Kandahar, sift and sort through the information looking for more information on al Qaeda and Taliban leadership.
The Marines say encountered no hostile fire. No fire was exchanged. But they did say they encountered several women and children inside a rather large compound. The Marines say they were quite careful to let the civilians know that everything was OK there, given the history for this place.
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MAJ. CHRIS HUGHES, U.S. MARINE CORPS SPOKESMAN: The commander did emphasize that this compound has been searched before, that the Soviets searched it, the Taliban searched it. So great care was given to, when no initial resistance was met, great care was given to conduct a search with utmost respect. Translators were used just to explain what's going on.
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HEMMER: The Marines also say right now there could be more plans for more ground operations but right now nothing is positive or confirmed.
On another front, 200 detainees now held here at Kandahar. Eleven more were brought in last night. And we're starting to find more and more details about certain detainees here. We now know some of them did attend college and university in the U.S. In fact, one of them was born in the state of Louisiana. However, we're told he left at a young age, possibly for Saudi Arabia, and this is not, they say, not another case of the American John Walker now being held on board the USS Bataan in the Arabian Sea.
One final note, late Saturday afternoon, a CH-53, a Super Stallion helicopter, suffered a hard landing in a desert area northwest of here. The crew came back this past weekend. They are safe and OK. And yesterday, the helicopter repaired in the field and flown back safely. The Marines call this a successful recovery mission.
With the U.S. Marines, Bill Hemmer, CNN, reporting, Kandahar, Afghanistan.
LIN: And while all this was going on, Afghanistan was hit with an earthquake. Just three hours ago the magnitude six quake was felt first in Kabul and Jalalabad. But two minutes later, that quake was felt in Islamabad, Pakistan and lasted at least a full minute. India's meteorological department says the quake was centered in the Hindu Kush mountain range of Afghanistan. So far there are no reports of damage or injuries but a magnitude six is pretty strong.
The trial for the first man indicted in direct connection to the September 11 terrorist attacks has been set for October 15. The lawyer for Zacarias Moussaoui entered a plea of not guilty to six conspiracy charges. Just before that, Moussaoui invoked the name of Allah while refusing to enter a plea.
After setting the trial date, the judge refused a defense motion for more time to prepare. Jury selection is scheduled to begin September 30.
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