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CNN Live At Daybreak

U.S. Forces Engaged in Intense Combat

Aired March 04, 2002 - 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: For a third day, U.S. warplanes are pounding al Qaeda and Taliban forces in remote eastern Afghanistan. And on the ground, U.S. and Afghan soldiers are fighting what the Pentagon is describing as intense battles.

CNN's Kathleen Koch has more on the latest offensive in this war on terrorism.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The fiercest ground fighting this year. The Pentagon says U.S. warplanes have, since Friday, dropped more than 270 bombs on targets, including vehicles, troops, caves and anti-aircraft artillery. AH-64 Apache helicopters have sustained damage from enemy fire in what the Pentagon calls intense heavy combat actions.

The offensive comes in a rugged mountainous region the U.S. military has for months expected was a haven for several hundred regrouping Taliban and al Qaeda forces. U.S. lawmakers share their concern.

SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Well, there is a good many there. They are heavily armed, and they are trying to disrupt everything we are going to do. If we don't go after them now and destroy them now, it will get worse. We know the history of Afghanistan.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: We are in, in some ways, a more difficult phase of the conflict in Afghanistan, in the war on terror in Afghanistan, than we have ever been in, because of the failure to control the countryside, the warlords competing, the surrounding nations trying to regain or influence events.

KOCH: It's prompting some to echo Afghan President Hamid Karzai's call this week to expand the international peacekeeping force beyond the capital of Kabul.

MALEEHA LODHI, PAKISTAN AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: I think that's very important to ensure that Afghanistan doesn't descend back into the violent chaos that we saw before, and that warlordism doesn't take root in Afghanistan.

KOCH: But U.S. military experts say that is easier said than done.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: The choice that you have is doing it through the Afghans themselves by training them and getting the cooperation of the power brokers in the various areas of Afghanistan, or expanding largely the peacekeeping force itself, which can also become targets. It's not clear which is the way to go.

KOCH: Increasingly clear to some, the need for U.S. involvement despite the risks.

SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (D), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: A number of our most significant allies are not going to be part of the peacekeeping in Afghanistan, unless we are, and therefore, I think we must be.

KOCH (on camera): Most agree the latest offensive is a stark reminder that while well under way, the job of eliminating terrorists and the remnants of the Taliban from Afghanistan is far from over.

Kathleen Koch, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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