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American Morning

America's New War: U.S. May Use Former Soviet Base in Afghanistan in Battle Against Terrorist Camps

Aired September 28, 2001 - 09:06   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.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: And as the Pentagon builds up the U.S. military operation, obviously, keeping a very close eye on developments in the region, including in Afghanistan, where opponents of the Taliban continue their fight bolstered by more arms from the Russians.

CNN's Chris Burns has been in the region recent days. Much of that fighting around a former Soviet air base. Mr. Burns filed this report.

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CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We creep inside the air base with Northern Alliance fighters, too dangerous to drive that close to a front line that runs through it. Now as shattered remnant, it was once the center of Soviet military might in Afghanistan. Some experts say the Americans could now use it for operations against terrorist camps.

The base once backed as many as 100 thousand Soviet troops who tried but failed to subdue Western-backed anticommunist insurgents from 1979 to 1989. Tom Carew was a British special forces agent working in Afghanistan at the time with rebels like the late commander Massoud.

TOM CAREW, FMR. BRITISH SPECIAL FORCES: Bagram Airport actually was the lifeline of the Soviet army. When Massoud closed the selling (ph) highway they had to fly everything in, and everything came into Bagram.

BURNS: Factional fighting after the Soviets left reduced the base and the last remaining MiG fighter jets to ruin. Alliance fighters hold the control tower and runway. They face off with Taliban forces dug in across the airstrip.

(on camera): Anyone wanting to use this base again would have to control the mountains around it. The Taliban holds both the mountains behind me and on the other side of the valley. In fact, the Taliban overran this base three times in the last five years.

(voice-over): The Northern Alliance commander here insists it would be different this time. His ragtag band of fighters, if backed by U.S. forces, could secure the entire base in 24 hours, he says. "We are a little bit concerned about the south and southeast of the base where the Taliban are."

That includes the mountains above. Still, the Soviets ran the base despite Mujahideen fighters holding the heights, factors that analysts and strategists will have to take into account if the U.S. were to seize the base, a base that now lies in the middle of a stalemated war.

Chris Burns, CNN, Bagram, Afghanistan.

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