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American Morning

America Strikes Back: Warplanes Striking at Frontline Positions of Taliban

Aired October 22, 2001 - 10:22   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Once again, I want to go back overseas now, Northern Afghanistan, and check in with CNN's Matthew Chance, shadowing the Northern Alliance troops. There were report the last couple hours that the Allied strikes had continues against some of the frontline positions.

Matthew Chance now to clarify some of those things for us.

Matthew, hello.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, that's right.

Those reports absolutely true. I can tell you, that within the last few hours, there have been U.S.-led coalition warplanes striking again at frontline positions of the Taliban, just north of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Let's take a pictures that one of our CNN crew members managed to take for you there. U.S. warplanes, or coalition warplanes at least, streaking across the sky, dropping their payload on the Shimoli plains, back from the Northern Alliance positions, where that crew was stationed into those Taliban frontline positions just north of the Afghan capital. It not something we have seen a great deal of during the course of this campaign.

This is the second consecutive day, though, that we have seen those U.S.-led strikes against Taliban frontlines north of Kabul. They were there also on Sunday. It is certainly ratcheting up the pressure on those Taliban troop concentrations north of Kabul, also giving the Northern Alliance forces something they have been asking for quite a long time now, that close air support against Taliban defenses, to enable them to achieve their military objective, which is of course ultimately an advance on the capital, Kabul -- Bill.

HEMMER: Matthew, there reports yesterday that some of the Northern Alliance troops actually stopped their work and went outside to watch and get ready for the anticipation of these U.S. airstrikes against Taliban troops. Do you know how much coordination there has been, or how much information is passed along between the U.S. and troops on the ground with the Northern Alliance that would probably pour tend an attack may take place soon?

CHANCE: Well, there is quite a lot of coordination at least. Northern Alliance officials have told us all along, they say they are in daily contact with the United States officials over military action and a range of other issues.

And I can tell you yesterday during those airstrikes on the Taliban frontline positions, a whole bunch of senior Northern Alliance regional commanders gathered at the Bagram Airbase, which is a key frontline north of Kabul, literally just minutes before those airstrikes took place. They stood there in the disused control tower and watched the Taliban frontlines get hit by those U.S.-led coalition warplanes. So that obviously suggests a high degree of coordination.

Now I was also down the those frontlines myself, a lot of tension down there between the two sides, between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance, a lot of artillery exchanges between them. But at that point, there was no sense in which the Northern Alliance commander said they were about to move on the Afghan capital, Kabul. They said they were going to maintain their defensive positions until given the green light to push forward.

Now there wasn't any green light given that day, but in list of these recent developments, obviously, we are watching it all the more closely -- Bill.

HEMMER: And, Matthew, quickly here, there are some complaints coming out of the Northern Alliance that the U.S. was not hitting those targets on the Taliban frontlines. Have those complaints been quieted at all as a result of the past two days?

CHANCE: You're right, a lot of frustration that those frontline targets weren't being hit enough, according to frontline Northern Alliance commanders, of course. But what we saw yesterday and we're seeing today is a lot more excitement, a lot more enthusiasm and a welcoming generally from Northern Alliance commanders and northern Alliance Troops on the ground that finally, these attacks, they say, are targeting what they call their enemies, the Taliban. So there is some delight at least, that these attacks now have changed their emphasis away from those targets deep in Afghanistan, apparently changing their emphasis to focus more on the Taliban frontline positions themselves, Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Matthew. Matthew Chance with the Northern Alliance in Northern Afghanistan.

Matthew, thanks to you.

It was on Saturday that the Pentagon released some fascinating videotape of operations of U.S. special operations on the ground being conducted in Afghanistan. This as a result of action on Friday night.

For more on this now, CNN's Miles O'Brien, tracking the special capabilities, and with the general once again.

Hey, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, Bill. I'm joined by retired General Don Sheppard, our military analyst, and let's put some things together for you, if we could. We just got through seeing Matthew Chance's report on those daylight raids in and around the area, the frontlines to the Northern Alliance and the Taliban, involving those FA-18s, fighter-attack aircraft.

Let's take a look at some pictures which came in from over the weekend, that first attack on Bagram, and this is significant. Number one, what strikes me is we are watching a daylight raid here.

GEN. DON SHEPPARD, (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Watching a daylight raid, and watching the enthusiasm of the Northern Forces saying, they are hitting the front lines, so they are enthused about this. It shows we can hit day or night, and we're going against these frontline troops now, Miles.

O'BRIEN: You mentioned the morale of the troops. The general, their leader, was assassinated two days before the attacks of September 11th. Do you believed that is linked to bin Laden? They must have been demoralized by that. This has got to help in the field.

SHEPPARD: General Masood (ph) was a very charismatic leader. They are looking for a replacement for him, but they're going to carry on. Now where they are going for these strikes is very difficult, trenches, caves, mines, that type of thing. between there and Kabul. This is not easy, no matter if they advance, it's difficult.

O'BRIEN: All right, now let's take a look quickly at the aircraft that was involved in this one. This is the FA-18 Hornet. This is a carrier-based aircraft flown by the Navy and the Marines, supersonic , 1,100 miles per hour once you firewall it and turn on those afterburners. Pretty versatile aircraft.

SHEPPARD: Versatile aircraft, can carry laser-guided bombs, GPS, those guided bombs, like the JDAM as well, as gun bombs (ph) and missiles. Very versatile, just lie our F-16s and F-15e's, These come off the carriers.

O'BRIEN: All right, let's connect some dots here. Let's go to an animation we put together. I want to put a couple of disclaimers out here. We are talking about any location at all in Afghanistan. It not our goal here to pinpoint the location of any troops in Afghanistan. This is just at an example to give you a sense of how an airstrike may be called in, as we go into this generic location, special operations, forward controllers. That sort of thing can get into surreptitious locations and look for targets, right?

SHEPPARD: Here is the important thing, is that this shows a trooper on the ground marking targets. It can be done from a Predator. It can be done from space. It can be done from generic fighters themselves. We're just showing the capability to do it. This goes back to World War II. And the problem is the Taliban has to realize that we can do this day or night, any kind of weather, and they have to know that no matter where they are, they can't hide from the signatures that they are leaving. O'BRIEN: Just to be clear, this is just signifying radio communication. They find a target, call in for a strike, and in conjunction with that, might very well use a laser device to paint an object. What does that do for you, General Sheppard?

SHEPPARD: Well basically, what it does is put a mark on the target that an aircraft airborne can see, you can guide weapons in from the airplanes that are dropped on that laser mark. Again, just a capability that the Taliban has to react to. Don't know if we are doing this now, but the Air Force and the Navy have this capability, along with special operations forces and the active -- the real military. I'm talking about the big army, if you will, and the Taliban doesn't know if they are coming or if they are there.

O'BRIEN: All right, Would you call a significant change in strategy over the weekend, the fact that we know now about a healthy contingent of special operations involved in at least a hit and run operation, the southern regions, the fact there is bombing on the frontlines, Taliban to Northern Alliance lines. That seems to be to be an acceleration.

SHEPPARD: It is an acceleration. The important thing about it is again that the Taliban doesn't know if we will continue these special operations and ranger raids, they don't know if the tenth mountain is going to be reinforced, or we're bring other divisions in, or we're going to continue airstrikes. They simply don't know, and they have to react to all these capabilities and all of their areas.

It is a question of time, and time is on our side.

General Don Shepherd, retired Air Force U.S. Air Force, thanks.

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