Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Bin Laden May be Hiding in Tora Bora Mountains of Afghanistan

Aired December 06, 2001 - 08:07   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: There are a lot questions surrounding the issue of the potential surrender of Kandahar. If that happens, the last objective will be finding Osama bin Laden. He may be hiding in the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan, where opposition troops are focusing their fight against al Qaeda forces.

CNN's Brent Sadler just filed this report from Tora Bora.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nightfall in the area of the White Mountains, not far from Tora Bora, that cave and tunnel complex where it is thought Osama bin Laden might be hiding. Certainly, we do know for a fact that alliance -- Eastern Alliance forces, whose tank that is behind me, a T-55, they have been engaging al Qaeda fighters in this area for the past two days.

Now, over the past 48 hours, the T-55s have been pouring fire into suspected al Qaeda positions in the foothills of the Tora Bora area, and they've been having a degree of success. I went on a somewhat hazardous road trip up the mountains several miles and saw some of the areas that the al Qaeda fighters have vacated. We saw some pickup trucks, which had been camouflaged with mud. They had been abandoned. Fighters on the ground with the Eastern Alliance said they had captured them. We saw inside those vehicles books, notebooks, textbooks, Korans and various clothing that they said the al Qaeda people had left behind in somewhat of a hurry.

But this is by no means a hot pursuit by the anti-Taliban Eastern Alliance. They are having a really hard slog to try and push al Qaeda back up the mountains. There has been very close quarter fighting, fierce fighting, and the Eastern Alliance say they have suffered a number of casualties. In fact, they say that some of their injured have been left in an exposed position, and they can't recover those injured until after nightfall.

Earlier in the day, we saw continued air activity by U.S. warplanes, bombing of suspected al Qaeda positions as the anti-Taliban forces moved slowly yard by yard up towards the top of the first ridge of mountains. Tora Bora is beyond the first ridge, even more inaccessible. It's not known just how many al Qaeda fighters are involved in this, but I'm certainly told that resistance is very stiff indeed.

Brent Sadler, CNN, in the White Mountains near Tora Bora.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.