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American Morning

Northern Alliance Using Tanks on Tora Bora, Claiming Capture of Al Qaeda Positions

Aired December 10, 2001 - 08:04   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: Let's return now to the war in Afghanistan. The U.S. military is intensifying its attacks on the places it believes Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network are still holding out.

Brent Sadler filed this report just moments ago from Tora Bora.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): There has been a significant change in the battlefield scenario today. After more than a week of sustained bombing by United States warplanes, this day the attention has focused to action from tanks, mostly tanks, T-55s like the one behind me there, old Russian tanks being used by the Eastern Alliance anti-Taliban forces to pour fire into al Qaeda positions in those mountains just behind me.

At the top of those mountains, Tora Bora, where it's thought that Osama bin Laden, himself, may be directing very fierce resistance by al Qaeda fighters using the forests and caves as cover.

Now, for two days, they have been pouring mortar fire from those al Qaeda positions against anti-Taliban supply routes, but the emphasis changed today with tanks pouring their cannon shells into those positions.

Now, Hazrid Ali (ph), one of the on-the-ground commanders, said that late afternoon, his men were able to take some important al Qaeda positions. He is claiming to have captured two command centers and four complex of tunnels. Now, whether or not this is true, we don't know. We haven't got any independent verification, but if that does turn out to be the case, that is some significant capture of al Qaeda positions.

Now, at nightfall, we saw heavy -- again, a return, rather, of U.S. airplanes, fighter bombers, just before the end of this day -- before nightfall, coming in from positions -- or rather firing at positions in those hills behind me, really trying to take out the heavy weaponry that al Qaeda has been using these past few days: mortars and heavy caliber machine gunfire. And for an hour or more, those fighters bombers were coming in, wave after wave, with big explosions on top of those hills and lower down. And as nightfall, we saw heavy caliber machine guns from the anti-Taliban forces shooting at positions, tracer fire popping away at al Qaeda, but al Qaeda still very much dug in there and al Qaeda still very much a force to be reckoned with.

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

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