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American Morning

Eastern Alliance Issues Surrender Ultimatum to Al Qaeda

Aired December 11, 2001 - 08:00   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: A major development though, first, in the war against terrorism. Eastern Alliance commanders have given al Qaeda fighters in the Tora Bora region until Wednesday morning, local time, to surrender. That deadline would be tonight about 10:30 Eastern Time.

Our Brent Sadler has just returned from the front lines in Tora Bora. He has an exclusive report for us now. Brent, describe to us what you saw and who took you there.

BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, this is the end of a very dramatic day here, which I've been able to personally witness the way the anti-Taliban Afghan forces have been engaged in close- quarter combat with al Qaeda defenders on the way to Tora Bora. There was one period of time when just two or three hundred yards separated journalists, and we took incoming fire along with the Afghan warriors.

Now I'm going to show you now the first pictures we have got of what it looks like inside one of these destroyed al Qaeda bases, the subject of very heavy U.S. bombing over the past couple of weeks. These pictures show what clearly was a very important training center. We saw an assault course, a weight training area, exercise yard, and we saw a miniature moonscape, if you like, of giant craters pock marking this entire area.

Also we saw a destroyed T-55 tank. The al Qaeda defenders have many tanks, many positions dug up in this first complex to fall, the first close-up identification we have got that Osama bin Laden's fighters -- their defenses are crumbling.

Now let's take a look at the caves. We got to see some of these smaller fortifications -- went inside those caves and saw ammunition, textbooks, various weapons smashed apart by U.S. bombing raids over the past several days. And this entire area, as I say, was still very much exposed for a period this afternoon before that cease-fire -- that truce came into place, and that was still taking some fire. And the anti-Taliban forces were still using cannons and tanks and machine guns to try and keep al Qaeda higher up the valleys. I guess maybe one -- one-and-a-half miles still separate the forces.

At the end of this day, the Eastern Alliance anti-Taliban forces came down the mountain. I saw the two commanders at the end of this day, a very weary day. And they were telling me that they were giving 15-16 more hours for al Qaeda to give in, to lay down their weapons and surrender.

Now, one of the commanders said that they would be very interested in some sort of United Nations mechanism to take prisoners of war, but he did say that the mechanism of bringing into affect any sort of surrender by al Qaeda still holding out up there will be very difficult, because al Qaeda are still spread, he said, across a wide area. They're nervous, they're jumpy, and one can expect more firefights in the morning, even as the surrender possibly takes shape.

I also asked him very crucially: What about Osama bin Laden? And the two commanders tell me they still do not rule out the possibility that bin Laden could be up there, still hanging out with diehard fighters around him. If he is dead, they bring down his body, they said. If he's alive, they take his surrender. That's where we stand right now -- back to you, Paula.

ZAHN: Brent, is there a belief there that the U.S. will stop its bombing campaign as the waiting time starts for this deadline?

SADLER: Unclear. What I can tell you is as I just came on air, we saw the contrails of the heavy U.S. bombers looking overhead here. Clearly, there's a lot of looking to do from surveillance -- high-tech surveillance in these hours of darkness before sunrise tomorrow, when at 8:00 o'clock local time here, this surrender deadline kicks into place.

Now, in terms of what might be achieved by aerial bombing at this stage is difficult to say. Al Qaeda certainly on the run, certainly, their positions have been taken in the lower parts of the valleys, but they're still up there. We don't know how many -- several hundred at least, according to the commanders I spoke to. They still have weapons. They still have mortars, it's believed.

So there is still more work to be done. Whether the U.S. decides to hit again tonight or early tomorrow morning, we'll have to wait and see -- Paula.

ZAHN: Brent, final question for you. It's hard to make out from the scale of the pictures how many people might have been stationed there at the training center at one point. Do you have any idea?

SADLER: A large number from what this one main complex I saw. It had a communications room. It had many caves. It had even positions dug out of the rock face. You could see them. They carved positions out of the rocks, and very many gun-in (ph) placements, small machine guns, tanks. They had managed to get two T-55s right up to that area -- a very difficult terrain.

The U.S. bombs had scattered four-wheel-drive pickup vehicles across the valley side, and this area was large. It would have been well defended. It would have had a lot of people there. And we saw things like boxing gloves, weight training equipment, and they would have been training heavily there for sure -- back to you, Paula.

ZAHN: Brent Sadler -- thanks so much for that report. And once again, that deadline falls at 10:30 Eastern Time tonight. That, of course, we will follow very closely throughout the day.

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