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American Morning

Eastern Alliance and al Qaeda Observing Cautious Cease-fire

Aired December 11, 2001 - 06:43   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: We are going back to the war zone now. Time seemed to be running out for al Qaeda fighters. They face a deadline to surrender or die in the mountainous region around Tora Bora. The big question is, are they ready to surrender? Our Brent Sadler is standing by. He is just back from the hills and caves in Tora Bora, and he brought with him exclusive pictures of not only a training camp, he will show craters left by the American bombing campaign, and he will also show us what appears to be the inside of one of the web-like caves. So, Brent, I'm just going to hand it over to you, and let you describe what you saw.

BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Paula. This is the end of a grueling day for anti-Taliban Eastern Alliance forces, and a change in fortunes, if you like, of the war against terror, again al Qaeda, in the White Mountains, now in darkness behind me. Let me run you back over the past few hours of really dramatic actions on the battlefield in these mountain areas. Let's bring up first of all, the very first pictures of the cave complexes of a major al Qaeda training camp, several miles from my position here, but in the heart of the al Qaeda area of actions over the past several weeks.

These caves and tunnels were being used by al Qaeda as defensive positions. They were dug in here. It seems, during the last -- almost two weeks of heavy U.S. bombardments by B-51's -- B-52's, rather, B-1's, and other fighter-bomber aircraft. Clearly, inside these tunnels and cave complexes we were seeing manuscripts, ammunition, guns, weapons, and so forth, and outside the cave complex, we were seeing massive bomb craters created by that very heavy U.S. bombing.

It wasn't over until after there had been several skirmishes, close quarter fighting between the Eastern Alliance forces who were pushing back gully by gully, hilltop by hilltop, pushing back al Qaeda throughout the day. They were, after the first time, also, we saw with own eyes able to inflict losses on al Qaeda. We saw bodies being dragged from the mountains, just a few hours ago, and put into body bags.

Eastern Alliance taking care of those corpses, and then, at the end of this very dramatic day, an announcement from the Eastern Alliance Afghan leaders who have been running, basically, a two- pronged attack to make this breakthrough, to overrun these al Qaeda positions, saying that they had had face-to-face contact with al Qaeda commanders, and were trying to negotiate a surrender and a cease-fire went into effect several hours ago, giving until tomorrow morning, local time here in Eastern Afghanistan, the chance for al Qaeda to lay down their weapons and surrender.

The anti-Taliban forces say they would like to see some sort of mechanism whereby al Qaeda could surrender and then be handed over to the United Nations. A difficult mechanism to see how that could work out given that al Qaeda, we know, are still spread out over a wide area of these mountains, and very difficult for them to coordinate any sort of organized surrender. Nevertheless, it's either surrender or die, according to the anti-Taliban forces -- Paula.

ZAHN: Is the cease-fire holding so far?

SADLER: Yes, after that announcement, we saw a real lull in the fighting, a bit of tank fire at the end of the day, and then I saw the Eastern Alliance forces stream down the hills, basically leave a few men in the front line positions overnight up there. They normally come down at the end of a hard day's fighting and go up just after dawn the next morning. That's what we expect to see happen tomorrow.

I asked the commanders about the possibility of Osama bin Laden being here. They are still saying they think there's a reasonable chance he may still be involved in these operations, but no, no certainty of that whatsoever. However, I asked the commander what would you do if bin Laden was up there? They said they would take his surrender, and they would hand him over. If he was dead, if he'd been killed in the bombing, they would take care of the body. No confirmation, no certainty, that that's the case. What we do know for absolute certainty, is that al Qaeda is on the run.

Al Qaeda -- one of their main training camps, we saw exercise areas, various weapons training camps, areas up here, small arms fire, heavy arms fire. Targets. This really was a terror training area, no doubt about it. We've seen al Qaeda, now, on the run. And really up against the surrender deadline, remains to be seen what they are going to do about that -- Paula.

ZAHN: And, did these commanders tell the Eastern Alliance forces that they -- they do expect to surrender? I know you say that negotiation is going on right now.

SADLER: No, they -- they've asked for more time, in fact. They asked for an extension for the time that they were allowed in the first place. The Eastern Alliance first offer wasn't acceptable to al Qaeda, but they said they needed more time because their forces are spread over a very wide area, indeed, here.

Coordination and communication is very difficult. I can tell you, having slugged up these mountains myself with my crew today under fire, at some -- at some instances, very dangerous it was at the height of the battle today. I can tell you coordinating a surrender in this area is extraordinarily difficult, and given the fact that they think bin Laden himself may be up here, that makes it even more difficult and obviously more complicated, and more dangerous.

There's no guarantee whatsoever that the al Qaeda fighters won't use these hours to perhaps reorganize some sort of extra defenses, to get themselves together, and who knows, those commanders may face another fire fight tomorrow.

But certainly, they've got the wind in their sails. They know they have got the support of that very heavy U.S. bombing which has been strongly effective. Pinpoint bombing. Widespread destruction in those al Qaeda areas. They know they have got that behind them if they need it, and they have also got heavy tanks and a lot of men in dispositions throughout this area. They think this is the beginning of the end of al Qaeda, in the words of one commander here -- back to you, Paula.

ZAHN: Well, Brent, I think you just described how dangerous it is there on the ground. We know you don't take any unnecessary risks. Stay safe. Thank you for that superb report and those exclusive pictures.

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