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American Morning

Fierce Fighting Resumes in Tora Bora, Advances Made Quickly Against al Qaeda

Aired December 13, 2001 - 09:17   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: Meanwhile, in the Afghan war zone, the battle rages on. U.S. warplanes are pounding all al Qaeda positions in the Tora Bora region. The question is: Can bin Laden survive the relentless assault? Brent Stadler -- Sadler, that is, continues to stand by in Tora Bora with the very latest. Brent, what have you seen within the last hour?

BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, thanks, Paula. It has turned bitterly cold here, but on the mountain war is certainly heating up. This after two days of uncertainty about the possibility of whether or not there might be some sort of surrender deal that would involve the release of most of the al Qaeda fighters, except Osama bin Laden himself, presumably -- presuming he's still here, and his top leadership.

Now that surrender deal has gone away, and as a result of that, the Eastern Alliance Afghan forces have launched new attacks in the last 24 hours against al Qaeda positions. Take the clock back to the previous night, and you'll see there was a very heavy period of overnight bombing. Big "daisy cutters," those 15,000-pound bombs, confirmed by the U.S. as having been dropped on the Tora Bora area. Massive explosions during the night, and then today we've seen the continuation of those U.S. airstrikes against -- pounding very heavily against al Qaeda positions as Eastern Alliance forces have moved their fighters closer to the action.

Close quarter fighting reported again today. We'd also like to show you some nose-cone video of a recent attack by a U.S. warplane dropping its ordinance on terror suspects. If you look closely at the video, you can see suspects running away before they're caught by the bomb blast. Now, we also understand from reports among the Eastern Alliance leadership that Special Forces are playing a key role on the ground here. And that, perhaps, explains why we've seen some very rapid advances, allegedly, by the Afghan warriors on the ground.

They say they've taken, within the past few hours, three more al Qaeda positions, almost, they say, driving the terrorists to the border with Pakistan. Concern amongst the leadership here of the Afghans that somehow al Qaeda remnants or, indeed, the leadership itself may be able to escape across the border into Pakistan. One other piece of information: Arabic speakers amongst the media here have intercepted a radio chat coming from al Qaeda positions talking about waging jihad to the end -- Paula? ZAHN: Brent Sadler, thanks for the update.

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