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American Morning
U.S. Central Command Says a Couple of Military Transport Planes Responded to Flashes They Observed on Ground
Aired December 18, 2001 - 08:08 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: Earlier today, we told you that a couple of military transports had been fired on, possibly by Stinger missiles while flying into Kandahar. Well, now the U.S. Central Command says the planes responded to flashes they observed on the ground, but there is no indication they were actually shot at.
Our Mike Chinoy joins us now with U.S. Marines in southern Afghanistan -- good morning again, Mike. I know it's evening there. Any further clarification on this conflicting reporting?
MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, what the Marines here are saying is that those two C-130 planes acted as if they were being fired on, which of course, when you're flying over Afghanistan in the dead of night, it is the prudent thing to do. But pilots did see flashes coming from the ground. Their initial reaction was that it might well be Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. The Taliban certainly have a number of Stingers in their possession, and there are Taliban and al Qaeda fighters still at large in this area.
In the event the indications now are that it might equally have just been Afghans firing off weapons to mark the Eid festival that comes at the end of Ramadan. In any event, the C-130s did take evasive action, fired flares just to be safe, and of course, nothing happened to them.
But the episode does underscore the continuing danger that is presented to the Marines. They are flying a dozen or more C-130 flights in and out of Kandahar Airport every night and all of the Marine flying is done at night, both the helicopters and the transport planes. They don't want to present any kind of easy target, because they know there is danger out there -- Paula.
ZAHN: Mike, any update on the whereabouts of Mullah Omar this morning?
CHINOY: I asked the Marines about that, and they say they don't have anything more to add. There were reports that he was holed up somewhere in this part of Afghanistan, and that the local Afghan authorities now are chasing him. The Marines are not playing any role in that.
The focus here today at Kandahar Airport has been on getting the new detention center ready. A couple of a hundred yards from where I am standing is a corrugated iron shed surrounded by three layers of barbed wire, and it will be guarded by armed Marines, both inside and outside. It is expected to hold between 100 and 300 al Qaeda fighters, people who have been detained or who surrendered during the fighting at Tora Bora. We are told that some of those detainees may arrive as early as Tuesday night. The Marines are eager to ensure that there is no repeat of that bloody prison uprising that the Taliban and al Qaeda forces staged in the fort at Mazar-e-Sharif a few weeks ago.
The detainees here will have their hands and feet bound, be tied together when they arrive. They'll be checked -- searched very, very thoroughly. They'll be segregated. They will be treated, given all of the treatment that is standard for prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention.
There is an eight-member FBI team here to question those prisoners. The FBI tell us that they're most interested in learning anything they can about future al Qaeda terrorist acts planned against American targets. The FBI agents also looking for any evidence that would fill out the picture of past al Qaeda attacks, not only the World Trade Center, but the attack on the USS Cole in the waters off Yemen, and the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania as well -- Paula.
ZAHN: All right. Thanks so much -- Mike Chinoy reporting live from Kandahar, Afghanistan for us this morning.
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