Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Afghan Tribal Feuds Hold Up Humanitarian Aid

Aired December 28, 2001 - 08:01   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Joining me today, Bill Hemmer once again in Kandahar, Afghanistan -- Bill, what do you have today?

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Miles, thanks again.

In a matter of weeks, we do anticipate that humanitarian aid is going to be flown in here -- flown into the Kandahar Airport. You've got a runway here that extends almost two miles; 10,000 feet in length. And we're also getting reports, relative to that, that the U.N. relief agencies working this part of Afghanistan say it's still too dangerous, and there's quite a bit of tribal feuding that continues stopping, essentially -- stopping a number of supplies that were anticipated to arrive in the Kandahar city area.

Now given that, reports say that these trucks and convoys loaded with food, many of them are stalled and stopped back at the border with Pakistan before they make that about 80 mile journey here into the city of Kandahar. Given that, you know, the winter is coming on. It gets very cold at night. The relief supplies are indeed needed, but at this point, it is nowhere near secure. We'll talk more about that throughout the morning.

Also, the latest on the base here and the potential and the move toward the U.S. Army taking things over here come mid-January. And of course, more detainees from last night -- we'll let you know what our sources are telling us here about what information they may or may not be giving about Osama bin Laden.

More coming up shortly -- Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much -- Bill Hemmer in Kandahar.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.