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American Morning

Busy Start to New Year for Those on Front Line in War on Terrorism

Aired January 02, 2002 - 08:33   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: A busy start to the new year for those on the front line in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan.

CNN's Barbara Starr has the story for us. She checks in for us from the Pentagon.

Good morning, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.

U.S. military officials tell CNN this morning that U.S. special forces are moving deliberately towards a possible operation northwest of Kandahar to hunt down Mullah Mohammed Omar. The concern is that there is a heavily armed pocket of Taliban resistance in this region known as Bagram, perhaps 1,500 Taliban fighters. These are the Taliban who fled Kandahar several weeks ago when it fell, and it's believed that they are sheltering Mullah Mohammed Omar, and possibly even Osama bin Laden, who has been reported to be in the area, though officials are not sure where he actually is.

U.S. special forces will move in to this region with anti-Taliban fighters to try and hunt down Omar. These U.S. special forces are going to do what they've been doing throughout the campaign. They will provide intelligence and targeting, and call in possible U.S. airstrikes.

Now, this mission follows the mission that we've been talking about, the 200 Marines that have been searching this Al Qaeda complex of 14 buildings west of Kandahar. That mission went off without incident, and the Marines even encountered civilians.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. CHRIS HUGHES, U.S. MARINES: The commander did emphasize that this compound has been searched before, that the Soviets searched it, the Taliban searched it, so great care was given to -- when no initial resistance was met, great care was given to conduct the search with utmost respect. Translators were used just to explain what was going on, and that the people inhabiting this spot were reimbursed an undisclosed amount of money for their time and discomfort.

(END VIDEO CLIP) STARR: Leon, the Marines are insisting their mission west of Kandahar had nothing specifically to do with the hunt for Omar or bin Laden, but it's clear that the military is getting ready just in case either of those terrorists are there -- Leon.

HARRIS: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you very much. Talk with you later.

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