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American Morning
Marine Intelligence Mission Deemed Successful
Aired January 02, 2002 - 08:04 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: Now to the war against terrorism. Besides Osama bin Laden, one of the other most wanted men in this conflict is Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. U.S. Marines are back now from a mission to one of Omar's suspected former hideouts, and they are hunting remaining al Qaeda holdouts as well.
CNN's Bill Hemmer is with the Marines at Kandahar Airport. He joins us once again live -- Bill.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Leon. Basically in Helmand Province, which is west and north of where we are in Kandahar, two military operations under way really in the last couple of days here.
First of all near Baghran, that's a northern city in the northern part of the province where many think Mullah Mohammed Omar, the founder of the Taliban, may be taking refuge. Special forces, we are told, in concert right now working with Afghan troops on the ground. Now, south of there by about 100 miles in the same Helmand Province, the Marines carried out their mission, about a 30-hour mission, conducted, completed. We saw the Marines come back earlier this morning, about 4:30 a.m. they showed up here.
The Marines say this mission, designed to pick up more intelligence, possibly computer disks and other items found in a rather large compound. Right now, they say they'll try and put those pieces together again. Several hundred Marines went. All came back. They describe the situation there as going well, but uneventful, no hostile fire, no combat involved there.
Also, the compound that's being discussed here, a large compound, 14 different buildings involved, described as an al Qaeda -- al Qaeda, not a Taliban complex like many had thought the current mission was under way. They said that if Mullah Mohammed Omar was there, certainly they would apprehend him, grab him and bring him back here to Kandahar. However, he obviously was not there.
The Marines went with a lot of fire power too, at least 12 humvees, at least six light armored vehicles. And the Marines earlier today, Major Chris Hughes, talked about the mission, how it went, and whether or not they can deem this successful. Here is the major from a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MAJ. CHRIS HUGHES, U.S. MARINE CORPS: The anti-Taliban forces and Marines searched 14 structures in all and were met by a large friendly civilian community who helped -- who were helpful and curious throughout. Assisted by Afghan translators, the Marines gathered additional information from the residents and concluded the operation yesterday afternoon.
The U.S. forces safely returned under the cover of darkness last night to the Kandahar International Airport, and did not encounter any enemy forces.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Again, the Marines on a mission a short time ago. In all, they have conducted about a dozen over the past month; this, though, by far the largest operation, again, involving several hundred Marines here.
Quickly, let's talk about the detainees right now. Two hundred, the number right now, 11 more brought in last night from northern Afghanistan. Of the 11, 6 were brought in by stretcher, and starting to get more details on a daily basis about the backgrounds and identities of some detainees, a high secure area here in Kandahar.
We are told that some of the detainees attended schools and universities in the United States, and at least one was born in the U.S. One described born in the state of Louisiana, said to have left the U.S. at a young age and possibly and probably headed for Saudi Arabia. He is said to be in his 20s at this point here.
One other note from Kandahar, just about 90 minutes ago we saw a Super Stallion, a CH-53 helicopter. The helicopter, though, went down on a hard landing -- a hard landing late Saturday. The crew was brought back here after that hard landing. They are safe and OK. The Marine engineers went out, worked on it, got it working and flying again, and they brought it back here a short time ago. The Marines, as always, say this is a safe and secure rescue mission complete here in southern Afghanistan.
More later in the morning -- back to Leon now in Atlanta -- Leon.
HARRIS: All right. Thank you, Bill.
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