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American Morning
American B-52s and Fighter Jets Pounding Opposition Forces in Eastern Afghanistan
Aired March 07, 2002 - 07:02 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: American B-52s and fighter jets are pounding opposition forces in eastern Afghanistan as the deadly assault known as Operation Anaconda continues. The U.S. deployed hundreds more troops to the region and increased the firepower, saying the battle will continue as long as the Taliban don't surrender or until they are all dead.
We go now to CNN's Martin Savidge, who joins us from Bagram this morning with the very latest -- good morning, Martin.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula.
Military officials here say Operation Anaconda, they continue to press the attack. However, there could be some problems for pressing that attack and that is weather. There is a cold front that is moving in here to the Bagram area. It is also moving into the area of operations in eastern Afghanistan. Rain forecasted here. In the mountains, though, that turns into snow. It could be significant amounts of snow in certain areas. You already know that the soldiers have been dealing with snow up on some of those mountains. It makes maneuvering difficult.
But here's the most important thing, it also has an impact on air operations, that is, resupply, bringing in more troops. It also could close down some of the air support operations. The military says don't worry, they actually planned for this. It's rather cyclical in nature. It will last about 36 hours. They have been building up in anticipation that the weather would be closing down.
There was a briefing that was held this morning by the public affairs officer, Major Hilferty. And he brings us up to speed on where things stand at the moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. BRYAN HILFERTY, U.S. ARMY SPECIAL OPERATIONS: The coalition forces continue to pres the attack against the al Qaeda and Taliban extremists. Last night we conducted resupply operations and yesterday we continued to conduct maneuver and fires. We believe we've destroyed over 1,000 -- excuse me -- destroyed over 100 of the Taliban and al Qaeda extremists yesterday, including some heavy weaponry. The only casualties we suffered were a sprained ankle and a couple of cases of high altitude sickness. We're operating at altitudes of up to...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: Now, there also have been a number of people that have been detained, reportedly al Qaeda or Taliban. We were not given the specifics of how they were captured, whether they may have surrendered. We are being told that they are undergoing interrogation at this particular moment.
As we mentioned yesterday, we were part of the embedded media. That means that we were actually here on base seven days before the operation began. We were literally sworn to a blanket of secrecy, could not even tell our families that we had dropped out of sight, nothing about where we were, nothing about what was going on.
The benefit, though, to all of that was we were able to have remarkable access to scenes that you sometimes never see, or are maybe only portrayed in movies. For instance, Colonel Frank Wisinski (ph). He's a brigade commander for the 101st Airborne Air Assault. He is, or has, two bridges that are now battling the Taliban up in the mountains. Here is the speech, a part of it, that he gave before his soldiers went off to combat. Listen in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLONEL FRANK WISINSKI: We've been called on to fight the war on terror. You are part of that fight. Every man, every woman has some defining moments in their life. Today's one of your defining moments. You will never forget this. You'll never forget that man or woman on your left and right today. You'll never forget the fact that you stood here in Afghanistan right before your defining moment. Remember that for the rest of your life because it's important. It's very important.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: Who would have known that those words would have had such meaning as a result of the fight that's taking place. The motto of the 101st, rendezvous with destiny. The motto of the 10th Mountain Division, which is also up there, climb to glory -- Paula.
ZAHN: Martin Savidge, thanks so much for that update.
The confounding thing right now for American commanders is not only the level of resistance, but the fact that the al Qaeda troop numbers continue to mushroom. We're going to address that in about a minute or two with Major General Don Shepperd.
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