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American Morning

U.S. Troops Perform Well in Combat

Aired March 08, 2002 - 09:02   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: Up front, though, this morning, we want to take you right to the battle lines in Afghanistan. Our crews have some absolutely gripping video here from the remote and cold mountains in Eastern Afghanistan. Listen to the description of the fighting, and the sounds of battle.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just moments after the helicopters had dropped us off, we started taking sporadic fire, and at that time, we returned fire. We moved under some cover. Luckily, there was a small -- a small ridge line that separated the landing zone from where we were taking fire from the al Qaeda forces.

And basically, my infantry reacted as the best-trained infantry that they are, returned fire, maneuvered to a small ridge line, got behind it. Luckily, there is a small depression behind the actual ridge itself. I had some other units that moved on to a small ridge just to our south and returned fire.

And after about the first ten minutes of combat, I guess, the al Qaeda came out of their caves and their well-fortified positions, and we experienced a heavy volume of fire from the actual mountains above us. As the day progressed, we called in close air support, probably within the first 30 minutes or so of the start of the fire fight. That quieted things down. We finally got some Apache aircraft to help us out. And basically, from 06:00 in the morning until, I would say, 8:00 in the evening is when we got our casualties.

You could write a book on the personal braveries that went on in the south that day. And the information I am getting from my northern positions now, they had some -- some spectacular gun fights up there, and did an awesome job in eliminating al Qaeda members.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: In case you were wondering, those were actual voices of soldiers that are a part of the Operation Anaconda mission.

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