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American Morning

Hundreds of U.S. and British Special Forces Now Operating on Pakistani Side of Border With Afghanistan

Aired April 30, 2002 - 07:01   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Up front this morning though, Operation Mountain Lion. Hundreds of U.S. and British Special Forces are now operating on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan.

While on the Afghan side of the line, at least four al Qaeda fighters are dead after exchanging fire with coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan. Two separate skirmishes erupted over the past few days near the Pakistan border as U.N.-led forces continued their search for pockets of remaining al Qaeda.

With more on Operation Mountain Lion, let's turn to CNN's Barbara Starr. She joins us from the Pentagon, her permanent perch -- good morning, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. Well, it was Special Forces from Australia that had an al Qaeda compound, a suspected al Qaeda compound under surveillance. When they approached it, a firefight broke out, and then the Australians called in reinforcements; more than 200 troops from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division arriving on the scene.

This is exactly the type of skirmish that forces had been expecting for some time. In fact, hundreds of U.S. and coalition forces have in recent days stepped up their searches through eastern Afghanistan for Taliban and al Qaeda forces that may be regrouping.

The region that is under very intense scrutiny right now is along the border with Pakistan, that eastern border near the city of Gardez, a long-time stronghold, this whole region of the Taliban and al Qaeda.

All of this, of course, is part of Operation Mountain Lion that we have been hearing so much about. But it's all been pretty quiet for the last few weeks, and we are told now there is a great deal of stepped up activity. Troops are searching caves and other hideouts, finding large amounts of weapons and other material. In fact, sources tell us that the troops up in that region have seen fresh trails in recent days of al Qaeda and others moving back and forth across the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: The Taliban has gone across borders and into the mountains and into the villages, the ones that haven't been captured or killed. And there is no doubt in my mind but that they would like to come back and take over that country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld made those comments in Moscow, as he was coming back from the region over the weekend. And during this trip, of course, he indicated that he felt the al Qaeda was regrouping for a spring offensive. And in fact, now, the U.S. is taking the next step. As we know, there are small numbers of U.S. Special Forces across the border inside Pakistan getting ready for this next step of trying to catch the al Qaeda as they move back and forth across the border -- Paula.

ZAHN: And the goal, you say, is to catch al Qaeda moving back across the border. What about reports this morning that Osama bin Laden may be among those?

STARR: Well, the Pentagon officials here say these are a continuing series of reports that they often see. The official word, of course, is still the same thing. We don't know if he is dead, we don't know if he is alive, we don't know where he is.

But in fact, there are indications in the intelligence community that if he is alive, he may be moving back and forth across this region. The border is very porous, and there are still many, many al Qaeda sympathizers in that region -- Paula.

ZAHN: And then tell us this morning a little bit more about the challenges troops are encountering from warring tribal lords.

STARR: Well, in this region of Pakistan, it's called a tribal area, because it's an area that the Pakistani central government freely admits it does not have complete control over. There is a lot of tribal activity inside Pakistan in this region where the al Qaeda appear to be moving around. So that's one area where tribal activity is very, very strong.

But on the other side, inside Afghanistan, tribal activity is also very strong there. Over the weekend, there was fighting that broke out in the city of Gardez between two rival tribes. And so this makes the entire security situation very, very unsettled throughout this entire region, even as troops are trying to hunt down the al Qaeda.

ZAHN: All right. Barbara Starr, thanks so much for that latest information.

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