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American Morning

Operation Condor Already Reporting Casualties

Aired May 17, 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: Up front this morning, the war in Afghanistan. A large military operation is now under way and is already reporting casualties. The British-led mission, Operation Condor, is battling what military officials say is a substantial enemy force in southeast Afghanistan.

Anderson Cooper is in Kabul on assignment. He joins us now -- good morning, Anderson.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Paula. As you said, Operation Condor is well under way this morning.

It all began yesterday, Thursday afternoon, when two squads of Australian Special Forces, the SAS, came under what they said was heavy machine gun fire in the rugged mountains in eastern Afghanistan. The squads were able to fight their way to rejoin each other with the help of U.S. air support. They reached safety.

Then about 1,000 troops were deployed last night from Bagram Air Base just north out of Kabul from here. Most of those are British troops, some Australian troops. They also were given help from U.S. air support, Specter (ph) gunships, Cobra attack helicopters, as well as some Chinook helicopters. That operation is under way today.

The mission is quite simple, as was explained by a British commander this morning, Roger Lane.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. ROGER LANE, BRITISH ARMY: Our first priority will be the destruction or capture of those terrorist in the area. We will also aim to destroy the enemy infrastructure that we may find. Out ability to respond rapidly to such attacks should serve as a reminder that the coalition will not tolerate such activity, and we will hunt the terrorists relentlessly, and that is wherever they may be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: It has been reported that there are several casualties amongst the -- what are alleged to be Taliban or al Qaeda fighters. No reported casualties yet among coalition troops -- Paula.

ZAHN: Anderson, thanks so much for that update.

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