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American Morning

Number of Small Incidents in Afghanistan

Aired June 25, 2002 - 09:20   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There are new development at this hour on the war on terror in Afghanistan. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon watching and tracking that for us.

Barbara, what have you found out? Good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Even though U.S. troops haven't been involved in any heavy combat in Afghanistan for several weeks now, there have been a number of small incidents in the last few days that underscore just how unsettled the entire atmosphere is. Most of these incidents have occurred in eastern Afghanistan, along the border with Pakistan.

We thought we'd bring you up to date on a few of them. Yesterday, special operations forces came under enemy mortar fire along that border region. It was so serious that they did called in two F-18s overhead and had them drop bombs on this enemy mortar position. The enemy fire stopped. An assessment is now ongoing to see whether enemy forces were killed in that exchange.

U.S. forces operating near Khowst in eastern Afghanistan, again, yesterday came under rocket fire. This has happened several times in recent days. They are sending out patrols, looking for where that firing came from.

And in another incident, U.S. forces now appear to be conducting reconnaissance sweeps in a new fashion. They're talking to village elders and getting their permission to move through villages and look for caches of weapons and arms, and they're telling the villagers this will help with providing stability in the region -- Bill.

HEMMER: Interesting development there. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon.

Barbara, thank you.

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