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American Morning

U.S. Troops Sweep Eastern Afghanistan

Aired August 26, 2002 - 07:29   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I get word from up above that Barbara Starr has now been located. She is at the Pentagon with the latest -- Barbara, good morning.
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Well, indeed, this has been the largest U.S. and coalition military operation in Afghanistan since last winter. Over the last six days, largely out of public view, over 2,000 U.S. and coalition troops have moved through eastern Afghanistan. This time it's called Operation Mountain Sweep.

But the results may not have been totally successful. The 2,000 troops moved in last week, conducting five helicopter assault missions, three road convoy marches, all because there had been numerous reports received by the United States that the al Qaeda might have been moving back into this region of eastern Afghanistan.

Specifically, the U.S. was looking for several key suspects, one of them a top al Qaeda financier. But when they went to the location where they thought this man was, apparently he had been given advanced warning. They now believe he had fled across the border into Pakistan. But 10 suspects were captured and they are checking these people out to see about their involvement with the Taliban and the al Qaeda.

But, Daryn, perhaps most unsettling to U.S. soldiers was in one village that they moved through, they found seven women hiding rocket propelled grenades under their burkas in this village. And sources we have spoken to say the only reason that the U.S. soldiers realized this is because other local villagers had pointed it out to them and they were able to disarm these women. They also, of course, found large caches of weapons and they're trying to figure out, as I said, exactly who these people are that they captured -- Daryn.

KAGAN: My goodness, under the burkas? Well, as we've seen in the Israeli conflict, women are more than willing to become suicide bombers there so no doubt they could also get involved in Afghanistan.

Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you so much.

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