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CNN Sunday Morning
Taliban Says 300 Civilians Killed by Air Strikes
Aired October 14, 2001 - 07:10 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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: U.S.-led forces went to work early this morning in the military efforts to root out terrorists in Afghanistan. Bombs fell around the capital city of Kabul and on the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. A girl was reportedly killed in the attacks on Kabul.
Taliban rulers say 300 civilians have been killed in the weeks since those air strikes began. Sources say today's strikes hit Taliban military headquarters in Kandahar.
Joining us now on the telephone is CNN's Nic Robertson. Now, Nic Robertson was in Afghanistan. He left. He is now back in Afghanistan and being taken on a tour of some of the damaged areas by the Taliban. Again, Nic Robertson on the telephone -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Martin, the Taliban are taking a very small group of journalists on a tour of selected sites inside Afghanistan. Today, they took us to a village called Carom (ph) in the mountains, some 60 miles west of Jalalabad. This is -- was a very remote village tucked away in a high mountain gully. There are some 40 or 50 houses there.
The village, when we arrived, there were men digging in the rubble of their houses. About 80 to 90 percent of the houses were destroyed and local officials told that us that some 200 people have died in the village. They say that about 400 to 450 people live there. It is impossible to verify whether or not so many people died in the village. However, local officials say that some of the bodies were taken away and buried in villages elsewhere, in the area of their relatives. And certainly, around that village, we're able to count about 30 fresh graves.
Now, the Taliban say that this village had nothing to do with any terrorist training camps. And when we put it to one villager that this could have been a place high -- secure in the mountains, remote, rock built houses -- when we put it to him, this could have place where perhaps where terrorists were training, he brandished some field implements at us and said, "Is this what Osama Bin Laden is fighting with?"
The answer from the villagers there -- the survivors of the attack, certainly say that this was a village that they were living in and that it was not a place where terrorists were based. And certainly, the indication that we saw in the village was of a dwelling place. There were dead goats on the mountainside and an unexploded bomb on the mountainside. They had cattle within the village dead, chickens and certainly an atmosphere of more of a rural, domestic situation than one of military debris strewn around the area -- Martin.
SAVIDGE: Nic, let me ask you this to start things off -- first of all, are your reports being critiqued by the Taliban? In other words, are you limited on what you can say or can you speak freely?
ROBERTSON: No, we can speak freely. What the Taliban have told us we must do is that whenever we leave the hotel, we must go out with an official representative of the government here. They say we're not allowed to -- we're not free to roam around and go and dig up stories for ourselves. However, they have told us that if we can visit any site that we choose to visit, we selected to visit the city's military airfield and we expect to be going there in an hour's time. So although we -- there are no restrictions on what we say and apparently there are no restrictions on where we can go, we do have to be accompanied by a government representative -- Martin.
SAVIDGE: What is the mood of the people that you meet and what is their reaction to your presence?
ROBERTSON: Well, there was a very, very violent reaction at the village where all the -- where the 200 people supposedly met their death. When we first arrived, a man came forward, brandishing an ax and another came brandishing a stick. People there were very, very angry about the attack. Now, the Taliban guards with us told the people to -- you know, to lay down their sticks and axes. And they certainly let us in and let us talk to them.
There is clearly a very high level of anger among these people against the United States at this time. On the route to this village and its some 60 miles away, passing through two small villages, there were two -- what appeared to be impromptu yet government acts of demonstration. They were anti-American, anti-Pakistani and anti- British demonstrations, chanting slogans of death to Bush, death to Tony Blair.
So there appears to be, on the streets, certainly a great deal of resentment to the current bombardment, a backing of the Taliban's position at this time, people say and also a great deal of animosity to anyone who looks like an outsider at this time -- Martin.
SAVIDGE: CNN's Nic Robertson reporting to us live on the telephone from Afghanistan. One note there, Nic points out, that they are being taken around by the Taliban but their reports are not being censored.
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