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CNN Sunday Morning

No Indication of Further Ground Strikes in Afghanistan

Aired October 21, 2001 - 07:19   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.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to shift now to -- shift the focus back on the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan.

Correspondent Sheilah Kast has more information from the Pentagon.

Sheilah, fill us in.

SHEILAH KAST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Jeanne.

Well, as Walt Rodgers told us a few minutes ago, the U.S. has moved into the third week of the war with renewed bombing over the skies of Afghanistan. There's no indication of any further action by U.S. ground troops in Afghanistan since early Saturday morning.

But then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, had told us yesterday that as the war progresses, there will be lots of parts of it that the Pentagon will not be speaking publicly about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. RICHARD MYERS, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: Some of our operations are going to be visible, some are going to be invisible. Some of the invisible operations we will provide information on, as we've done today. There will be other invisible operations where we will not say a thing about them and you will see no film about them. We may not have film about them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAST: In this case, General Myers did release video excerpts shot by a Defense Department photographer. They showed the ground action early Saturday -- showed Army Rangers, more than 100 Army Rangers, parachuting from U.S. planes onto an airfield in southern Afghanistan, which General Myers said was part of the Taliban command and control network. The Special Forces also destroyed ammunition at what Myers said was the compound of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the top Taliban leader.

Both targets were chosen, Myers said, because of their potential to yield valuable intelligence, which he said was gathered, and is being analyzed. Myers said the U.S. took no prisoners, but did cause an unnamed number of casualties. Since then, since Myers spoke, the Taliban has continued to claim that it killed 20 or 25 U.S. soldiers, and the U.S. continues to say -- dismiss that claim as absolutely baseless. Myers said there were no U.S. casualties in the ground action in Afghanistan -- Jeanne.

MESERVE: Sheilah we know, however, there were two casualties, fatalities actually, in a helicopter crash in Pakistan. Anything new on that from the Pentagon?

KAST: Well, the newest development there, Jeanne, is that the bodies of the two U.S. soldiers have been flown to Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. The cause of that accident, according to Myers -- well, it's under investigation -- but he said quite likely it had something to do with the amount of dust that the helicopter rotors kicked up as that helicopter, that search and rescue helicopter -- which was in a supporting role to the U.S. ground action -- and as it landed, it kicked up a lot of dust. There's no word on when the remains of the two soldiers will return to the United States -- Jeanne.

MESERVE: Sheilah Kast at the Pentagon, thank you.

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