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CNN Sunday Morning

Third Week of War Brings Continued Bombing of Afghanistan

Aired October 21, 2001 - 8:23   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.
SHEILAH KAST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The third week of the war has continued with U.S. bombing in the skies of Afghanistan.

Generally, the Pentagon does not assess the intensity of the bombing until, at least, the next day, so we don't have an assessment of that. And there is, at this point, no indication that there's been any more ground action by U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the mission early Saturday.

That was the mission that U.S. soldiers, themselves, videotaped. At a press conference a few hours later, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Meyers provided the narration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GENERAL RICHARD MEYERS, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: In the first clip, you'll see deployed Special Operations forces preparing for their missions.

Next, you'll see troops exiting the C-130 aircraft and jumping onto their objective, an airfield in southern Afghanistan.

These troops are clearing the airfield, building by building. And you're going to notice, at one point in the tape, the troops come across a small weapons cache, including rocket propelled grenades, a machine gun and ammunition. These weapons were subsequently destroyed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAST: Meyers said that the troops gathered intelligence information at the compound of the top Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. Meyers said the U.S., in that ground action, took no prisoners but did cause an unnamed number of casualties to the Taliban side.

Since then, the Taliban has continued to claim that it killed 20 to 25 U.S. soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan. That is a claim that the U.S. dismisses as having no basis. Meyers said there were no U.S. casualties inside Afghanistan -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: Sheilah, those two fatalities in Pakistan, in a helicopter crash, have they identified those men yet?

KAST: They have not yet identified, and I presume that that's because they're still contacting the families.

The remains of the two have been moved to Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. There is no word on when they will come back to the United States.

The U.S. says that it was an accident. It's under investigation. The most likely cause that's been articulated here, so far, is that there was a great deal of dust kicked up by the helicopter rotors as they landed, and that that complicated, made the landing very, very difficult -- Jeanne.

MESERVE: That's Sheilah Kast at the Pentagon.

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