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CNN Sunday Morning

U.S. Military Officials Monitor Developments in Afghanistan

Aired November 25, 2001 - 10:34   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: Back in the U.S., military officials closely watching the developments, no doubt, in Afghanistan and also probably plotting the next phase of the war.

CNN's Brian Nelson is at the Pentagon this morning with more.

Good morning Brian.

BRIAN NELSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Martin.

Yes, as you just said, the Pentagon and U.S. central command both closely watching the situation around the city of Konduz; but we don't have a lot of information that we can offer you at the moment. The central command says that they believe somewhere between 600 to 800 hard-core fighters remain in the city of Konduz. That, of course, differs from the figures given to us by the Northern Alliance.

They said Northern Alliance has worked hard to try to effect a surrender there, but there are hard-core fighters. And as we have earlier from Satinder Bindra -- CNN's Satinder Bindra -- the Northern Alliance says it has 50 percent control of that city. But he is also reporting gun battles. That is something that central command is not being able to tell us now, partially because it's an ongoing operation.

Now we have more on the rebellion in Mazar-e Sharif. We are told by a spoken for central command that some of the Taliban prisoners who have been surrendering there have not been surrendering of pure heart, as it was described. They've been smuggling in weapons with the deliberate intention of either committing suicide or provoking a firefight. And that appears to be what is taking place in isolated incidents.

Yesterday there was an exploding grenade at which it took out three Northern Alliance soldiers, as well as the individual who blew up that grenade. And today's firefight indicates that that same pattern may be going on. The Northern Alliance -- I'm sorry, the central command says it does not believe it is a pattern, though, but these are incidents that they have to be aware of and take care of.

It is not provoking, at this moment, a change in the strategy of allowing the Northern Alliance to handle these prisoners. And central command says it does not believe that this is going to force more American troops in to become jailers. That is something Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has said he does not want to see American troops do.

But it still raises the question of what happens to these prisoners: Do they remain in Mazar-e Sharif, or are they going to be shipped out, perhaps, to more secure bases in the U.S., or perhaps some third country? That, we didn't get an answer to, but I'm sure that is a part of the thinking being debated right now in central command and at the Pentagon -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: CNN's Brian Nelson updating for us from the Pentagon this morning. Thanks very much.

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