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CNN Sunday Morning

Marines, Northern Alliance Close in on Kandahar

Aired December 02, 2001 - 08:25   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In Afghanistan now, U.S. Marines are on the lookout for Taliban and al Qaeda forces, while U.S. air strikes pound the mountains outside of Jalalabad.

CNN military analyst, retired Air Force Major General Don Shepperd is back with us this morning.

Great to see you again, General.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, so far we've had no reports of combat, but Marines in southern Afghanistan say they're spoiling for a fight, definitely. Are they likely to encounter Taliban forces soon?

SHEPPERD: Well, the Marines are always spoiling for a fight, and I'd hate to meet them out there. It's hard to say what's going to happen in Kandahar. There still could be a negotiated settlement; but it's very likely that at some point there will be remaining zealous defenders of Kandahar that have no other place to go, that will have to be dug out.

So I suspect that the Marines will be involved somehow. If not in combat in Kandahar, certainly interdicting people on the roads that lead to Kandahar and certainly carrying out other missions against the al Qaeda and in the search for bin Laden.

So I'd say they're going to be active and it's going to be soon.

PHILLIPS: And General, Afghan tribal forces are also pushing closer to Kandahar and U.S. Marines are nearby. It seems as if the Taliban is just being surrounded and running out of options, do you agree?

SHEPPERD: Yes, I do. What you've got is forces -- Pashtun forces under Hamid Karzai are coming in from the north. You've got the Marines to the southwest. You have another group under a tribal chief called Gul Agga (ph) coming in from the south.

Of course, you have the Northern Alliance up in the far northeast up there. So it's gradually being surrounded, and Kandahar is coming under great pressure, no place for the people in Kandahar to go other than trying to retreat to the mountains to the north where they may be blocked by Hamid Karzai.

It's getting very, very dire for them there, and all the time they're coming under significant United States and coalition air attacks.

PHILLIPS: Now what about the air strikes near Jalalabad? There are reports of civilian casualties. We've been talking about that. But the Pentagon says they're going after caves, tunnels, and possible al Qaeda hideouts.

Wouldn't you think that the civilians would know this is what U.S. air strikes are about, and these are the areas, so they should stay away from that area unless they are somehow tied to al Qaeda?

SHEPPERD: Well, lots to be sorted out here. One thing I can tell you for sure, Kyra, is that the United States did not intentionally attack a village because they thought that somebody might be there.

Very careful targeting goes on in these terrorist cases, especially in the area of villages. Reportedly, there's three villages involved, Takel (ph), Balut (ph), and another one called Kama Addo (ph) where reportedly 100, 200 people were killed.

Now the Pentagon says that they have had good imagery. It means good weather over there. They've been able to take good pictures. They've accounted for all of their bombs. They were after cave and tunnel complexes. It is possible that some of these villages were al Qaeda strongholds. But if so, they were hit with intelligence, with firm intelligence, going after caves, going after important targets.

So we're going to have to wait until the Pentagon digs through this some more. But right now they're saying they did not hit villages, and all their bombs are accounted for.

PHILLIPS: Taliban soldiers, are they -- there must be a mission behind -- well, let me ask you this. Blending in with Afghan citizens, there's a purpose behind this.

SHEPPERD: Indeed there is a purpose behind it. They know that the United States is not going to intentionally attack civilians. They know that General Franks has been even exceedingly careful about this, is a good term for it. And they know that if the blend in with civilians in the cities and this type of thing that they are not likely to be hit.

It's very difficult when you're trying to carry out a military campaign to decide on precise targets and where they are and not hit citizens with collateral damage, because we know it costs us support among the American public and the world community.

We're trying to be very careful. Unfortunately, civilians do get hit sometimes.

PHILLIPS: General Don Shepperd, thank you very much.

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