Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Sunday Morning

U.S. Planes Continuously Bomb Tora Bora

Aired December 09, 2001 - 07:01   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: If Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda lieutenants are hiding in the snow-capped White Mountains near Tora Bora, they are having to endure a fierce bombing. Coalition warplanes are pounding the caves and military positions in that area almost around the clock.

For the details, we got to CNN's Brent Sadler -- Brent.

BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks Martin. The end of another day of intense air activity over the White Mountains where Tora Bora, the impregnable stronghold of Osama bin Laden, possibly himself, is located. From the beginning of this day, we saw intense allied coalition air activity led by U.S. warplanes, B-52s or B-1s coming in just after daybreak and blasting mountaintop positions where it sought al Qaeda fighters, are still resisting strongly from the forested areas and caves along the mountain lines.

After the heavy bombers came in, we saw smaller ground strike aircraft doing their work, repeated bombing runs, wave after wave of aircraft coming in and hitting more positions across a wide area of the White Mountains. Now, this follows -- 24 hours ago, when al Qaeda was able to block with mortar rounds positions of the Eastern Alliance, anti-Taliban forces who were trying to move forward.

Now, the Eastern Alliance commanders on the ground here are claiming that they've lost three of their own fighters as a result of this recent, very heavy bombing against the White Mountains. But also, the Alliance is claiming that they, in battles Saturday, were able to kill eight al Qaeda fighters in a location in the mountains behind me.

Now, while the air strike aircraft were going about their air sorties, we also saw quite a lot of intelligence gathering in the form of flying surveillance aircraft, U.S. aircraft, over this area, clearly doing two missions -- one, bomb damage assessment and secondly, taking a look at possibly other target areas for warplanes to do their work.

At the end of this day, it is now quiet. The tanks, you can see, on both my shoulders, they're Eastern Alliance tanks. Their gun barrels have been silent this day because all the activity has been coming from the air, on the ground in those positions in the mountains behind me. Also, one other piece of news -- Pakistan has sent helicopter gun ships and troop reinforcements to the mountain border area behind me to ensure that there's no attempt by any al Qaeda terrorists to escape from Afghanistan across the border into Pakistan.

Back to you, Martin.

SAVIDGE: CNN's Brent Sadler in the shadow of the White Mountains outside Tora Bora. Thanks very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com