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CNN Sunday Morning

U.S. Troops Destroy al Qaeda Caves

Aired June 02, 2002 - 08:36   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: All right. It does look like we got our audio situation fixed, and we can go back out to our Mike Boettcher who is live in Eastern Afghanistan as he accompanies U.S. troops on this exclusive operation out in this region.

Mike, what can you tell us now?

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the explosion you saw a few minutes ago was a series of caves in the mountains of Eastern Afghanistan, very close to the Pakistan border.

Let me set this up for you. Early this morning, 5:00 a.m., approximately, Afghanistan time, 177 U.S. Airborne soldiers, they are from Bravo Company of the 182nd Infantry, 101 Airborne Division, and they launched an air assault into this area in Eastern Afghanistan. We cannot be any more exact about the location because the operation is underway. It is felt by intelligence officials from the coalition that al Qaeda and Taliban will try to infiltrate into Afghanistan in the coming days to disrupt the political process here. That being the loya jirga, which is the council of elders, tribal elders, who will elect new leadership in this country on June 10, so these operations are being launched.

It was a lightning raid. They thought that there would be as many as 16 al Qaeda or Taliban here, but they had all gone from their location. What they did find were a series of caves, and just about five minutes ago, you saw the explosion as the Army EOD (ph) teams here, of Bravo Company blew those caves. Now, there are two more. I walked through the caves today, and there was not much of significance in terms of evidence. There were some burnt papers, and one of the caves actually looked to be a hospital for the mujahideen during the old Soviet-Afghan war.

But this is a well-known, well-used infiltration route in Eastern Afghanistan. It is one of the gateways that was used by al Qaeda during their years of operation in Afghanistan from 1996 on. It is the way people came in from Pakistan to go to training camps here. So the operations continue by Bravo Company here somewhere in Eastern Afghanistan, and we will keep you updated along the way as they progress -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Mike Boettcher, thank you so much for that live report.

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