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CNN Saturday Morning News

Intense Bombings Resume in Afghanistan

Aired October 13, 2001 - 08:26   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: Overseas, after another night of U.S.-led air strikes in the skies over Afghanistan, the bombings have resumed there today. Air strikes hit inside the capital city of Kabul and the southern Afghanistan city of Kandahar, where intense bombings began today well before dawn.

CNN's Sheilah Kast is live from the Pentagon with the latest on the air campaign -- good morning to you, Sheilah.

SHEILAH KAST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Martin.

Well, as you know, the U.S. had suspended activity Friday in deference to the Muslim day of prayer. And the Arabic language TV network, Al Jazeera, which took pictures of Kabul, said that the latest bombing last night was not as intense as in previous nights. They also reported that the anti-aircraft fire was launched briefly and it also was not as intense. In fact, Al Jazeera reported American jets are flying at will in the Afghan skies. Al Jazeera reported that the airport in Kabul was one of the targets.

Here at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has made it clear that the U.S. campaign is not focused just on physical targets and buildings, but also will be focused on human targets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Inanimate objects are not terrorists or terrorist networks, nor do inanimate objects harbor terrorists. It is people that do that and it is people that train terrorists and clearly the foreign element that has occupied Afghanistan are individuals who, from other countries, who have taken up residence there and been the hard core of the fighters and the hard core of the terrorists and the hard core of the trainers. And it clearly is absolutely necessary to find them and root them out, as we've said repeatedly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAST: Pentagon officials believe, Pentagon sources believe that some of the Taliban have been routed out of their safe havens and are on the move -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: Sheilah, I presume that the delivery of food aid is still ongoing and is it at the same level it was or are they trying to increase it?

KAST: They are trying to increase it, Martin. As you know, the food systems that were delivering massive amounts of aid to starving people in Afghanistan before the bombing began, those food systems were disrupted. And so the U.S. is trying to make up for at least some of that by air dropping food supplies.

Last night, four C-17 cargo planes dropped about 70,000 rations, which is about double the level that it had been dropping, and a U.S. Air Force spokesman said the U.S. stands ready to make more air drops -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: Very good.

Sheilah Kast at the Pentagon, thank you very much for joining us this morning.

Well, the opposition group the Northern Alliance is battling the Taliban for control in Afghanistan and there have been some conflicting reports about which side is in possession of two northern provinces.

We get more on this very issue from CNN's Matthew Chance, who joins us from northern Afghanistan -- hello, Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Marty.

And let me just say first of all, I was standing on the front line about 25 kilometers north of Kabul, about 15 miles from there, witnessing what we've been hearing described, the air strikes, the latest round of air strikes against Kabul. We can usually see the skies over Kabul light up. We can hear the rumbling of the bombs exploding on the horizon. We didn't hear any of that last night. It was very quiet. The skies were dark. And I think that gives an indication of the low level of intensity, relatively speaking, of the strikes on Kabul last night.

What we did see, though, there along those front lines is a renewed bombardment by artillery pieces and rockets of the Northern Alliance against what they say were Taliban front line positions. No indication, though, of any movement by the Northern Alliance forces out of their trenches deeper into Taliban controlled Afghanistan. No sign of any advance on the capital Kabul.

There have been reports, though, from elsewhere in northern Afghanistan of intense fighting to the northwest of where we're standing right now, several hundred kilometers around the strategic city of Mazar-i-Sharif. But there's also been conflicting reports about who exactly controls what, you alluded to this earlier, in fact, reports from both the Taliban and the Northern Alliance saying that they both control the northern province of Ghor. There are also reports from the Northern Alliance that they've made considerable territorial gains in the provinces of Samangan and Balkh near the city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

The problem is, Marty, we're not able to get to those very remote areas of Afghanistan to independently verify exactly what the situation is so we're having to depend on what both sides tell us and what both sides tell us tend to contradict themselves -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: Matthew, is it true or do you know if the northern forces there have been told by the U.S. government not to try to make a move on Kabul because they could potentially be perceived as targets from the air?

CHANCE: Well, I think that the Northern Alliance certainly have been in close contact with the United States officials over the course of the last week of air strikes. They certainly don't want to put themselves in a position, they've been coordinating this. They don't want to put themselves in a position where they might be mistaken for the forces of the Taliban. So, given that, they have stayed in their trenches, maintaining their positions on the front line, also maintaining their pressure, their bombardment on Taliban positions. And, yes, that may be one of the reasons why they haven't yet moved out of their positions and made their push for Kabul -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: Matthew Chance in northern Afghanistan, thank you.

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