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CNN Saturday Morning News

U.S. Navy Accidentally Bombs Civilian Area in Afghanistan

Aired October 13, 2001 - 11:01   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.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: For more on the reports that a U.S. Navy jet accidentally bombed a civilian area near Afghanistan's capital city, let's go to Sheilah Kast. She's at the Pentagon for us this morning -- Sheila.

SHEILAH KAST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jeanne, the jet was aiming for a helicopter at the Kabul airport according to a senior Pentagon official and somehow the missile missed its mark by about a mile. The Pentagon said this was a smart bomb, a precision-guided bomb and the Pentagon does not know at this point why it went so far off its mark.

The Pentagon cannot confirm civilian casualties but earlier the Al Jazeera Arabic-language television network said it had sent a reporter to the scene. It described the residential area as a very poor area. It said the bomb destroyed houses there. And Al Jazeera reported at that time that one person was killed, three were injured, including a woman and child.

As I said, the Pentagon cannot confirm that. The question of civilian casualties has come up in this building recently. Secretary Rumsfeld addressed the question saying that if there was -- there is no question that there will be civilian casualties when you're operating in a military operation, but he said there's also no question that everyone involved including him regrets the loss of civilian life -- Jeanne.

MESERVE: And Sheilah, this is not the first time munitions have gone astray in the past week, is it?

KAST: That's right. The Pentagon confirmed five days ago when there were four Afghan civilians who worked for a United Nations- funded agency that cleared mines -- four -- those four civilians were killed. And the Pentagon acknowledged later that one of four Tomahawk cruise missiles that had been launched at the same time was missing that probably was the cause of the explosion that killed those four Afghan civilians -- Jeanne.

MESERVE: Sheila Kast at the Pentagon -- thank you.

And now we're going to go up to Camp David. Kelly Wallace is there, as is President Bush.

Kelly, any reaction from White House officials as yet as to what's happened? KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No, Jeanne, no reaction just yet. We have talked to some administration officials, expecting those officials to get back to us. Not clear, though, if the administration will really comment beyond what Sheila said; and that is, of course, that this administration has tried to prepare the American people and the international community for the possibility that there could be military and civilian casualties -- that you always have some casualties in the case of a war. But that, of course, the administration regretting any loss of life when it comes to civilians. So we'll keep you posted on that.

We did of course, though, hear from President Bush today. We should mention, also, though, we do know the president did spend about 30 minutes chairing another video teleconference with his national security team this morning. That was from 8:30 to 9:00 a.m. so very, very likely that the president and his top advisers going over this information, if the information had been received by that time.

Now again, as to the president going before the American people today in his radio address -- his weekly progress report really during this campaign against terrorism. The president focusing on two fronts: focusing on the military campaign and also the efforts here in the United States to beef up efforts against domestic terrorism.

First, on the military front, the president declaring the first military strikes against Afghanistan a success so far.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our men and women in uniform are performing as they always do -- with skill and courage. And they have achieved the goals of the first phase of our campaign. We have disrupted the terrorists' network inside Afghanistan. We have weakened the Taliban's military and we have crippled the Taliban's air defenses.

American forces dominate the skies over Afghanistan and we will use that dominance to make sure terrorists can no longer freely use Afghanistan as a base of operations.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

WALLACE: The president, though, saying this campaign will not be one with one attack, and so he says the war goes on.

We also, of course, heard today that Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime rejecting President Bush's second chance offer -- his offer to reconsider this military campaign if the Taliban decided to turn over Osama bin Laden. Administration officials not surprised at all by this rejection of the Taliban, and they say that the military campaign will continue until the president's goals and demands are met.

Now, number two, back on the home front really, the president obviously trying to reassure a very jittery nation. Very much concerned about an FBI alert that came out on Thursday notifying Americans that there is a possibility there could be terrorist attacks in the United States or against American interests overseas over the next several days.

And then, of course, the latest case of anthrax in New York on top of three cases in Florida. The president's message really, Americans should be calm. The government is doing everything it can to protect the American people.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

BUSH: I understand that many Americans are feeling uneasy. But all Americans should be assured we are taking strong precautions. We are vigilant. We are determined. The country is alert and the great power of the American nation will be felt.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

WALLACE: And Jeanne, we have heard the president give that message almost on a daily basis.

One other note to report. Of course, the administration reporting so far that it doesn't see any definite link so far between the New York and Florida anthrax cases and the September 11 terrorist attacks. But as we've been reporting, Vice President Dick Cheney, in an interview with PBS on Friday, says he's very suspicious and says it is possible these anthrax cases could very well be linked to Osama bin Laden -- Jeanne.

MESERVE: Kelly Wallace at Camp David -- thank you.

And now to Martin in Atlanta.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks you, Jeanne.

We want to get reaction now from Pakistan. For that we are pulling in CNN's John Vause, who is in Islamabad.

And John, what is the latest you're hearing pertaining to either this accident -- the U.S. military planes -- or others events coming out of Afghanistan?

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Martin, we're still working to find out to get confirmation to exactly what's happened in that residential area in Kabul. But our sources in Afghanistan and our CNN people on the ground there telling us that an attack is underway on Kandahar right now, at this moment.

We are being told that a military headquarters has been hit. This stage, no reports of casualties from Kandahar but our people there tell us they are hearing several loud explosions from around the city. We go to Kabul, we are being told by the Al Jazeera television network that a strike is underway in Kabul as well. Our sources in Kabul tell us that a very poor neighborhood has been hit, and one girl has died and several others have been injured.

Our people are trying to find out the exact extent of the casualties from that stray smart bomb. At this stage we don't know. Once again, the information which we have received is from our sources on the ground there in Afghanistan and also from Al Jazeera.

Now, Al Jazeera today provided us with some video of an air strike on the capital, Kabul. What we see in this video is we've seen a plane flying in. After that we see several plumes of smoke coming up from the horizon presumably from the explosions that followed. Al Jazeera has also supplied us with some video of the aftermath of these strikes.

Now, we understand that this is from around the Kabul region. As to when it was shot we're not sure. We did received this videotape today. This is the extent -- the result, rather, of the air strikes on Kabul -- very intensive air strikes on Kabul in the last few days, the United States using cluster bombs and so called bunker-busters.

Al Jazeera has also provided us recent videotape of children who have been wounded in these attacks. These are the kinds of pictures that the White House is desperate to avoid, but obviously hasn't. And especially after tonight we can only wait and see how many more casualties will result from that stray smart bomb on a residential area.

We're also being told that people are leaving the cities, trying to make their way to the relative safety to Pakistan -- to try to get to the border. And, in fact, so many people are leaving that the United Nations is proposing to set up refugee camps on the Afghan side border of the Pakistani-Afghan border.

So many people they can't deal with. The Pakistan government here has closed the border. A crisis situation according to the United Nations -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: John, a question on the military activity that you're hearing about currently -- any way to know, is it more severe, heavier or less than what it was, say, 24 hours ago?

VAUSE: At this stage we don't know. We understand that the attack is underway. But, as you said, the attacks certainly let up in the last 24 hours because it's been a Muslim day of prayer. There's also another religious celebration on over this weekend.

But it certainly seems that the respite that they had for the Muslim day of prayer -- the Sabbath, if you like -- is now over. And those strikes have begun again in earnest.

We understand that there are several explosions rocking the city, which would indicate that indeed this is a fairly intensive air strike.

SAVIDGE: All right, John. John Vause joining us from Islamabad. Thank you very much.

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