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CNN Saturday Morning News

U.S. Bombardment Causes Many Afghans to Flee Homes

Aired October 13, 2001 - 11:24   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: The U.S. bombardment in Afghanistan is taking a toll on civilians. Many are fleeing their homes with nothing to eat and no place to go.

CNN's Kasra Naji has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KASRA NAJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A sandstorm along the southern sector of Iran-Afghanistan border. For these Afghan refugees another test of strength. We find them huddled together in the desert in the no-man's land between Iran and Afghanistan pleading with Iranian border guards to let them through.

He says they are ones of a party of some 800 people including children and pregnant women. They are in the Afghan territory, sleeping rough in the open, behind this ridge. They left their homes in northern Afghanistan nearly three weeks ago. We are hungry and have no shelter he says.

They were about a hundred meters from the Taliban's radar station when it was hit in Sunday. The United Nations fears these refugees are among the million and a half Afghans who are on the move inside Afghanistan -- hungry, cold and desperate.

In the nearby town of Dosmahamad (ph) people I talked to said there are thousands of Afghans in the town of Baranch (ph) on the other side of the border waiting to get in. The information was confirmed by this Afghan man, sneaking into Iran during the night.

He says the bakeries in Baranch (ph) are closed as are many shops. The situations are tense, he says, and many have left their villages. He has come to find out about Iran's plans to set up camps for the refugees.

Iran has closed it's borders to the refugees. It says it will set up camps inside Afghanistan if the Taliban agreed. It says it cannot take any more. It is already host to 2.3 million Afghans.

Every vehicle here is checked for illegal refugees.

(on camera): There are checkpoints here every few hundred meters. The security forces have brought in re-enforcements to make sure this border remains sealed. Kasra Naji, CNN, Milak (ph) on Afghanistan-Iran border.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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