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CNN Saturday Morning News

Four U.S. Troops Treated for Injuries in Helicopter Incident

Aired November 03, 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: For the latest now on U.S. military action in the war against terrorism, CNN's Jonathan Aiken is standing by live at the Pentagon with an update.

Good morning to you, Jonathan.

JONATHAN AIKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Marty.

Some information now on that search and rescue helicopter. Pentagon officials tell us that it was recovered, or rather the crew was recovered, crew of four, and as Kyra mentioned, they're all being treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

What happened was, at least the information we're getting from the U.S. Central Command, the incident happened about 11:00 Friday night in Afghanistan, which puts it at about 1:30 Friday afternoon Eastern time.

Not a whole lot of information coming out about this, but we are told that the chopper encountered severe weather while on a search and rescue mission. One U.S. official did tell CNN a slightly different story. He reported that two helicopters were ferrying troops into Afghanistan in bad weather. One of them crashed in bad weather. A second chopper managed to land safely and get the crew of the first helicopter out.

Meanwhile, that helicopter on the ground in Afghanistan was destroyed later by F-14 jets dispatched from the U.S.S. "Theodore Roosevelt."

The Taliban is reporting this morning that it shot down two U.S. helicopters and killed somewhere between 40 and 50 U.S. personnel in Afghanistan. The U.S. Central Command emphatically denying that, and the quote is, "No U.S. helicopters were shot down in Afghanistan."

Missing, however, is an unmanned reconnaissance drone, a Predator drone. And I think we have a picture of one to show you, hope we do. This is used to fly at high altitudes and survey potential military sites. It went down, according to the U.S. Air Force, in bad weather. The Air Force says it is not going to bother to retrieve that drone and says there is no risk to any of the high technology that's on board that piece of equipment if, in fact, it does not bother to go after it. Just want to briefly recap some of the action that's been going on. Fighter jets hitting Taliban positions north of Kabul and also concentrating on a mountainous area to the western edge of the Shomali Plain north of the Afghan capital. Again, a mountainous area. This is where Taliban forces are gathered and fighting Northern Alliance troops.

Northern Alliance commanders have been telling us that the B-52 action in the past couple of days, that heavy bombing of the Taliban front lines north of Kabul, has had an effect. They report more defections among members of the Taliban forces, though also, even though those B-52s, Martin, have been busy the past few days, apparently they've been relatively quiet today.

Also on the diplomatic front, some activity. The U.S. defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, in Moscow. He's meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Ivanov. Rumsfeld on a five-nation, four-day mission. His job is to brief nations that are helping the U.S. in this action, to give them an update on what's been happening and also shore up support in countries in the region, including those that are helping us and those that are simply watching the action.

Rumsfeld meeting with his Russian counterpart, talking not only about the activity in Afghanistan but apparently also discussing the Bush administration's proposals for a missile defense system and the ABM treaty.

It's a quick mission, five nations, four days. After Moscow, Rumsfeld heads off to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and then India -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: Jonathan Aiken, updating us live from the Pentagon this morning. Thanks very much, Jonathan.

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