Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

What is the Significance of Opposition Control of Mazar-e Sharif?

Aired November 10, 2001 - 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: We're going to talk with General Don Shepperd about what's going on overseas. But General, I was watching you react to Jeanne Meserve and what is happening there with the USS Enterprise. So before we talk about what's happening overseas, I just want to know why you were smiling, and tell me what's going through your mind right now?

You can relate to this kind of homecoming, can't you?

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, a great report by Jeanne Meserve and it brings back warm memories. There's two really important times in military life: when you leave and when you come home. When you leave, the guys and now the girls are resolute and ready. They want to get out there, do what they're trained to do, kick tail.

And when you come home you want to see your wife, your family and your kids, and it's really warm; and Jeanne's done a great job of capturing the emotions that go with it.

PHILLIPS: And it's always highly choreographed, too, right, before this all happens? I mean this party was planned a month ago.

SHEPPERD: Yes, it's a homecoming for 5,000 people on the ship and 15,000 or 20,000 relatives. It's no small deal so it takes a lot of planning.

PHILLIPS: All right, General. Well, I just had to make sure we talked about it. I was watching you and your smiles and your warmth came through. I wanted to hear your personal side.

Let's get down to some serious business now. In the last 24 hours, the Taliban did confirm that the Northern Alliance troops have taken control of Mazar-e Sharif. Do you think this is a turning point in the war?

SHEPPERD: Well, we'd better be careful in calling it a turning point, but it's a very important point. Mazar-e Sharif is the key to resupply of the Northern Alliance and key to control of the northern area of the country. It is a road intersection where the roads go west to Herat and they go south to Kabul through mountain passes and even tunnels.

So it's very important for the Northern Alliance to have captured this area.

It's also important for them to hold it. It's important for the access to bases that are closer to the action and provide resupply of the Northern Alliance, possible places for U.S. forces if General Franks decides to insert them and then, of course, the humanitarian effort that goes along with it. It's a very important step, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: You just mentioned Herat. Could Herat or Kabul be the next site for U.S. forces to come in on?

SHEPPERD: Yes, remember that Mazar-e Sharif is the area of the Tajiks, Uzbeks and the Hazaras up there. So it's the northern area. Down in Kabul you start getting into the Pashtun area and Kandahar is really a Pashtun area. To the Northern Alliance, it appears, will be moving south toward Kabul. They have said they will hold short of it rather than occupy the city until a political coalition is in place. We'll have to see if that develops.

Kandahar is the stronghold of the Taliban and it looks like all of those areas will come under attack in one way or another, and air strikes are being put in in all of those areas now.

PHILLIPS: The Taliban says it's pulling back for "strategic reasons." Do you believe that?

SHEPPERD: Well, it's a good idea to pull back. They, this military action has been supported by very strong air strikes and even stronger ones to come as action develops. The problem the Taliban has, yes, they've withdrawn strategically. They could reattach and perhaps reoccupy the town. It's gone back and forth several times over the last few years. But when they mass to attack it, they will come under our sensors, our intelligence and they will be attacked by air power and, of course, now by a strengthened Northern Alliance while they're getting weaker.

The Taliban have a very, very tough problem and a dim prospect.

PHILLIPS: All right, let's take a look at a map and I'll give a few facts here about Mazar-e Sharif. It's the second largest city in Afghanistan and occupies a strategic position in the northern part of the country, as you mentioned. It's roughly 35 miles from the border of Uzbekistan. We talked about that. And there are roughly 1,000 U.S. soldiers that are already deployed.

So, let's talk about more of the impact for U.S. military and the strategy in this war.

SHEPPERD: OK, well, General Franks is not going to reveal his war plan. But basically we have a base, it's called the Khanabad. It's spelled with a K. We don't pronounce the K in the language up there. But Khanabad, which is about 100 miles north of Mazar-e Sharif in the Termez area of Uzbekistan. That has 1,000 mountain troops -- 10th Mountain Division troops. More can be deployed, the whole division. Or you could establish a helicopter or a U.S. resupply base or just use the bases now in the Mazar-e Sharif area, the air bases, for resupply of that Northern Alliance. The Taliban has to know that we are coming with more forces and resupply for the Northern Alliance and its coalition forces. It is a very, very tough problem. This area is really key to resupply. You need road networks, you need bases. Both of those are now available to the Northern Alliance and its opposition forces.

PHILLIPS: General Don Shepperd, thanks for getting up early for it. I appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com