Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Saturday Morning News
Northern Alliance Now Poised to Strike Kabul
Aired November 10, 2001 - 11:03 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: U.S. bombers hit hard and often today at Taliban troops protecting the capital of Kabul.
CNN's Matthew Chance reports from the front.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Heavy armor to the front lines, north of the Afghan capital. These Northern Alliance forces fired up by the capture of Mazar-e Sharif, and are poised to strike at Kabul.
Thousands of troops have already been sent to prepare for a possible attack, and despite concerns in Washington, the temptation here is for a rapid strike to hit the Taliban while they're down.
"With God's help, we will triumph. God is with us," this tank driver says. "We will fight against the Taliban and push them out of power."
For weeks, Northern Alliance tanks and artillery have been pounding Taliban positions north of the capital in close coordination with U.S.-led air strikes. They could now go it alone.
On the front lines that approach Kabul, Abdul Riaz (ph) commands 90 Mujahideen. He told us his fighters are prepared to advance with or without the support of the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We have the ability to break the front lines of the Taliban forces very soon, and with the help of God, we will triumph. We have in our ranks over 14,000 fighters ready to attack.
CHANCE: And in positions across this tense front line, those fighters say they're simply waiting for the order to advance.
(on camera): With Mazar now apparently taken, forces of the Northern Alliance say they want the same to happen here. After all, Kabul is still their ultimate military prize. But just like in Mazar, it might take more intensive U.S.-led coalition air strikes on these front lines north of the Afghan capital for any advance to be a success.
(voice-over): Whether or not those strikes are forthcoming in the days ahead may determine the direction this resurgent military of the Northern Alliance is to take.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Northern Afghanistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And now with some analysis of the latest military moves in Afghanistan, we turn to General Don Shepperd, our military analyst in Washington.
Good to see you again, General.
MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Matthew Chance mentioned Kabul as the possible next spot as the Northern Alliance and U.S. military move forward in this campaign on terrorism. What do you think?
SHEPPERD: Well, lots of things to think about, Kyra. If I can go to the telestrator for just a moment to talk about some of the difficulties -- there's much talk about rushing United States forces into the area.
It's really easy to get stuff in. You have some other things to think about. First of all, right here in the Karachi area is the nearest port, if you will, right in this particular area. I'm going to have to draw it in here.
Right here is the -- well, for some reason, the telestrator's not working here.
But down here south of Afghanistan, on the coast of Pakistan is Karachi, the nearest port.
Now, the problem with that is that once you get into the port, you've got to get roads to get equipment and supplies out of the port, into Afghanistan. It's several hundred miles -- several hundred miles of driving, if you will, all the way up through Pakistan and into Afghanistan.
If you come out of Uzbekistan, there are no ports in Uzbekistan, so you have to fly everything into Uzbekistan to supply forces. So it would be real easy to put large numbers of U.S. forces by just flying them in; but resupplying them becomes a very difficult problem.
In addition, then, if something happens in the Gulf area -- for instance, in Iraq, now you have forces in the Afghanistan area that you have to resupply. All of your airlift is tied up with resupplying those forces and then moving or resupplying forces in the Gulf area would be very, very difficult.
So we need to take a very careful approach to this. Putting U.S. forces, large numbers in, is easy to do. Resupplying them and then taking care of things that happen in other areas is very, very difficult and requires a lot of thought and a lot of care, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Let's say the Northern Alliance keeps moving forward and does take over Kabul, Herat, Kandahar, what's left of the Taliban?
SHEPPERD: Well, the Taliban need to be very worried right now. The Northern Alliance held the far northeastern corner of Afghanistan. Now, if you draw an arc and you come south of Mazar-e Sharif, it now controls about 35 to 40 percent of the country.
If you take Kabul, then you're able to stop the flow of supplies to the Taliban from the Peshawar area in Pakistan into Afghanistan. So now the Taliban is forced to retreat into the Kandahar and Herat area, and they have no resupply routes whatsoever.
The Taliban need to be very, very worried. Even if they can mass to reattack -- counterattack in the Mazar-e Sharif area or defend Kabul, they become targets for our massive air power. They have a very, very grim picture facing them now.
PHILLIPS: General Don Shepperd, thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
