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CNN Saturday Morning News
U.S. Marines Focus on Capturing al Qaeda Cohorts
Aired December 08, 2001 - 11:31 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: Here's what's happening in America's War on Terrorism. At first glance, it looks like low clouds in the hills, but it is actually smoke from an onslaught of bombs U.S. warplanes are dropping day and night around Tora Bora. Many suspect this is where Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda fighters are hiding.
Taliban spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, surrendered Kandahar and then vanished. CNN's Nic Robertson is the only Western journalist in what was the Taliban's last stronghold. He reports anti-Taliban leaders initially believed Omar was in Kandahar overnight, but this morning he is nowhere to be found.
Afghanistan's interim leader says Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar will face international justice once they are captured. Hamid Karzai is answering concerns of some U.S. officials that he may have offered safety to Omar in exchange for the agreement to surrender Kandahar. Karzai called on Afghan citizens to help in the search for the two fugitives.
We are told American Marines in Afghanistan now carry photos of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda cohorts. It is just part of the U.S. military strategy to hunt down terrorists.
CNN's Jonathan Aiken is monitoring developments from the Pentagon and joins us now with an update -- Jonathan.
JONATHAN AIKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jeanne, the name of the game I guess is know your enemy. And to that end, all the Marines who are stationed at Camp Rhino over the rank of sergeant are carrying what amount to flash cards.
And on these cards are pictures of key al Qaeda members and leadership. The military not telling us exactly whose pictures are on the cards, but you can take a pretty good guess given some of the names that we've been talking about over the past few days and weeks.
At Camp Rhino itself, meanwhile, al Qaeda forces are, in fact, the focus of their attention. The Marines moving slightly away from their original mission of protecting themselves against Taliban forces, as the Taliban has fled Kandahar and moved out. It's the al Qaeda forces that now have the attention of the Marines as they seek to secure the roads around Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.
And we have a map to show you just how difficult that job, in fact, may be. You can see the white lines indicating some of the transport routes around the city. And the Marines basically -- a battalion's worth of about 1,200 -- have the responsibility of securing the roads, not only going west from Kandahar and up north into the mountains, but also east over to Spin Boldak, and then just a jump across the border into Pakistan.
As they secure these routes, they also have to keep an eye out, not only for Taliban remnants, but also al Qaeda fighters, and that's been some of the touch-and-go that's gone on between the Marines at Camp Rhino and the enemy forces who have tested the perimeter of that camp and some of the areas around it over the past few days.
That's where some of these hunter-killer units have come in too. These are the Marines who are equipped with Cobra helicopters, .50 caliber machine guns and those TOW missiles that are designed to go after tanks and armored vehicles. And specifically, they're targeting these convoys that are, in fact, on the road.
Someone else -- someone, in fact, that the Marines are looking for too, is Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban leader. CNN's Nic Robertson in Kandahar this morning, the first question journalists there being told by Pashtun leaders that Mullah Omar may have fled overnight, whereabouts unknown. In fact, Mullah Omar's whereabouts a matter of speculation Friday too, when General Tommy Franks, head of the overall effort in Afghanistan, answered the reporters' daily question: Where is Mullah Omar?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. TOMMY FRANKS, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: I do not have a reason to suspect that he has vanished. We continue to work on the area around Kandahar, and we simply do not know where he is right now; but that does not lead me to believe that he's vanished.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AIKEN: So in short: Coalition action in Afghanistan focusing on consistent bombing around Tora Bora up into the northeast, and Marines keeping a close check and securing those roads around Kandahar to the south and west -- Jeanne.
MESERVE: Jonathan Aiken, live for us this morning at the Pentagon, thanks.
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