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CNN Saturday Morning News
Coalition Forces Close in on al Qaeda
Aired December 15, 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to begin this hour in eastern Afghanistan, the eroding foothold of the Taliban and al Qaeda forces there. U.S. troops have joined the front-line advances that are now closing in on Osama bin Laden's dwindling army.
Ben Wedeman now from the Tora Bora region has the latest on the battlefield front there. Ben, hello.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Bill.
Yes, actually today has been a relatively quiet day compared to what we've seen over the last week. There was regular U.S. bombing by B-52s as well as F-14s and other aircraft. They've been going over fairly steadily. Every hour or so, we hear a large rumble and see all that dust and smoke coming up from the mountainside.
As far as the actual front goes, my colleagues Brent Sadler and Nic Robertson were up there today. They said it was very quiet. There was no incoming fire from the al Qaeda positions. He said that in fact he saw the mujahideen, the Eastern Alliance fighters, collecting firewood up there. That's the wood that has been splintered and destroyed, the trees destroyed by the U.S. bombing.
He says despite the talk throughout the day of a possible surrender by some members of al Qaeda, there is no signs of any prisoners up there nor preparations for their surrender.
Now, I spent a good deal of today trying to get through on the radio to the al Qaeda, and I overheard several interesting things. One, I heard one al Qaeda member saying in Arabic to another, ordering him to change to the radio channel of the sheik. Now, we have heard in the past that there's some who believe that references to "the sheik" are of course references to Osama bin Laden.
Another conversation I overheard was one al Qaeda member asking another, "Is your ammunition ready?" He said, "Yes, it is ready, but we are running low."
Finally, a fairly panicked exchange on the radio in which somebody was calling for immediate medical assistance and medicine. He said this was immediately after one of those bombs dropped this afternoon. So clearly they are coming under pressure. The tone of their exchanges is very tense, very tight, not panicked, but clearly they are feeling the heat from the U.S. bombing -- Bill. HEMMER: Ben, when you're trying to make contact, a couple of points here I want to clear up, do you have any indication how many al Qaeda fighters are there? And how to you gauge whether or not they're willing to talk with you?
WEDEMAN: No indication whatsoever from listening in on their conversations how many are there. I've asked them, and they simply do not respond clearly to what they don't want to respond to.
Today, unfortunately, I had a defective radio, so it was basically a case of listening in to what they were saying. But yesterday it took a lot of time, finally we really got a good signal way up near the front in the area where we came under fire. And you have to basically keep on asking questions over and over again, explaining you're the media, that you want to hear their side of the story.
And finally they do come through. Their answers are very short. The day before they were peppered with some obscenities, I'll tell you, but it is -- they do eventually come through.
But as I said, today, unfortunately, I had a broken radio -- Bill.
HEMMER: Ben, listen, when the -- you get that reference to "the sheik," "the sheik's channel," a possible indication, you say, of Osama bin Laden. Have you heard that reference in the past few days, or is this the first time?
WEDEMAN: Yes, Bill, that was the first time that I heard the reference to "the sheik." Now, Eastern Alliance commanders had in previous days said they had heard reference to -- references to "the sheik," but this is the first time I heard it. And it came from a voice that I did not recognize. I've become quite familiar with the names and the voices, the accents. We hear Algerian accents, Egyptian accents, Levantine accents. But this is a specific person, and I -- that's the only time I've either heard a reference to "the sheik" or this person speaking -- Bill.
HEMMER: And we're going to work on getting you a better radio too throughout the day. Ben Wedeman, eastern Afghanistan, again, stay safe. Ben, thanks for the update there.
Here's Kyra.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, I was checking at the Pentagon for the latest progress report from there.
CNN's Jonathan Aiken is at his post. Good morning, Jonathan.
JONATHAN AIKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ah, good morning, Kyra, good morning, Bill.
Ben was talking about this consistent bombardment, and it looks as though it's going to continue, at least for the time being. That's the word from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who said as much to reporters who were traveling with him. He's off on a five-nation tour of Central Asia.
It's been mentioned the bombing on Saturday, Friday night into Saturday, has been less intense than it has been in days past, and the numbers seem to bear that out. According to the defense secretary, as many as 240 bombs were dropped by U.S. aircraft on Thursday. That number dropped to 180 on Friday. And if Ben's report is any indication, Saturday may in fact include a number lower than that. We're not going to know these numbers for sure, really, until Sunday. The Pentagon always waits about 24 hours before releasing its information.
The defense secretary says the bombing has been consistent enough, especially in the past two days, that some al Qaeda troops have surrendered. He put that number at about 50. Most have not, and the question then comes up, how long is this going to go on?
Well, the man that Mr. Rumsfeld put in charge of this war says pretty much as long as it takes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. TOMMY FRANKS, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: Not long enough. I don't know how much ammunition they have in there, but my first comment really was an honest one. We can wait longer than they can, and we'll maintain pressure on this pocket of al Qaeda until they are ours.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AIKEN: One indication of how deliberate the U.S. effort has been has been the use of these AC-130 gunships. These are planes that fly low and slow. They are heavily armored aircraft loaded with high- caliber machine guns and other heavy artillery. The military only brings in this plane when it's pretty satisfied that these planes will not become real targets for the opposition. And the plane has the ability to target specific areas of troop concentration and concentrate heavy machine-gun fire on them.
So the use of these AC-130s over the past two or three days indicates that the U.S. not only has a pretty good idea where these pockets of al Qaeda fighters are, but also they're pretty confident that they're going to be able to attack them with some degree of impunity -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Jonathan, what about bin Laden? If indeed it turns out he's not in Tora Bora, what is intelligence saying? What are you being told about the next spot?
AIKEN: We're being told very little specifically. However, if you sort of read the tea leaves and look at all the reports that are out there, there are a couple of places where the military has been interested in searching for him. One of the places has been around Kandahar, actually northwest of Kandahar, beginning in the mountain range down there. There are some tunnel and cave complexes there, predominantly caves that have been used for irrigation in the past, and they think that perhaps al Qaeda may have used them as a fallback. But predominantly, they're concentrating on Tora Bora and northeastern Afghanistan for two reasons, its proximity to Pakistan and also the rugged terrain of the White Mountains, far more to bin Laden's liking, far more to the liking of any army that's concentrating its troops on that soil and fighting an offender -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Jonathan Aiken from the Pentagon, thanks so much.
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