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CNN Saturday Morning News

Innocent People Reportedly Killed in U.S. Air Strike

Aired December 22, 2001 - 07:03   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: There are some conflicting reports out this morning on a U.S. air strike on a convoy traveling near Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan. The Pentagon says that al Qaeda and Taliban leaders were part of this convoy in which dozens of people were reportedly killed. The incoming minister of the interior says it was made up of delegates who were traveling to the inauguration of the new government in Kabul, and he called the incident, quote, "a misunderstanding."

Well, let's go to the Pentagon for more on this. Jonathan Aiken is checking in now, live for the first time this morning. John, what's the word?

JONATHAN AIKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, the word from the Pentagon is this. They say that this convoy was spotted going out of what the Pentagon is calling a command and control center not long before this attack began. And it was a pretty fierce yet relatively short attack. It was fighter aircraft from the aircraft carrier Stennis.

And also these AC-130 gunships. These are very big planes, heavily armored, loaded with heavy caliber, high-caliber armament. They fly low, they fly slow, they're designed to rake an area with gunfire and ordinance.

Now, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said a lot of people were killed on Friday, a lot of vehicles were destroyed. And as you mentioned, local officials say that the convoy was loaded with local tribal leaders heading to the installation of the new government in Kabul.

The Pentagon is sticking by its story, though it isn't going to go into too much detail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. PETER PACE, VICE CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: I'd like not to address the specific indicators that caused us to strike that particular convoy. But the intelligence that we gathered at the time indicated to us that this was in fact leadership, and we struck the leadership, and we will -- as we will do next time we get that kind of intelligence.

(END VIDEO CLIP) AIKEN: Notice General Pace didn't say the intelligence was right or wrong, only that they had it, and if they have that kind of information again, they're going to use it, you can suspect to the same, you know, to the same end.

We're also getting word that some more U.S. forces will be heading into the Tora Bora area possibly as early as this weekend, likely to be Marines and possibly some members of the 10th Mountain Division, who are up in Uzbekistan.

The United States is going to start sending people in now to go cave by cave into these cave and tunnel complexes that were bombed so heavily and overrun by local forces in the Tora Bora region. Now, this is going to be a time-consuming effort, but it's also an important one, because after the bombardment, after the overrun of these forces on the -- of these caves and tunnels on the ground, the U.S. really needs to see not only what's left, but perhaps more importantly, who is left.

With no sign of Osama bin Laden or a lot of the top al Qaeda leadership, the U.S. has to find out whether or not he's alive and hiding in one of these caves. Possibly he could have been killed in an attack or perhaps he may have left, and this cave-by-cave search will help the U.S. determine exactly what the answer to those questions may be.

And this may be related to that effort to search these caves and tunnels. There's a new weapon coming into Afghanistan out of the U.S. arsenal. It's being rushed into production and sent over. It's a new kind of bunker-buster which is designed to really go after these caves and tunnels. You see them here.

These are called thermobaric weapons. They are high-temperature, high-pressure explosives that essentially destroy cave and tunnel complexes far more effectively than anything that exists in the U.S. arsenal. Ten of them, Leon, are going over to Afghanistan. These warheads are going to be attached to 2,000-pound bombs, and they're going to be dropped by F-15s.

HARRIS: All right, well, John, John, how do we read the introduction of this new weapon? Also more Marines going in, and this cave-by-cave search has been going on now for at least a good week or so, couple of weeks, maybe. What does that tell us about the status of this process right now?

AIKEN: Well, a lot of this goes back to the fact that the U.S. was surprised by the number of cave and tunnel complexes in this region. Some of these cave and tunnels, and that big Tora Bora complex we've heard so much about over the past few weeks, that particular complex was helped -- was built with assistance by the United States when the mujahedeen were fighting the Russians, the Soviets, back in the 19 -- in the early 1980s.

So the U.S. had a pretty good idea of what kind of complexes were in these mountains. What they were surprised at was the number of caves and tunnels that were being used. Some of them had never been mapped before, some of them al Qaeda, perhaps, had added to the number.

So what the U.S. has to do, having bombed all these facilities, is go back one by one and see what's in them. It's going to be a time-consuming and possibly dangerous process.

HARRIS: All right. Let's see, what about the whereabouts of the two people who were right now at the top of the list right now, Mullah Mohammed Omar, and as well as Osama bin Laden? Any word about whether now we're any closer to finding out exactly where they may be?

AIKEN: No, no word at all, Leon, and that's perhaps what the key to this cave and tunnel search is going to be. As I mentioned, Osama bin Laden could be dead in one of these caves, he could be hiding in one of these caves, he could be gone. And by going through these caves one by one, especially the big ones, they want to see if in fact there's any evidence that bin Laden may have been there at all, whether in fact he's a victim in -- you know, he's a statistic inside one of these caves, or perhaps took the opportunity to leave.

There are no answers to that question, either for bin Laden or Mullah Mohammed Omar in the south. But the U.S. is insisting that Mullah Omar is still around the Kandahar area, that he hasn't really left what amounts to his back yard.

HARRIS: Well, you know, this -- the introduction of this new cave-buster weapon may actually complicate that process of finding out who was actually inside each cave too.

AIKEN: Yes, you're right.

HARRIS: All right.

AIKEN: You're right.

HARRIS: All right. John Aiken at the Pentagon, thanks. We'll talk with you later.

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