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CNN Saturday Morning News

Kabul Calls U.S. Attack on Convoy `Misunderstanding'

Aired December 22, 2001 - 08:41   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: Let's go live to the Pentagon now for the latest on that convoy attack in eastern Afghanistan that we were just telling you about.

CNN's Jonathan Aiken is following that story -- hi, Jon.

JONATHAN AIKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kyra.

We should tell you that this really is what Kabul calls a misunderstanding. But what Kabul calls a misunderstanding, the Pentagon's take is things aren't always what they seem.

Let's give you a recap on what happened with this convoy. U.S. reconnaissance spotted a convoy 10, maybe 12 vehicles leaving what officials here are calling a command and control center near the town of Khost. It's not far from Tora Bora.

The U.S. says they watched this convoy leave and attacked it soon afterwards using fighter jets from the aircraft carrier Stennis and also heavily armored gunships.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: But it was a large convoy and there were a lot of people killed and a lot of vehicles damaged, or destroyed, I should say. The, let me, the reason that kind of question comes up is because as I indicated in my first remarks, we are continuing without pause, but it's in a somewhat different phase. And one does not bomb unless there is something to bomb.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AIKEN: The Pentagon went on to say that it was working on the intelligence that it had at the time and would act the same way if it had that intelligence again.

Another development coming up, more U.S. troops are going to be heading into Tora Bora, possibly as early as this weekend. It looks like U.S. Marines, as few as 500, maybe as many as 1,500, possibly joined by members of the 10th Mountain Division who are in Uzbekistan, both the marines and the army units have experience in mountain warfare. And their job is going to be going through the cave and tunnel systems that were bombed so heavily by U.S. fighters and overrun by opposition forces in Tora Bora. Now, the key to this is to find out exactly what is in those caves, possibly who is in those caves. Osama bin Laden could be there, living or dead. And it's going to take men on the ground to risk going in there and exploring the opportunities and finding out.

And we should add that it's not just going to be U.S. troops doing this, Kyra, but also, we're told, local forces and also troops from other countries that are helping the U.S.-led coalition.

PHILLIPS: All right, Jonathan Aiken, live from the Pentagon, thank you so much.

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