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CNN Saturday Morning News

Operation Anaconda Continues Despite Brutal Weather

Aired March 09, 2002 - 07:08   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: We're going to continue talking about the war. Operation Anaconda is in its eighth day in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, and the fighting goes on despite the brutal weather.

CNN's Nic Robertson joins us now live from Gardez with the very latest.

Hi, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, hello.

The very latest from here is that reinforcements, Afghan reinforcements, have begun arriving in this town. Some 600 to 1,000 fighters, we are told, will come here in total. They're being billeted in this town over the next few days.

Now, what we are being told by the security chief here is that these Afghan fighters are negotiating right now in the mountains with Taliban and al Qaeda representatives, or at least tribes there that are loyal to them in the mountains, to lay down their weapons.

Now, they say they've got two days, and if they don't lay down their weapons, then the reinforcements that are regrouping here with their heavy weapons, multibarreled rocket launchers, artillery pieces, and tanks, will then join in Operation Anaconda and launch a new offensive against the al Qaeda and Taliban.

The military commanders, however, will not confirm that this is the plan. The security chief, as I say, has told us this here. But the military commanders say they defer all their decisions to the defense ministry in Kabul. However, they do say the preferred option is to talk with the Taliban and al Qaeda first and try and negotiate a solution before they begin fighting.

They're very clear, they are preparing troops on the ground for the potential of a renewed offensive against al Qaeda and Taliban.

In the skies overhead throughout the day, we've been able to hear and see at times fighter aircraft, possibly F-16s, F-18s, also here, bomber aircraft, B-52s, perhaps, high above the clouds flying over, and heavy detonations also have been heard in the mountains very close to this town.

But at times, Kyra, those detonations so hard, so heavy that they rattled the windows here and shook the ground -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Wow. Now, Nic, Operation Anaconda came about because of the threats of attack on the interim government, and that these soldiers were gathering and planning this attack. What is being done in the meantime to protect the interim government? Is there more security?

ROBERTSON: Well, it's the interim government that has directed the new reinforcements to come down to Gardez. It's the Afghan defense ministry has called on fighters from the northern provinces, north of Kabul, provinces to the west and provinces to the south of Kabul.

It has organized these fighters in a way that hasn't really happened here in the past, to organize fighters from different areas, different ethnic groups to come into a new province that they've never operated in before and take on the al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

In the past, a few years ago, it would have been unthinkable to bring in fighters from outside of this region to fight here, and indeed talking with the local tribal chief here, who is the president of the tribal Sharia, the tribal council, in this province, he said that Afghans now were a nation, and that they were all brothers, and welcomed this support.

So the central government, the interim government, seems to be drawing on the new alliances now that have been made possible by the interim government to defend itself and defend its interests here -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Nic Robertson, live from Gardez, thank you.

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