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CNN Live Sunday

Target: Terrorism - Locating bin Laden

Aired September 30, 2001 - 17:07   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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Another group also says it may know where bin Laden is hiding -- the Northern Alliance. They are in control of a section of the country and continue fighting Taliban forces.

For more, CNN's Chris Burns is in northern Afghanistan.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They say that he's somewhere in southern Afghanistan and they have been saying that they could be helping the United States track him down. In my conversation with Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah of the Northern Alliance yesterday he said also that it is not only bin Laden that we need to track down but also his lieutenants who he says are just as dangerous as bin Laden is.

And getting rid of a terrorists is not the only thing. He says that they have to also get rid of the Taliban because the Taliban, he says, are sponsoring all of this. They need to removed, of course, to pave the way for the Northern Alliance to come to power.

The battle right now is also a diplomatic one where the Northern Alliance is -- there's a lot of arm twisting going along where the Northern Alliance is trying to show itself as the leading contender to run a government in Kabul. However, there are, of course, others and the United Nations is arm twisting trying to persuade the -- some moderate Talibans to join some kind of a coalition.

Of course, there's also talk about the king -- the former king is serving as a figurehead -- as a rallying point for other members of Afghan groups to rally around to form some kind of a governing coalition.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SAVIDGE: That's Chris Burns reporting to us from northern Afghanistan. As you just heard Chris mention, opponents of the Taliban say Afghanistan's exiled king could play a role in that country's political future.

Some U.S. Congressmen met today with King Mohammed Zahir Shah at his villa in Rome to talk about what kind of government could replace the Taliban. The 86-year-old former monarch has pledged to return to Afghanistan if requested to serve as the head of an interim government.

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