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CNN Live Sunday

New Round of Air Strikes Pounds Afghanistan

Aired October 14, 2001 - 15:07   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.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: A new round of U.S.-led airstrikes, meantime, is pounding Afghanistan, where it is now nighttime.

We have the latest on that and more from CNN's John Vause in Islamabad, Pakistan -- John.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Stephen, as you say, we have had this offer from the Taliban before, but I guess what is important here is the timing and who it comes from. The timing, obviously, after a week of very intensive airstrikes. It was made to a group of foreign journalists who were in Afghanistan tonight. And it has come from very high up in the Taliban, the deputy prime minister.

We saw just moments ago in Kelly Wallace's report, the president returning from Camp David, rejecting out of hand, no negotiations mean no negotiations. That's what he said.

So, in many ways, this whole thing is going around in circles. Just yesterday we had the leader of the Taliban saying to Mr. Bush's second chance offer to cough him up, him being Osama bin Laden, saying he would not hand anyone over to the United States and he accused the United States of killing innocent Afghans.

There's been this continual ongoing demand for evidence or proof that Osama bin Laden is in fact a terrorist. That is evidence that Mr. Bush says he will not hand over to the Taliban. And it is also a demand which we hear on the streets here in Pakistan. The protesters who attend those rallies say Osama bin Laden, they have not proved that he is a terrorist.

Obviously, the president does not think he needs to bring that evidence forward to the people of the Taliban. He said, we know he's guilty. Cough him up.

Now, the White House says no deal. The airstrikes continue, and they have been continuing. We've seen pictures through our night- scope of an attack on Kabul, about 40 miles north of Kabul. We saw elements of tracer fire going up.

There have also been fairly intensive strikes on the Taliban strong hold of Kandahar. We were told earlier tonight, just moments ago, that it was a very intensive strike, that there were some loud explosions heard inside the city. We are being told that our people on the ground there believe that the United States are using what they call those "bunker busters," those very intense, powerful bombs which can penetrate concrete bunkers. They say loud explosions either near or in the city.

Earlier in Kandahar there were the attacks around the mountains, where the Taliban had moved their hardware, their tanks, their antiaircraft artillery.

Now, also out of Afghanistan tonight, the Taliban has escorted a group of foreign journalists to inspect the damage which has been inflicted by these very intense U.S. led airstrikes. They took these journalists to a village called Karonju (ph), it's just outside Jalalabad. There they were shown the rubble, the destruction caused by these U.S. led strikes. It's a small village where there was apparently a fair amount of destruction caused by these airstrikes, by these missiles, which have been launched.

The journalists were also taken to a hospital where the wounded are being taken. Doctors in the hospital say they've admitted about 28 people, including eight children, for injuries such as broken bones, facial cuts and bruises. As far as that's concerned, the White House, Washington, has expressed regret about that. But obviously, it is unrelenting in its campaign.

Also tonight we are expecting more strikes. These strikes have been going on around the clock. Nic Robertson is in there. He will bring us up-to-date with more on that as it happens -- Stephen.

FRAZIER: John, a question for you on the diplomatic front before we let you go. We know that the secretary of state is headed to where you are and to southern Pakistan soon, and he is apparently going to encounter a little more diplomatic difficulty; the foreign minister there saying, and correct me if I'm getting this wrong, that Pakistani officials want to hear why there are civilian casualties in Afghanistan. Sounds like their support may be weakening, perhaps?

VAUSE: Well, that was always going to be the case. The moment that we saw that video, which is being provided by a number of outlets, including the Al-Jazeera television network. We've seen those pictures of children being hurt, being treated in hospitals. That makes it very, very difficult for the government here to try and contain that very small element of pro-Taliban supporters here in Pakistan. It inflames those people when they seen those images of children, of innocent civilians being hurt.

That's something which will be raised with Secretary of State Colin Powell when he gets here, and in many ways it's making it difficult for President Musharraf to keep a lid on this situation. Something, as you say, which they'll raise with Colin Powell. He'll have some questions to answer when he gets here.

FRAZIER: Well, we will look forward to you bringing us up to date on that, and thank you for all of this reporting now, John. John Vause reporting from Islamabad. In John's report he, of course, referenced those journalists who've been taken around inside Afghanistan by the Taliban. One of those is our own Nic Robertson, who is now inside Afghanistan himself. He has been escorted to several locations, including one town substantially destroyed by bombing. It's a village near the city of Jalalabad.

Nic rejoins us now by videophone. Nic, what are you seeing now?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Stephen, it's a quiet night here in Jalalabad tonight. Last night when we arrived there were explosions in the city, but by virtue of being here inside Afghanistan, there's been a really unique opportunity to get around and see what the situation is.

We can certainly say, in the city of Jalalabad that although some of the shops are closed, the vast majority are open. That a lot of people are going about their life as normal. There is still plenty of traffic on the street. Plenty of fuel stations around. People pulling up for fuel, we saw, around the city and out in the countryside, were able to get fuel wherever they wanted.

People working in their villages. We did see some people heading out of town into the villages, but there is a real sense of life as normal.

Now, we asked the Taliban if we could go and visit the airport, that has obviously been high on the list of sites to be attacked. We went there just before dusk this evening. We were shown a radar installation that the commander of the air force said had been taken out, destroyed on the first night by a cruise missile.

He said also that the airport was no longer operational. He said that there communications facilities were now down, and that the airstrip was only slightly damaged, but they didn't have any aircraft at use on it, and without the communications, he said, that wasn't going to be possible.

Now, the Taliban have also taken us out to a village some 60 miles west of Jalalabad. There, that was a hillside, remote community, where 90 percent of the buildings have been destroyed and villagers told us, and Taliban officials told us, that some 200 people had been killed in that village in bombing raids.

Certainly, we could not confirm or substantiate that number of people having been killed. But looking around, it did seem as if these houses were occupied by people living in a rural community. There were a lot of dead animals lying around. There was a lot of, sort of, household goods that one might expect to find in family dwellings; women's clothing, men's clothing, in some of these damaged properties.

So, certainly, large evidence of large scale bombing in that village and in the hospital in this city as well, clear evidence that at least according to doctors there, that people had been brought in from that village and had been treated in the hospital. Some people there, some people there -- some children, now orphans, doctors said, and also other people in the hospital there, telling us that they've lost numbers of children. One man told us he'd lost his wife.

There is a sense within the Afghan community, talking to people, about this, and also seeing demonstrations out on the streets today, albeit fairly small demonstrations, but demonstrations that were appearing on the road in front of this group of journalists that I've been part of, traveling around Afghanistan.

Certainly, listening to those demonstrators, there is a real growing sense here that these attacks, as they see them, on Afghanistan, are not just going on a terrorist site, but are actually hitting the people of Afghanistan. And it has to be said from the perspective here, inside Afghanistan, there is swelling support for the Taliban at this stage. Stephen.

FRAZIER: Nic, can you briefly give us a sense of how you're being permitted to work there, inside Afghanistan. When you talk to those people who say they've been injured or who've lost relatives, are you and your interpreters and your team permitted to talk to them separately and alone, or are there always minders close by from the Taliban? And are your reports being in any way censored? Are you being asked to hold back any information?

ROBERTSON: No, we're not being allowed to -- we're not being asked to hold back any information at all. What we have been told is that we're not free to go out and roam around by ourselves and look for stories, that we have to go out with government officials, but we have been told that we can select places we want to go to.

We asked to go to the airport, and we were taken to the airport. Now, the Taliban did want to bring us into the country, to take us -- to show us the things that they feel are being neglected by the international community. The things that they say, like this village where they say it was a village of a rural population where a large number of people, they say, died. These are the types of things that they wanted to show us.

But in terms of restrictions when talking to people. No, we're free to talk to people. Obviously, it's clear, that whenever government officials are around, people tend not to speak as freely as they would if they weren't. But it certainly is possible to get away in those situations, away from government officials, and speak directly to people. And we have been able to do that. And, certainly, there is a scope for freedom when out there working in the field.

FRAZIER: Nic, thank you for bringing us up-to-date on your travels there. Do take care and we'll look forward to hearing from you again later on. Nic Robertson, reporting from inside Afghanistan near Jalalabad.

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