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CNN Live Sunday

U.S., Allied Aircraft Target Areas Near Kabul, Kandahar

Aired October 28, 2001 - 15:14   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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get the latest now on the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan, which is now entering its fourth week. And CNN's Kathleen Koch is at the Pentagon -- Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Donna, U.S. and allied aircraft were in the skies over Afghanistan again today targeting areas to the north and east of the capital city of Kabul, as well as hitting military targets to the west of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appeared on several of the morning talk shows, including "LATE EDITION WITH WOLF BLITZER". At that point he commented, while the campaign is going much as expected, it is going to be long and hard, and that perhaps one of the toughest tasks will be flushing Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and the Taliban out of the network of tunnels in which many are believed to be hiding.

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DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We are not having a problem in dealing with those tunnels in terms of the ordinance. The problem is that there are so many of them, and locating them just takes time. And we are systematically working on that problem, just as we are working on the Taliban and the al Qaeda military -- finding concentrations of those people. They are well burrowed in.

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KOCH: Troubling too, the Pentagon reports over the last two days of U.S. bombs going astray and hitting residential areas north of Kabul and in the Northern Alliance villages, farther to the north of that city.

The number killed cannot be confirmed, though it may be as high as 13. Secretary Rumsfeld says that while U.S. weapons are 85 to 95 percent accurate, that they are not perfect, and that the U.S. military does need to do a better job.

Still, Rumsfeld pointed out that the Taliban itself is endangering Afghan civilians by purposefully placing weaponry in residential areas near mosques, near schools, near hospitals and using them as shields. Rumsfeld also described the issue of the fact that when stinger missiles or when surface-to-air missiles are fired at U.S. aircraft and miss, that that ordinance then falls to the ground and can cause significant damage.

So Rumsfeld takes issue with those who point to bodies and to damaged buildings and those who say that then the U.S. alone is responsible, he says that that is just plain false -- Donna.

KELLEY: From the Pentagon, Kathleen Koch. Thanks.

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