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CNN Live Sunday

Northern Alliance Prepares Major Advances

Aired November 04, 2001 - 15:04   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: A spokesman for the Northern Alliance says its troops are preparing for some major advances on Taliban strongholds, advances made possible by the heavy U.S. bombing.

CNN's Kathleen Koch is at the Pentagon with more for us.

Hi, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Donna. Well, the Pentagon is saying that the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan are going as expected, though they will be taking -- lasting a long, long time, but that the U.S., the Pentagon says, has taken the initiative.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers saying that the bombardments have put the Taliban "on their heels." Now Myers predicted that the air attacks will become even more effective, now that several more groups of special operations forces have been inserted into Afghanistan over just the last few days.

Myers meanwhile took exception to an article that it was printed in "The New Yorker" magazine that said a special operations mission that was carried on October 20, on the Taliban complex, near Kandahar, that it went awry. The article claims that the attack happened again on October 20. And it left 12 commandos wounded, three of them seriously.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD MYERS, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF CHAIRMAN: That is absolutely false. We were very well prepared for that raid on that compound. We spent a lot of time, in fact, rehearsing for that raid. We were very effective. The only injuries we took were the couple of folks that parachuted in, hurt their leg or ankles. We had some other self-inflicted injuries from some of the devices we used inside the compound, but they were self-inflicted. And all those people have returned to duty. I mean, they were not serious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today continues his five nation consensus-building trip through Central Asia. One of his last stops, Pakistan. While there, Rumsfeld heard from President Pervez Musharraf that while Pakistan would still like to see the U.S. campaign end by Ramadan, Musharraf understands that it is difficult to set a timetable on military objectives.

The Defense Secretary's flight to Pakistan took him over Afghanistan briefly. At which point, the Secretary looked down and observed, "It's tough terrain. You would not want to march around there too long." And that is a prospect that could obviously face U.S. soldiers if ground troop deployments go forward -- Donna.

KELLEY: Kathleen Koch at the Pentagon. Thanks very much, Kathleen. We'll see you shortly.

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