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CNN Live Sunday

Can Osama bin Laden Be Hiding in One of Afghanistan's Many Caves?

Aired November 18, 2001 - 15:26   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: From day one of this campaign, we've heard about the difficulty of finding Osama bin Laden on his home turf. He can find shelter in numerous locations deep in the mountains, and while a cave might seem like a primitive hiding place, wait until you see this. The ones bin Laden has access to are very elaborate dwellings.

CNN's Miles O'Brien with our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): There have been caves in Afghanistan, literally, for thousands of years. In order to obtain water to grow crops, the Afghans have used caves to burrow down to the water table and access water that way to irrigate their crops.

Let's take a look at some animation that we put together, to give you a sense of how intricate they can become, however. These Tauraz (ph) caves, very rudimentary, of course -- basically, a horizontal shaft into a mountain, and then vertical shafts to aid in getting the water. But they have been modified over the years in ways we see right here. Primarily, it occurred, during the days of the Soviet occupation. They were buttressed and enhanced in order to aid the Mujahideen, as they fought the Soviets, including sleeping quarters like this.

Here, you see depictions of Kalashnikov rifles, which would, of course, be nearby, food supplies and that kind of thing, linked nearby to a weapons cache there, with rocket-propelled grenades and additional Kalashnikovs, linked across the way to fuel drums to supply their vehicles and so forth, along with additional weaponry. And then air shafts, obviously very important to maintain air when you're underground.

Now, then, it gives you a sense of sort of a depiction of a typical type cave. Note these right angles as you enter into the cave, and then this next depiction, will give you a sense of how difficult it is to attack people who might be in these caves. This is a bunker-buster bomb we're depicting here, a GBU-37, 4,500 pound warhead. If it, in fact, goes in and wipes out the entrance, say, to a cave, what you can see here, these right angles make it possible for the occupants of the cave, not only to survive, but to get out as well. So it's a very difficult thing to wage war against an air campaign, and certainly a campaign on the ground makes it all the more difficult.

Niamatullah Arghandabi is a former Mujahideen fighter, who is very familiar with these caves. He joins us live from London -- good to have you with us, sir.

NIAMATULLAH ARGHANDABI, FORMER AFGHAN CAVE FIGHTER: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Give us a sense of how intricate these caves are, and how useful they are to fighters who hunker down in them.

ARGHANDABI: Yes, there are many caves where I used to fight. We were using them to hide and keeping our munitions, and we lived in them to hide and keep our munitions and important weapons, and especially when we were striking the Soviet position or ambushing them time wise, if things were getting bad for us, so we would go back to the caves that we were very familiar with, and we made it stone by stone. So, and we were using them for hiding.

O'BRIEN: Well, are they virtually impenetrable, Mr. Arghandabi?

ARGHANDABI: Yes they are. I mean, there are different kinds of, you know, caves. The ones you were talking about, though, we call it kurages (ph), and that is in Kandahar and around Kandahar. The kurages (ph) are not good for the fight. You can just -- they are going from the mountain to the plain area and for irrigation system. You can only hide there for a temporary time, but the caves in the mountains, those are, you know, natural caves are there for thousands and thousands of years.

So, and we made some spaces in there, so to hide, and they cannot be affected by heavy bombs. I mean, even if they hit the top. So if it hits the entrance, it may block the entrance, but if it's around that, it won't be (UNINTELLIGIBLE) at all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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