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CNN Live Sunday

Operation Mountain Sweep Under Way in Afghanistan

Aired August 25, 2002 - 17:19   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Coalition forces in Afghanistan have been struggling for months to track down al Qaeda and Taliban leaders. They're combing the Afghan mountains near the Pakistan border and there is concern that an al Qaeda presence in the region could pose a future threat. CNN's Matthew Chance has more on Operation Mountain Sweep.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Operation Mountain Sweep, the latest U.S. attempt to root out al Qaeda and the Taliban. This is remote Paktia Province near the Pakistan border in one of the areas being scoured with the help of Afghan allies for intelligence to track down renegade fighters. But caches of weapons and ammunition have been the main finds. bin Laden and his closest associates still at large. It's a fact the head of U.S. Central Command says has not been forgotten.

GEN. TOMMY FRANKS, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: I actually don't know whether he is alive or dead but I do know that a great many nations on this planet are very interested in the man if he is still alive and I'll leave you by saying if he is still alive, it's only a matter of time.

CHANCE: But the visit of General Franks has been meeting coalition peacekeepers in Kabul, as well as U.S. troops, comes at a time of growing controversy about the U.S. role in Afghanistan. Human rights groups accuse America's Afghan allies of committing atrocities against Taliban prisoners in the north of the country, deliberately suffocating hundreds of captured fighters in shipping containers last year near the city of Mazar-e Sharif.

FRANKS: Their experience in operating in Afghanistan now for a bit more than ten months is there have been a lot of stories on the street. You and I have seen many of them being reported. I think in each case the right thing to do is for people to go take a look and then we'll decide what we find.

CHANCE: But as operations involving U.S. and Afghan troops continue, questions are being raised, at least about what responsibility for the actions of its allies the United States might bear.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Kabul.

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