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CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL

America Strikes Back: Overnight Attacks in Kabul Heavy

Aired October 16, 2001 - 06:18   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's move over to Chris Burns. He's in northern Afghanistan. He's going to take a look at the overnight attacks on Kabul -- hi, Chris.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.

Well, you can see another fierce windstorm. They are happening more every day actually. It's sort of signaling the onset of winter in the next few weeks. That's something that both the troops on the ground, as well as the refugees up in the mountains, are going to have to be dealing with.

We spent the night very, very close to the front line between here and Kabul. We watched and heard the U.S. airstrikes pounding away, not only around Kabul itself, but we heard the booms and blasts very close to where the Taliban troop positions are. At the same time, much closer to us were, of course, the red tracer fire, the mortar fire, the artillery, the machine gun fire along that front.

However, there isn't a great deal of movement. They are sort of testing each other just about night in that way. The main fighting is going on up in the north.

Before I get to that, let's talk about the damage, however. The -- of course, the Taliban is claiming civilian damage, casualties in certain areas, including in Kabul. There is a report that the electricity was knocked out in Kabul once again. And also in Kandahar, a report from the Taliban that they -- that the airstrikes damaged a clinic there, causing also casualties.

Up in the north, the fighting is where the Northern Alliance is trying to get a hold of the Taliban-held stronghold of Mazar-e-Sharif. That is where the airport -- right outside of there is where the U.S. airstrikes struck in the last few days softening Taliban positions.

The Northern Alliance claims to be within five to seven miles -- three to five miles of Mazar-e-Sharif -- of that airport. They say they're within striking distance. They are looking forward to making a final move on that city if they can. That will be a significant victory for the Northern Alliance in taking and consolidating their holdings up in the north. However, that has yet to be confirmed.

On the humanitarian side, we watched humanitarian aid being distributed to needy Afghan families. The U.S. airdrops of humanitarian supplies now more than a quarter of a million packets of aid have been dropped.

However, international aid officials say that's still not enough. There are hundreds of thousands of people in those northern remote and mountainous areas that are going to face starvation in the coming weeks when winter comes if they can't ship some 14,000 tons overland to those people by the end of November. That is the emergency that they see. They want the airstrikes and the fighting to end, so they can do that -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Chris Burns, thank you so much for the latest from northern Afghanistan.

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