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Target: Terrorism - Northern Alliance Holding Defensive Positions

Aired October 5, 2001 - 05:33   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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Right now a very special report, CNN's Matthew Chance in northern Afghanistan spent the night with the opposition fighters. He was on the front lines with the Northern Alliance forces.

Matthew, they are getting awfully close to the capital city of Kabul.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, they certainly are, Carol. In fact, there have been reports of fighting from across northern Afghanistan that we've had come down to us in recent hours. The last reports that we have, the latest ones are coming from the military command here of the Northern Alliance, the anti-Taliban forces in northern Afghanistan. They say they're making territorial gains several hundred kilometers to the west of where we're standing right now. They're saying they've been continuing their military operations there. We've got no way of independently verifying that.

There have been sporadic clashes, though, elsewhere in northern Afghanistan. And, as you mentioned there, I actually spent last night on one of the front lines at a place called Rabat, which is about 25 kilometers or 15 miles north of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE (voice-over): A tense journey through the ravaged villages on the front line in Afghanistan's civil war. Control of these buildings has changed hands no less than three times, whole lives have known only conflict.

Mohammed Karni (ph) is commander of the Northern Alliance forces here. He's been battling the Taliban on this front for six years and knows the land well. He told me his tanks and men are in defensive positions now, but he said they're ready to push onto Kabul when the order comes. His fighters say they're poised to take advantage of any U.S. strike on Taliban forces.

(on camera): From this forward position of the Northern Alliance, we're literally 400 meters from the Taliban front line. And what's more, just across this rugged patch of no man's land lies Kabul, the devastated capital but still the ultimate prize for many of these Afghan fighters. (voice-over): Emerging from their Soviet-era tank, these troops say they're already fighting the war on terrorism alone. The Taliban are their enemy but also fighters from Arab states, China and Pakistan, trained, they say, by Osama bin Laden.

Overnight, we sat and talked about the battles ahead with or without support from Washington.

"We will continue to fight by ourselves," says this Mujahideen. "Our fathers here in Afghanistan have fought and died but they have taught us that we should always battle for our freedom."

Until the U.S. strikes, some outside Afghanistan may see this as a sideshow, even a phony war, but to those fighting on the front line, it couldn't be more real.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE: So there are clashes continuing across northern Afghanistan and those are likely to carry on. But everybody here on both sides, really, is very mindful of what the United States will do next.

Back to you, Carol, in Atlanta.

LIN: Matthew, from your vantage point on the front lines, what sort of opposition -- how deeply dug in were the Taliban forces around Kabul?

CHANCE: Well, they appeared very dug in around Kabul. In fact, the Taliban front line was about 400 meters, as I mentioned in that report, from where the Northern Alliance positions were. It was some 25 kilometers beyond that until the actual outskirts of Kabul, that 15 miles beyond that. But the area is a very volatile place to be. There's a lot of change of territory. I mentioned in that report the area has changed hands three times in the past five years.

At the same time, though, both sides appear to have similar military strengths, at least on that front. They both have Soviet-era weapons, Soviet-era artillery and tanks and so the sides appear equally matched. But at this point, the Northern Alliance, at least, say they're just keeping the positions that they have in a defensive way and not -- and they're not planning any advance on Kabul until they know what the Americans are doing.

As you can see, it's getting very windy here in Northern Afghanistan, Carol, so I'll hand back to you in Atlanta.

LIN: All right, thank you very much. Matthew Chance reporting after being on the front lines in the civil war in Afghanistan.

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