Skip to main content
CNN.com /TRANSCRIPTS

CNN TV
EDITIONS





CNN LIVE AT DAYBREAK

U.S. May Have Underestimated Enemy Force Size

Aired March 6, 2002 - 05:32   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: U.S. ground forces taking part in Operation Anaconda are braving inhospitable conditions and rough terrain. And as CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr reports, U.S. troops may not have realized the actual size of their enemy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The first combat footage from Operation Anaconda shows U.S. troops as they begin their assault on al Qaeda and Taliban positions near Gardez in eastern Afghanistan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE SOLDIER: Where is that fire coming from?

STARR: As U.S. forces attempt to move into the mountain terrain, there is little indication that Special Forces would become engaged in 18 hours of the worst ground combat the military has seen in a decade.

At the Pentagon, more details on how two helicopters came under deadly enemy ground fire on Monday. Officials defended putting so many men into such a hot combat zone.

BRIG. GEN. JOHN ROSA, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: There is no way with perfect intelligence that you can tell that there is never going to be a round fired, and we were inserting at that time the Special Forces teams that we needed to get inserted.

STARR: It begins as an MH-47 Chinook like this one is hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. The helicopter rapidly takes off but lands a short distance away with hydraulic failure from the attack. The crew then discovers one man had apparently fallen out. A second helicopter flying nearby drops off its own troops, and then goes to retrieve the soldiers from the first helicopter.

About three-and-a-half hours later, two more helicopters fly into the area about a mile from the first incident. One of those helicopters is hit by enemy gunfire. It crash lands, a firefight breaks out on the ground, six men are killed, 11 wounded.

Some 12 hours later, another helicopter comes in to rescue the survivors and the dead. A commando team, which secretly moved into the region, retrieved the body of the man who fell out of the first helicopter and brought it to the landing zone, where everyone finally gets out. The Pentagon says there was no choice but to keep forces right in the middle of the fight.

ROSA: I don't want to question tactical commanders, but there was an American, for whatever reason, was left behind, and we don't leave Americans behind.

STARR: But reinforcements are on the way. CNN has been told that Marine Corp. Cobra gunships and transport helicopters have moved into Afghanistan from amphibious warships in the North Arabian Sea.

(on camera): The question remains whether the U.S. underestimated the enemy force. The original estimate was there were as many as 400 Taliban and al Qaeda holed up in those mountains in eastern Afghanistan. Sources now say the enemy force may have been as large as 700.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.



 
 
 
 


 Search   

Back to the top