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CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL

America Strikes Back: Pentagon Says Attacks Went Smoothly

Aired October 8, 2001 - 06:09   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now let's check in with Bob Franken who is at the Pentagon this morning. He's just checking in this morning. He's got the very latest for us on the military strikes.

What's the word from there, Bob?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the word is that this is just the beginning, but the beginning included 25 different aircraft and 50 cruise missiles, and the Pentagon has provided tape showing some of the attack, but the aircraft included B-1 Bombers, B-2 Bombers, B-52s, a variety of strike aircraft that flew from aircraft carriers and, of course, 50 Tomahawk missiles with -- came from -- the Tomahawk missiles came from the surface ships, four of them, and also Tomahawk missiles that were fired from submarines.

Now according to the Pentagon, everything went very smoothly. They hit a variety of targets throughout the night hours. They hit terrorist camps, they say. They hit munitions dumps. At one point, they hit a cluster of Taliban tanks, that type of thing and returned safely. There was an enthusiastic response from the pilots of the various aircraft. One said it was like being in the Super Bowl.

Another part of this operation was the humanitarian airdrop -- 37,500 HDRs, they're called, those are humanitarian meals. They are specially prepared meals. They are ethnically and religiously sensitive. There is no meat product in them, high carbohydrate, high grain with high protein and high vitamin content. That was all part of it.

The Pentagon saying that this is a message that this is not attack against a country, it is not an attack against a religion, just an attack against terrorism. An attack that is going to continue, they say, with operations that will be both visible and not visible, of course an illusion to the probability that there will be a lot of special operations. That will be the commando units, the special forces units and British units that will, in all certainty, become part of this extended operation -- Leon.

HARRIS: Bob, it appears as though if you listen to their words and you listen to some of the things that were coming -- hearing coming from that region that this operation so far has been amazingly successful and there was very little resistance offered to it. We didn't -- in fact, I was watching yesterday and in our coverage we had live pictures coming from, I believe in Afghanistan or through Al Jezeera, the Middle Eastern cable network, and there was very little any anti-aircraft that was being fired back up in the air. It seemed as though there was almost no resistance at all. Are you getting any sense at all from the people you've talked to there at the Pentagon that perhaps this may be a bit easier than think it's going to -- they thought going in or whatever?

FRANKEN: Well, no. I think what they wanted to do was to overwhelm what they really regard as a relatively primitive military structure that the Taliban have. They, of course, have some surface- to-air missiles and they have the stingers, some of them that are 20, 30 years old -- 20 years old there. So they realize that they're really trying to go against an enemy that does not have that much to offer in resistance, but they want to take away as much danger as possible, to cripple the Taliban completely to make it unable to really resist.

An example, for instance, they would attack an electrical system. Now the electrical systems in that part of the world are not that sophisticated to begin with, but the United States is conveying the message, if anything else, that it can just absolutely overwhelm with vastly superior force. And combined with the rest of the countries in the world, overwhelm this government and perhaps leave the message that it's time to reconsider its adamant opposition. But in case it doesn't, it is in a position where it can in fact just easily handle whatever resistance the Taliban might offer.

HARRIS: And of course it'll all be proven once we see those BDAs -- those bomb damage assessment reports.

All right, we'll get back to you later on. Bob Franken at the Pentagon, thanks.

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