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America Strikes Back: Air Strikes Being Scaled Back and Ground Phase Being Planned

Aired October 9, 2001 - 06:11   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: All right, let's go to the Pentagon right now. Our Bob Franken checks in this morning. He's got the first word from there.

Hello, Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon, and the Defense Secretary has made it clear that there is going to be a limit to this air operation simply because pretty quickly they're running out of places to bomb so the planning is underway now for the combat troops that might go into the region. No word whether they would actually immediately go into Afghanistan or if they would be used in the countries like Uzbekistan for security and that type of thing, but it's clear that the planning is ready for another phase in this operation.

The operation overnight and in the daylight hours was somewhat more limited than the first day. There were only 15 Tomahawk cruise missiles this time from 3 ships and 1 submarine. Ten strike jets, those are the F-18s, F-15s, F-16s from the various aircraft carriers. And there were just three B-1s flying from Diego Garcia, the British air base there, and two B-2s, the stealth bombers that run that long run from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri near Kansas City, go all the way over and then come back. So that was the scope of the operation.

The Defense Secretary makes it clear, however, that Afghanistan is just part of the bigger picture.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: This campaign will be waged much like the Cold War in the sense that it will involve many fronts over a period of time and will require continuous pressure by a large number of countries around the globe. We'll use overt and covert military efforts as well as every diplomatic, economic, financial and law enforcement resource at our command. We will not stop until the terrorist networks are destroyed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: And of course the Defense Secretary makes it clear every chance that he can that Afghanistan is not the only target in this war on terrorism raising the question, Leon, what other targets and when might they be struck -- Leon.

HARRIS: They're -- those are excellent questions, but I've got a couple of others for you, too, Bob. Now you say that the scope of these flights right now have been scaled back dramatically with this last time around and there hasn't been very much resistance from antiaircraft fire. Does this mean -- are they interpreting this as perhaps that this phase one of this campaign is going to be over within a matter of hours or days here?

FRANKEN: Well, it could sort of go on for a while in a more limited way or a more precision way with more very specific targets. But it's clear and it's been clear since the beginning that as they try and take on the Taliban and try and take on al Qaeda, which is Osama bin Laden's organization, it's going to require one way or the other a ground component. Whether that's going to be special operations, small commando units from the United States and perhaps Britain or whether it's going to be something larger, some combination of that, of course they don't tell us operational details but clearly they're making plans for that phase of the operation.

HARRIS: All right, good deal. Bob Franken at the Pentagon, thanks, we'll see you later.

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