Skip to main content
CNN.com /TRANSCRIPTS
CNN TV
EDITIONS
SERVICES
CNN TV
EDITIONS


CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL

America Strikes Back: Pentagon Says Strikes About 85% Successful

Aired October 12, 2001 - 05:14   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.
HARRIS: Meanwhile, across the border there, brilliant flares shot up into the night sky near Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul overnight. The flashes come from another intense series of U.S.-led bombing raids. Government opposition forces say the Taliban troop positions north of the city were targeted this time around.

Pentagon sources are telling us that U.S. war planes have sufficiently knocked out the Afghan air defenses and now the pilots are going after troop barracks and military headquarters.

Let's get the latest now from the Pentagon, our headquarters here.

Brian Cabell checking in right now this morning for the first time -- good morning, Brian.

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.

Last night President Bush said it might take a year or two to track down Osama bin Laden. The head of the British armed forces said it might be till next summer that we have military action in Afghanistan. So it's going to be a while yet.

We know that ground forces, American ground forces are now in Pakistan and Uzbekistan. Exactly when they might be moving into Afghanistan in any significant numbers, the Pentagon so far is not saying.

Now, as for the air war, as you were saying, it's now five days old and it's showing no signs of letup, although apparently this morning no major activity. But no sign of letting up at night, in any case.

Bombers, strike aircraft and some cruise missiles still taking part. The targets remain missile sites, military installations, communications facilities -- the Taliban radio station is now off the air -- and troop concentrations.

The Pentagon has also released what is known as gun camera video. This is a pilot's eye vie of a bomb being sent into a missile site. As you can see, it was obliterated. This near Kandahar. The accuracy rate, according to the Pentagon, of these raids is about 85 percent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. HENRY OSMAN, U.S. ARMY: We're satisfied to this point that the strikes have been fairly successful as far as damage to the military equipment. Obviously some of the pictures that we've showed to you would show that there has been significant damage to some of their military equipment. Have we degraded all of it at this point? Of course not. But we've made some good headway.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABELL: A sensitive question for the Pentagon and for the U.S. is the matter of civilian deaths. The Taliban has said more than 200 civilians have been killed in these bombing raids. No way to confirm or refute that, but Secretary Rumsfeld said there are no purpose, there is no, it is not on purpose that these people are being killed whereas with the terrorists, they do kill civilians on purpose as witnessed September 11 -- Leon.

HARRIS: Brian, are we going to be seeing any more of these nose camera video any time today? We haven't seen as much as we've seen in the past campaigns, whether it be Kosovo or the Gulf War last time around. Are we going to see a lot of it today or what?

CABELL: We are not certain. It's a matter of when they, the Pentagon makes it available to us. We get some images from time to time. We generally get something new every day and so it's just a matter of waiting and seeing what happens this afternoon.

HARRIS: All right, well, we'll wait and see. Brian Cabell at the Pentagon this morning, appreciate it. We'll see you in bit.

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