Military

DATE= 1/07/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE= AFGHAN/PENTAGON (L ONLY)

NUMBER=2-284966

DATELINE= PENTAGON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: U-S warplanes continue to hammer an al-Qaida base near the eastern Afghan border with Pakistan after discovering armored vehicles and artillery pieces there. V-O-A Pentagon Correspondent Alex Belida reports on what defense officials are calling an ongoing operation.

TEXT: Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem says U-S aircraft have now struck the al-Qaida complex at Zhawar-Kili on three days, using precision-guided munitions to destroy tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery pieces.

Admiral Stufflebeem will not say if U-S ground troops have yet gone into the camp, where al-Qaida terrorists were apparently trying to regroup.

But he tells reporters at the Pentagon that remains an option.

///STUFFLEBEEM ACTUALITY///

We had bombed there on the 3rd and 4th (of January). We bombed again yesterday (Sunday). But we're not done there and so it's an ongoing operation and you shouldn't assume we won't go in there and verify (on the ground) but we're finding stuff and we're attacking that stuff and so it's a current operation so when and until those people are on the ground there we'll just sort of leave that unanswered.

///END ACTUALITY///

Admiral Stufflebeem says U-S warplanes have also staged fresh bombing raids on an another al-Qaida facility in eastern Afghanistan (near Khost) where anti-aircraft weapons were discovered.

It is the same general area where a U-S Army Special Forces soldier was shot and killed in an ambush last week. Details of that incident remain sketchy.

But Admiral Stufflebeem says the region is a hotbed of pro-Taleban and al-Qaida sentiment and it remains particularly dangerous.

///STUFFLEBEEM ACTUALITY///

This also is an area where we did not previously have a lot of anti-Taleban coordination or connection as we had in the north and around Kandahar so to say it's a more dangerous area than the others right now is probably accurate.

///END ACTUALITY///

Meanwhile, Admiral Stufflebeem reports U-S forces have taken into custody nearly 350 Taleban and al-Qaida detainees. He says many will soon be transferred to special detention facilities at the U-S Navy Base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

///REST OPTIONAL///

The prisoners do not include the leaders of the Taleban and al-Qaida, Mullah Mohamed Omar and Osama bin Laden.

There were reports last week that Mullah Omar might be with a group of some 15-hundred Taleban fighters northwest of Kandahar where Afghan authorities were negotiating their surrender with U-S officials monitoring the process.

But Admiral Stufflebeem says little apparently came of the talks.

///STUFFLEBEEM ACTUALITY///

It has not resulted in detainees that I'm aware of...now whether or not Mullah Omar was ever there, we don't know...

///END ACTUALITY///

Admiral Stufflebeem says the Pentagon is now going to stop chasing what he calls "the shadows" of reported Mullah Omar and bin Laden sightings. He says the focus will be on getting hard intelligence on actual pockets of resistance in Afghanistan. (Signed)

NEB/BEL