Fighting in Afghanistan Remains Heavy
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: At the Pentagon today, Central Commander General Tommy Franks and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld -- both underline how fixed the United States remains on its mission to destroy the al Qaeda terrorist network, no matter how much progress has been made on the ground in Afghanistan against the Taliban. Our national correspondent, Bob Franken, joins us from the Pentagon. Bob, they are saying, on the one hand, yes there's progress, but we still have a ways to go here.</s>BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they do. They're really just laden with information today. First of all, a discussion about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and the search for him and the possibility that he's no longer in Afghanistan. From Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld: "I think we will find him either here or another country." Here, of course, meaning Afghanistan. As for what is going on in Afghanistan now, it involves special forces who are on the ground. General Franks said it was really a mistake to talk about the fact that they are really just going in now. He says in all parts of the country, north and south, they have been there some time and are there -- quote -- "even as we speak."</s>GENERAL TOMMY FRANKS, COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: Their rules of engagement are the standing rules of engagement that we use with our -- with all of our forces. When they are threatened, when property is threatened, when they come in contact with enemy forces identified as enemy, they destroy those forces.</s>FRANKEN: Now that is the role of the U.S. forces there right now, Judy. But, there is quite a bit of discussion about what is going on between the various opposition groups and their fights against the Taliban. And there's still some ferocious fighting going on, for instance, in the northern Afghanistan city of Konduz. It is still very, very heavy according to the people here and that jives with what we are hearing on the ground. As far as the fight for Kandahar to the south, at the home of the Taliban movement, there is very intense fighting going on there. Of course, there also reports on the ground, as recorded on CNN, that the city of Jalalabad to the northeast has fallen to the opposition forces. And that is relatively new information. Neither General Franks nor the Secretary Rumsfeld had any real information about whether those reports were true, saying the last they heard, it was still a back and forth situation. One other matter, it had to do with humanitarian relief in the hopes that by what is going on in the country right now, that could really get under way. But the word from General Franks was that it is really premature to be confident that they can do a full-scale humanitarian effort, that it's going to have to wait awhile. As for the tactics that are going to be employed by the United States, there is going to be less reliance on bombing. As General Franks said, it's going to be more focused.</s>FRANKS: Targets that we have been after, as you know, have changed. Initially, we wanted to set conditions, so we bombed a lot of the tactical capability. As we had completed that work, essentially, we began to target the formations of the Taliban that were essentially propping up Mullah Omar and that regime. As that continues to decline and becomes much more fractured, then we simply have more capability to focus on the alligators.</s>FRANKEN: And, Judy, even as the situation in Afghanistan is still unsettled, there's a lot of discussion about what happens, post- combat. And one of the things that the Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld made clear, once again, is that as far as a U.S. involvement in peacekeeping forces, he said that is -- quote -- "highly unlikely" -- Judy.</s>WOODRUFF: All right. Bob Franken with an update from the Pentagon.