(20 Oct 2001)
1. General Richard B. Meyers steps up to podium
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Air Force General Richard B. Meyers, chairman of the US military Joint Chiefs of Staff
"Special Operations forces including U-S army rangers deployed to Afghanistan. They attacked and destroyed targets associated with terrorist activity and Taliban command and control. U-S forces were able to deploy, manoeuvre, and operate inside Afghanistan without significant interference from Taliban forces."
3. Mid shot Meyers at podium with screen to right
4. Various special forces preparing for mission
5. UPSOUND (English) Air Force General Richard B. Meyers, chairman of the US military Joint Chiefs of Staff
"The next clip is of the same forces loading onto transport aircraft and taking off for the trip into Afghanistan."
6. Various of troops getting onto plane
7. Plane taxiing on runway
8. UPSOUND (English) Air Force General Richard B. Meyers, chairman of the US military Joint Chiefs of Staff
"Next you'll see troops exiting the AC-130 aircraft and jumping onto their objective - an airfield in southern Afghanistan."
9. Night shot of troops in plane
10. Troops jumping out of plane
11. Various night vision shots of planes followed by trails of parachuting special forces troops
12. UPSOUND (English) Air Force General Richard B. Meyers, chairman of the US military Joint Chiefs of Staff
"We will see actions taken by the special operations forces on the objective. This occurs in the dark of course, so the video was taken with a night vision lense."
13. Various night vision of special forces on the ground
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Air Force General Richard B. Meyers, chairman of the US military Joint Chiefs of Staff
"I think it's pretty well established that the Taliban lie, and in this case any claims that they shot this helicopter down are absolutely false. This is being classified as an aircraft mishap, and it will be investigated as such, as we do all mishaps like this where there's loss of life or significant loss of equipment. This was a middle of the night landing, they prepared of course in great detail for this mission, they knew the conditions they were flying into, there's a significant amount of dust when you get close to the ground, the rotas bring up the dust and makes landing very very difficult, and we think that had something to do with it, but it's going to be up to the mishap investigation board to tell us finally."
15. Cutaway media
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Air Force General Richard B. Meyers, chairman of the US military Joint Chiefs of Staff
"I would characterise one target as one of the locations where Omar lives and it's a fairly large complex, it's a command and control compound for the Taliban leadership."
17. Cutaway media
18. Meyers leaving
STORYLINE:
The Pentagon released pictures on Saturday showing elite U-S troops parachuting into the Taliban's stronghold of southern Afghanistan in the first of many likely hit-and-run raids in the anti-terrorism campaign.
The commandos struck under the cover of darkness, apparently in the vicinity of Kandahar.
In a Pentagon media briefing, Air Force General Richard B. Meyers presented images said to show various stages of the operation, filmed by the U-S military.
Meyers said two major objectives were the airfield and a Taliban command and control facility near Kandahar.
He said the operation also was intended to gather intelligence and that the military was in the process of evaluating what was learned.
Two soldiers died when a U-S helicopter, prepared for search-and-rescue duty, crashed in neighbouring Pakistan.
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