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CIA Officer First U.S. Combat Death on Ground in Afghanistan

Aired November 28, 2001 - 11:43   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Once again, getting word from the CIA, telling CNN that a CIA officer by the name of Johnny M. Spann, the first U.S. combat death on the ground in Afghanistan. This is result of the uprising of that prison in Mazar-e Sharif earlier this week.

Again, David Ensor again working his sources in Washington. We will bring up David in a moment and talk more about it.

As we look at videotape again, Alessio Vinci was there at the time, and was reporting earlier today through some rather graphic and detailed videotape, that anywhere from 400 to 600 people have been killed in that attack. The majority is said to be Taliban and Al Qaeda members. However, several Northern Alliance losses were recorded there as well. It was bloody, and it lasted for about three days time.

The word we have yesterday about 24 hours ago, is that U.S. airstrikes hit that compound, which is basically a large fort, a fortress there, outside of Mazar-e Sharif, consistently throughout the night with heavy bombing and a number of different locations throughout that fort, but still, several soldiers, several prisoners manage to hold on until the morning, and they were armed with grenades and small arms, and they fought back again, but apparently, the word we have at this point is that has been taken care of.

However, as a result, the first U.S. casualty, combat casualty on the ground in Afghanistan, a CIA officer, confirm now with CNN.

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