U.S.

Tensions High After U.S. Air Strikes

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

August 20, 1998 / 8:04 PM EDT / CBS

A day after President Clinton ordered military strikes on terrorist-related sites in Afghanistan and Sudan, U.S. officials were at work determining the effectiveness of those attacks and preparing for possible retaliation at U.S. installations at home and abroad. CBS News Senior White House Correspondent Scott Pelley and CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart report.

At a Friday afternoon press conference, Sandy Berger, the president's national security adviser, described the damage from cruise-missile attacks in Afghanistan as "moderate to severe" and added that reconnaissance photos indicate several buildings had been "blown to bits."

Concerning the factory targeted in Sudan, Berger said it had been "functionally destroyed."

National Security Adviser Sandy Berger.

In Afghanistan, Taliban spokesman Wakil Ahmed Akhumzada said 21 people were killed and 30 were injured at the Zhawar Kili Al-Badr base near Khost, about 90 miles southeast of Kabul.

Witnesses and security sources in Afghanistan said Friday that the strikes destroyed at least two guerrilla training camps there.

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They said a training camp run by a Kashmiri militant group, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, was completely destroyed by a volley of missiles that one source said landed "right on target."

Eric Engberg Reports.

In Sudan, 10 people were injured in the attack on a factory that is believed to be involved in the manufacture of chemical weapons. Four are in critical condition, officials at Khartoum Teaching hospital said Friday. Workers at the site said they feared some people may still be trapped under the debris.


A Pentagon aerial phot of the Zhawar Kili Base Camp, targeted by the U.S. in the attack. (AP)

Sudanese officials claim only pharmaceuticals were manufactured at that plant.

Pakistan officials said Friday that a U.S. missile aimed at neighboring Afghanistan landed on its soil and killed five people but later retracted that statement, calling it a mistake.

United Nations offices in Pakistan, however, were closed, and American and other foreign staff were urged to stay in their homes for their own safety.

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American embassies worldwide were on heightened alert Friday, and FBI officials warned police in the United States to be especially vigilant amid fears of retaliation by terrorist groups.

"What I think is very important for the American people to understand is that there may, in fact, be retaliatory actions," Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said. "We are very concerned about that."

CBS News Correspondent Eric Engberg reports that SWAT teams were on hand at the Pentagon Friday morning in case of reprisals there.

The attack Thursday was taken unilaterally by the U.S. without help from other nations. American allies were not even briefed that the attacks would be taking place.

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Sea-launched Tomahawk Cruise Missiles were used to attack both sites, some from the USS Lincoln Carrier Group and the Guided Missile cruiser Valley Forge in the Arabian and Red Seas.

Scott Pelley Reports.

"Our mission was clear," the president said in a televised address Thursday evening. "To strike at the network of radical groups affiliated with and funded by Osama bin Laden, perhaps the pre-eminent organizer and financier of international terrorism in the world today."

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Few, if any, piloted aircraft were used in either attack. Additionally, no U.S. troops are thougt to have been on the ground at either site.

Senior officials at the White House said the strike was launched Thursday for two reasons, reports CBS News Senior White House Correspondent Scott Pelley.

First, there was a meeting of key terrorist leaders at one of the sites in Afghanistan and second, U.S. intelligence had information that bombings of other U.S. embassies were imminentÂ—perhaps within days. Late Thursday, the president addressed the nation and in essence declared war on terrorism.

"Our target was terror," Mr. Clinton declared.

Serious planning for the mission began one week ago, the day before the president received the bodies of ten of the 12 Americans killed in the embassy bombings. He warned then that terrorism would be punished.

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Senior officials say the rapid response to the embassy bombings was possible because of intelligence showing that bin Laden's organization was behind the east Africa attacks.

A senior official says the whereabouts of bin Laden is unknown, but a spokesman for the Taliban movement said bin Laden was safe.

The first U.S. attack came just after dark outside Khartoum in Sudan. Three hours later and about 2,500 miles away, missiles struck at four terrorist campsites inside Afghanistan, 94 miles south of Kabal near the Pakistani border.

"We designed this operation to attack his infrastructure, and that is precisely what we have done," said Defense Secretary William Cohen. "We had information that led us to believe bin Laden and his organization were indeed trying to acquire chemical weapons and utilize them in future activities."