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Troop Movements Under Way in Iraq

Aired February 27, 2003 - 10:07   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.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. officials are telling CNN that troop movements under way in Iraq in what is being seen now as the first major repositioning of any military forces. Now 100 heavy transporters loaded with equipment and a unit of elite Republican Guard moving from northern Iraq, and their on their way to either Saddam Hussein's ancestral homeland of Tikrit or to the capital, Baghdad, itself.
Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein revealed signs of how he envisions a war at his doorstep.

Let's go now to Baghdad, where our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson checks in with his view from.

Nic, have you picked up any signals at all of any troop movements?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Leon, from where we stand in the capital, Baghdad, and we haven't traveled north toward Tikrit today, impossible for us to say from here, if those troop movements are taking place, or what they look like. We haven't been in that direction today.

However President Saddam Hussein was on television last night. We've seen that so many times before. This time it seemed just a little bit different. He was meeting with governors from provinces around the country, telling him provinces are ready if they were to be invaded. But it was what President Saddam Hussein had to say that made it different.

He was talking to the people of Iraq here, and giving them really the bluntest warning they've had so far that war could be coming. He told them they should dig trenches in their garden, and if bombing should happen get in the trenches, because if their houses were hit, they might therefore be safe. We haven't heard this sort of very blunt language that people of Iraq before.

Perhaps on a slightly more positive note for the U.N. inspectors at least this time, they went visit again a site where Iraq says it destroyed some biological bombs back in 1991.

The inspectors have made their fourth visit to that site. They are expecting some U.N. analysts to come into in over this weekend to make a better determination of exactly what was destroyed at that site, but on display, bomb fragments, appears to be bomb parts, at a remote desert site about 80 kilometers, that would be about 50 miles or so, southeast of Baghdad -- Leon. HARRIS: All right, Nic, well what about the other issue of weapons there in Iraq, the weapons that are supposed to be destroyed, beginning on this Saturday, March 1?

ROBERTSON: That's the key issue, Leon. The U.N. officials we talked to here say they have not had confirmation from Iraqi authorities that Iraq will meet that deadline.

What Iraq has to do is by Saturday have prepared the Al Samoud II missiles, the launchers, the missile engines in such a way that the U.N. inspectors can come along and verifiably begin destroying them by Saturday, and what the U.N. tells us they have to be informed by Friday, tomorrow, that this process is going on. And what we're told at this time there isn't a move in that direction, Leon. We're waiting and watching.

HARRIS: Thanks, Nic, get back us to when you can. Appreciate it. Nic Robertson in Baghdad.

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Aired February 27, 2003 - 10:07   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. officials are telling CNN that troop movements under way in Iraq in what is being seen now as the first major repositioning of any military forces. Now 100 heavy transporters loaded with equipment and a unit of elite Republican Guard moving from northern Iraq, and their on their way to either Saddam Hussein's ancestral homeland of Tikrit or to the capital, Baghdad, itself.
Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein revealed signs of how he envisions a war at his doorstep.

Let's go now to Baghdad, where our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson checks in with his view from.

Nic, have you picked up any signals at all of any troop movements?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Leon, from where we stand in the capital, Baghdad, and we haven't traveled north toward Tikrit today, impossible for us to say from here, if those troop movements are taking place, or what they look like. We haven't been in that direction today.

However President Saddam Hussein was on television last night. We've seen that so many times before. This time it seemed just a little bit different. He was meeting with governors from provinces around the country, telling him provinces are ready if they were to be invaded. But it was what President Saddam Hussein had to say that made it different.

He was talking to the people of Iraq here, and giving them really the bluntest warning they've had so far that war could be coming. He told them they should dig trenches in their garden, and if bombing should happen get in the trenches, because if their houses were hit, they might therefore be safe. We haven't heard this sort of very blunt language that people of Iraq before.

Perhaps on a slightly more positive note for the U.N. inspectors at least this time, they went visit again a site where Iraq says it destroyed some biological bombs back in 1991.

The inspectors have made their fourth visit to that site. They are expecting some U.N. analysts to come into in over this weekend to make a better determination of exactly what was destroyed at that site, but on display, bomb fragments, appears to be bomb parts, at a remote desert site about 80 kilometers, that would be about 50 miles or so, southeast of Baghdad -- Leon. HARRIS: All right, Nic, well what about the other issue of weapons there in Iraq, the weapons that are supposed to be destroyed, beginning on this Saturday, March 1?

ROBERTSON: That's the key issue, Leon. The U.N. officials we talked to here say they have not had confirmation from Iraqi authorities that Iraq will meet that deadline.

What Iraq has to do is by Saturday have prepared the Al Samoud II missiles, the launchers, the missile engines in such a way that the U.N. inspectors can come along and verifiably begin destroying them by Saturday, and what the U.N. tells us they have to be informed by Friday, tomorrow, that this process is going on. And what we're told at this time there isn't a move in that direction, Leon. We're waiting and watching.

HARRIS: Thanks, Nic, get back us to when you can. Appreciate it. Nic Robertson in Baghdad.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com