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CNN Live At Daybreak
Final Preparations for War
Aired March 14, 2003 - 06:02 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.
HOLLY FIRFER, CNN ANCHOR: Two-hundred fifty thousand U.S. forces are waiting for the word to move on Iraq, and we're told final preparations are being made for an opening night of terrifying air strikes on Iraqi targets.
Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has more now on the Pentagon's plans.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, the first wave of B-2 Stealth bombers on their way to the Persian Gulf.
Ten warships on their way into the Red Sea from the Mediterranean; in the opening hours of a war shooting hundreds of satellite-guided Tomahawk cruise missiles across Saudi Arabia towards targets in Iraq.
The aircraft carriers, Harry Truman and Theodore Roosevelt, are likely to stay in the Mediterranean; their fighters flying over Israel and Jordan on their way to drop hundreds of precision-guided bombs.
In Kuwait, sand storms rage, but ground units remain in staging areas near the Iraqi border; 28,000 troops of the 101st Airborne Division now ready to launch assaults to protect oil fields and chemical and biological weapons sites. Small numbers of Iraqi opposition troops are there as well.
Air crews know action may come quickly.
CAPT. JOHN ANDREWS, GREEN KNIGHTS SQUADRON: We're very ready. Everybody's had enough time to get settled, get familiar with the area, both here and in Kuwait.
STARR: General Tommy Franks, now at his desert headquarters in Qatar, is watching Iraqi forces make their final moves. Sources tell CNN Iraq has moved troops and anti-aircraft artillery capable of firing chemical munitions closer to the Kuwaiti border.
(on camera): Military sources tell CNN there may be an 11th-hour series of very aggressive air strikes against Iraqi troops and weapons in the southern no-fly zone, rolling back the Iraqis just as the U.S. begins to move on Baghdad.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon. (END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired March 14, 2003 - 06:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HOLLY FIRFER, CNN ANCHOR: Two-hundred fifty thousand U.S. forces are waiting for the word to move on Iraq, and we're told final preparations are being made for an opening night of terrifying air strikes on Iraqi targets.
Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has more now on the Pentagon's plans.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, the first wave of B-2 Stealth bombers on their way to the Persian Gulf.
Ten warships on their way into the Red Sea from the Mediterranean; in the opening hours of a war shooting hundreds of satellite-guided Tomahawk cruise missiles across Saudi Arabia towards targets in Iraq.
The aircraft carriers, Harry Truman and Theodore Roosevelt, are likely to stay in the Mediterranean; their fighters flying over Israel and Jordan on their way to drop hundreds of precision-guided bombs.
In Kuwait, sand storms rage, but ground units remain in staging areas near the Iraqi border; 28,000 troops of the 101st Airborne Division now ready to launch assaults to protect oil fields and chemical and biological weapons sites. Small numbers of Iraqi opposition troops are there as well.
Air crews know action may come quickly.
CAPT. JOHN ANDREWS, GREEN KNIGHTS SQUADRON: We're very ready. Everybody's had enough time to get settled, get familiar with the area, both here and in Kuwait.
STARR: General Tommy Franks, now at his desert headquarters in Qatar, is watching Iraqi forces make their final moves. Sources tell CNN Iraq has moved troops and anti-aircraft artillery capable of firing chemical munitions closer to the Kuwaiti border.
(on camera): Military sources tell CNN there may be an 11th-hour series of very aggressive air strikes against Iraqi troops and weapons in the southern no-fly zone, rolling back the Iraqis just as the U.S. begins to move on Baghdad.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon. (END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
