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CNN Live At Daybreak
War in Iraq: Northern Iraq
Aired March 24, 2003 - 05:41 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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well there has been a lot of action in the last several hours in Northern Iraq.
We are going to go to two of our correspondents who are in the region, Kevin Sites is in Chamchamal and Brent Sadler is in Kalak, both in Northern Iraq. We are joined by both of them now.
First, we're going to go to Kevin Sites -- Kevin.
KEVIN SITES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, just to update our viewers, we're in Chamchamal, about 40 kilometers from Kirkuk, and we've been listening to the distant rumbling of bombing that has been going on here pretty much all morning. Now our local peshmerga sources have told us that there was an actual intense bombing that happened about three hours ago. They said up on the ridgeline, about 1,000 meters from us, there's an Iraqi frontline position where you have some heavy machine guns and a lot of Iraqi soldiers. They say they saw eight explosions along that ridgeline and they saw Iraqi soldiers carrying wounded down from the top towards the bottom away from the bombing.
And now one of the gentlemen that actually lives in the house that we're renting, Sammy (ph), was here when that bombing happened. The concussion was so intense it knocked him down the stairs. That's how close we are. Thank you, Sammy. So it gives you a little bit of an idea of just how close these front lines are.
Now why this is significant is it could signal that this is the beginning of the U.S. bombing campaign to soften up these Iraqi frontline defenses so that an offensive can begin for the strategically important cities like Kirkuk and Mosul. It's important that the U.S. take these positions. Kirkuk is an oil-rich city, a lot of refineries there. There had been CIA reports that Saddam Hussein's troops had actually planted munitions around those refineries and may possibly explode those if he felt threatened. And so of course coalition troops would like to get their hands on that before it happens.
Now another significant development, there had been a second night of bombing of the Unser Alice Lon (ph) positions that were actually on the Irani and Iraqi border. And those particular positions are significant because Secretary of State Colin Powell actually believes that that is the al Qaeda link to Saddam Hussein's regime. That this is the terrorism link to the Iraqi regime. And so the U.S. felt that it was important to bomb those positions, perhaps setting up a peshmerga offensive along that front as well. So there's quite a lot of few -- quite a few things going on here in Northern Iraq.
And now my colleague, Brent Sadler, will tell you a little bit more about what's happening in Kalak, Northern Iraq -- Brent.
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Kevin.
Yes, it'll be interesting to see what effect, if any, that speech by Saddam Hussein is going to have on all of the front line which stretches for about 500 miles. This is just one section of it in the distance, in the drizzle there behind me.
It's quite clear, from what I was hearing from Saddam Hussein's speech, that he wanted really to create confidence, particularly in his officer corps, particularly amongst the Sunite officers, at least 70 percent, 65 percent of them, 70 percent of them who command the troops manning this largely static northern front. There're mostly conscript soldiers on the hills behind me and in unknown fortifications behind those hills. And I think that the appearance of Saddam Hussein at this time will certainly have an effect on field officers, the higher ranks of the free army corps, which command this northern front.
Now I think it's also interesting to see what's been happening in terms of air activity. Not only in Kevin Sites' location further down towards the east, towards the Iranian border at Chamchamal, but also here we've seen pretty low intensity strikes against targets around Kirkuk and Mosul. Mosul is about 30 miles behind me in that direction. We've seen attacks against leadership targets, troop concentrations, but obviously nowhere near the kind of strength that we've been seeing in the southern part of the country. That -- now this may have something to do with the fact that there is no build up of U.S. troop forces on the ground here. We do have reports, however, that within the past 24 hours there has been an increase in the number of special force troops on the ground here, possibly involved with further planned attacks against Ansal Islam, Islamic fundamentalists around Halabja in high ground on the Iranian border there.
One piece of information I can tell you about, within the next hour or so, we're expecting to have a news conference at Salahuddin, which is the mountain stronghold of the Kurdestan Democratic Party, one of the two political parties which control this Kurdish territory. And we're expecting to hear some important news from that and that may have something to do with additional U.S. Special Forces on the ground here in Northern Iraq.
Back to you -- Anderson.
COOPER: Brent, just very briefly, is there any update on the status of Turkish troops, whether or not they are in the region, whether there are more likely to come?
SADLER: No, no further information. We heard President Bush within the past 24 hours talking about his opposition, the fact that he is against any Turkish deployment in this area. Certainly no increased number of Turks on the ground here to what they've had for the past five years to do with counterterror and border security operations.
Turkey still saying, though, that it wanted to send its troops in here. But really a much lower profile from Ankara on through deployments, possible troops deployments in here. And we'll have to wait and see what comes out at the press conference from the Kurds, whether it's to do with anything the U.S. is planning to do here or whether it's to do with the possibility of the entrance of Turkish troops, which has been a main concern for both Kurdish political parties here over the past many weeks -- Anderson.
COOPER: All right, Brent Sadler live in Kalak, Northern Iraq, and Kevin Sites in Chamchamal, thanks -- Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And you heard Brent Sadler talking about the fighting in Mosul. That's not so far from the Syrian border. Syria and Iraq butt up against each other. We have word that a -- that a bus, a civilian bus, was hit near the Iraqi border.
We want to go to Ruwasheid, Jordan, where Matthew Chance is standing by live.
I've been curious about this, how did this supposedly happen -- Matthew?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well it's not entirely clear. The information we have comes to us from the Syrian Official News Agency, SONA (ph), and that is quoting Syrian officials as saying that a U.S. warplane fired missiles on a bus carrying 37 Syrian nationals who were attempting to leave Iraq to the relative safety of Syria. This took place around the strategic town of Rutbah (ph), about 120, 160 kilometers between those two distances away from the Jordanian border with Iraq. There's a fork in the road. The junction there very strategic, not least because U.S. and coalition forces have secured air strips around that area, which they may use at a later date to bring in supplies and use them as a platform from which to launch strikes. So clearly this is a very sensitive area.
I have to stress though, there is no independent verification about what exactly happen. We just have these official reports coming out of Syria saying incidentally that as a result of that attack, five people onboard that bus were killed, another 10 were injured.
Back to you.
COSTELLO: And, Matthew, you say it's sensitive because Syria is not backing this war. In fact, it's adamantly opposed to it.
CHANCE: Well that's right, Syria was the only Arab member country on the Security Council. It's longtime been standing against the conflict in Iraq. But also sensitive because this is an area that has recently been brought under the control of coalition forces, as I say, because they believe it is a strategic area, there are strategic air strips there which could come in to be very valuable at a later date.
COSTELLO: Matthew Chance, reporting live from Jordan, thanks for bringing us up to date.
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 24, 2003 - 05:41 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well there has been a lot of action in the last several hours in Northern Iraq.
We are going to go to two of our correspondents who are in the region, Kevin Sites is in Chamchamal and Brent Sadler is in Kalak, both in Northern Iraq. We are joined by both of them now.
First, we're going to go to Kevin Sites -- Kevin.
KEVIN SITES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, just to update our viewers, we're in Chamchamal, about 40 kilometers from Kirkuk, and we've been listening to the distant rumbling of bombing that has been going on here pretty much all morning. Now our local peshmerga sources have told us that there was an actual intense bombing that happened about three hours ago. They said up on the ridgeline, about 1,000 meters from us, there's an Iraqi frontline position where you have some heavy machine guns and a lot of Iraqi soldiers. They say they saw eight explosions along that ridgeline and they saw Iraqi soldiers carrying wounded down from the top towards the bottom away from the bombing.
And now one of the gentlemen that actually lives in the house that we're renting, Sammy (ph), was here when that bombing happened. The concussion was so intense it knocked him down the stairs. That's how close we are. Thank you, Sammy. So it gives you a little bit of an idea of just how close these front lines are.
Now why this is significant is it could signal that this is the beginning of the U.S. bombing campaign to soften up these Iraqi frontline defenses so that an offensive can begin for the strategically important cities like Kirkuk and Mosul. It's important that the U.S. take these positions. Kirkuk is an oil-rich city, a lot of refineries there. There had been CIA reports that Saddam Hussein's troops had actually planted munitions around those refineries and may possibly explode those if he felt threatened. And so of course coalition troops would like to get their hands on that before it happens.
Now another significant development, there had been a second night of bombing of the Unser Alice Lon (ph) positions that were actually on the Irani and Iraqi border. And those particular positions are significant because Secretary of State Colin Powell actually believes that that is the al Qaeda link to Saddam Hussein's regime. That this is the terrorism link to the Iraqi regime. And so the U.S. felt that it was important to bomb those positions, perhaps setting up a peshmerga offensive along that front as well. So there's quite a lot of few -- quite a few things going on here in Northern Iraq.
And now my colleague, Brent Sadler, will tell you a little bit more about what's happening in Kalak, Northern Iraq -- Brent.
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Kevin.
Yes, it'll be interesting to see what effect, if any, that speech by Saddam Hussein is going to have on all of the front line which stretches for about 500 miles. This is just one section of it in the distance, in the drizzle there behind me.
It's quite clear, from what I was hearing from Saddam Hussein's speech, that he wanted really to create confidence, particularly in his officer corps, particularly amongst the Sunite officers, at least 70 percent, 65 percent of them, 70 percent of them who command the troops manning this largely static northern front. There're mostly conscript soldiers on the hills behind me and in unknown fortifications behind those hills. And I think that the appearance of Saddam Hussein at this time will certainly have an effect on field officers, the higher ranks of the free army corps, which command this northern front.
Now I think it's also interesting to see what's been happening in terms of air activity. Not only in Kevin Sites' location further down towards the east, towards the Iranian border at Chamchamal, but also here we've seen pretty low intensity strikes against targets around Kirkuk and Mosul. Mosul is about 30 miles behind me in that direction. We've seen attacks against leadership targets, troop concentrations, but obviously nowhere near the kind of strength that we've been seeing in the southern part of the country. That -- now this may have something to do with the fact that there is no build up of U.S. troop forces on the ground here. We do have reports, however, that within the past 24 hours there has been an increase in the number of special force troops on the ground here, possibly involved with further planned attacks against Ansal Islam, Islamic fundamentalists around Halabja in high ground on the Iranian border there.
One piece of information I can tell you about, within the next hour or so, we're expecting to have a news conference at Salahuddin, which is the mountain stronghold of the Kurdestan Democratic Party, one of the two political parties which control this Kurdish territory. And we're expecting to hear some important news from that and that may have something to do with additional U.S. Special Forces on the ground here in Northern Iraq.
Back to you -- Anderson.
COOPER: Brent, just very briefly, is there any update on the status of Turkish troops, whether or not they are in the region, whether there are more likely to come?
SADLER: No, no further information. We heard President Bush within the past 24 hours talking about his opposition, the fact that he is against any Turkish deployment in this area. Certainly no increased number of Turks on the ground here to what they've had for the past five years to do with counterterror and border security operations.
Turkey still saying, though, that it wanted to send its troops in here. But really a much lower profile from Ankara on through deployments, possible troops deployments in here. And we'll have to wait and see what comes out at the press conference from the Kurds, whether it's to do with anything the U.S. is planning to do here or whether it's to do with the possibility of the entrance of Turkish troops, which has been a main concern for both Kurdish political parties here over the past many weeks -- Anderson.
COOPER: All right, Brent Sadler live in Kalak, Northern Iraq, and Kevin Sites in Chamchamal, thanks -- Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And you heard Brent Sadler talking about the fighting in Mosul. That's not so far from the Syrian border. Syria and Iraq butt up against each other. We have word that a -- that a bus, a civilian bus, was hit near the Iraqi border.
We want to go to Ruwasheid, Jordan, where Matthew Chance is standing by live.
I've been curious about this, how did this supposedly happen -- Matthew?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well it's not entirely clear. The information we have comes to us from the Syrian Official News Agency, SONA (ph), and that is quoting Syrian officials as saying that a U.S. warplane fired missiles on a bus carrying 37 Syrian nationals who were attempting to leave Iraq to the relative safety of Syria. This took place around the strategic town of Rutbah (ph), about 120, 160 kilometers between those two distances away from the Jordanian border with Iraq. There's a fork in the road. The junction there very strategic, not least because U.S. and coalition forces have secured air strips around that area, which they may use at a later date to bring in supplies and use them as a platform from which to launch strikes. So clearly this is a very sensitive area.
I have to stress though, there is no independent verification about what exactly happen. We just have these official reports coming out of Syria saying incidentally that as a result of that attack, five people onboard that bus were killed, another 10 were injured.
Back to you.
COSTELLO: And, Matthew, you say it's sensitive because Syria is not backing this war. In fact, it's adamantly opposed to it.
CHANCE: Well that's right, Syria was the only Arab member country on the Security Council. It's longtime been standing against the conflict in Iraq. But also sensitive because this is an area that has recently been brought under the control of coalition forces, as I say, because they believe it is a strategic area, there are strategic air strips there which could come in to be very valuable at a later date.
COSTELLO: Matthew Chance, reporting live from Jordan, thanks for bringing us up to date.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
