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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports
Coalition Targeting Communications Sites; British Forces Gaining Ground in Southern Iraq
Aired March 27, 2003 - 17:00 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.
WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR: This is a live picture of Baghdad just two hours ago an aerial assault shook this city.
Good evening from Kuwait, where citizens were saved once again today from an Iraqi launched missile. Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer and I'm reporting tonight live from Kuwait City.
We're watching several major developments for coalition forces right now.
Within the last few hours, a massive aerial campaign struck Baghdad. Smoke could be seen billowing into the night. We'll have a complete damage assessment coming up shortly. They're also bracing for more bombs in Baghdad tonight.
Also, will a bloody street fight await America and its allies in the Iraqi capital? Today Saddam Hussein's defense minister promised the coalition will pay a huge price.
At the same time, high tech help is now on the way. The Army's most lethal division is heading here to the Persian Gulf.
We have all that coming up. But first, let's turn to Heidi Collins in CNN newsroom in Atlanta for the latest developments.
HEIDI COLLINS, ANCHOR: Thank you, Wolf. Here's a look at what's happening this hour. As Wolf was just mentioning Baghdad has been rocked by some of the strongest explosions since the start of the war.
Clouds of smoke rose hundreds of feet into the air. Reuters reports witnesses say a presidential palace was among the targets hit.
The Iraqi government says more than 350 civilians have been killed in the war and more than 3,000 wounded. Iraq's health minister says 36 were killed in Baghdad Wednesday. Allied officials are not commenting on the Iraqi figures.
In a daring nighttime mission, about 1,000 U.S. Army paratroopers were dropped over northern Iraq, the first step in opening a northern front against Baghdad. They are now dug in around an airfield. The Army plans to use the base to bring in tanks and armored troop carriers.
Those are some of the headlines. Another update at the half hour. For now back to Wolf in Kuwait City.
BLITZER: Thanks very much, Heidi.
We begin with those thunderous blasts in Baghdad. They may be the biggest explosions we've seen yet in the Iraqi capital, sending enormous clouds of smoke into the sky. One apparent target -- Iraq's information ministry.
CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson was in Baghdad until a few days ago. He's joining us live from Amman, Jordan.
Nic, the information ministry itself might not have been a direct target, but buildings around it appeared to be the case. What do you sense from what you've seen?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly one of the buildings appears to be just over the bridge into the Tigris River, an international communications center. That's a building that was hit in the '91 Gulf War, at that time it was hit by one cruise missile. But on this occasion, there appears to have been a huge blast at the base of this ten story building.
Wolf, one of the interesting things that we didn't capture on the cameras we have access to in Baghdad, while this was going on, while these explosions were happening in Baghdad, the information minister there, Muhammad Al Sahaf, was being interviewed live by one of the Arab broadcasters there in Baghdad. And in the background were these explosions going off. The information minister apparently didn't flinch during his broadcast.
An indication right now really, the Baghdad ministers, defense minister, health minister, information minister and others have all been speaking out about what's been going on. And clearly the information minister here delivering his message to an Arab audience. At the same time, the areas around the information ministry being hit.
We heard about the television station being hit a couple nights ago. That and other communications facilities are just behind the information ministry. Perhaps, we don't know at this stage, maybe they were also on the target list this particular night -- Wolf.
BLITZER: They'll be assessing the damage done. As far as you know, though, Iraqi television is still on the air right now; is that right, Nic?
ROBERTSON: Wolf, from where I am, at the border between Jordan and Iraq, that's impossible for me to know exactly what's happening in the city of Baghdad. But we certainly haven't heard any reports at this time to the contrary. So as far as we know, yes, it is still on the air at this time.
BLITZER: Another target apparently, the Al Salaam presidential palace, which was hit a few days ago, as well. What do you know about that compound?
ROBERTSON: A very large compound on the banks of the Tigris River. Many, many different buildings in that site. When we were watching it being bombed about five or six days ago, many of the buildings were struck.
However, some of them are so large, it would take several missiles, perhaps, to destroy them fully. The missiles that we saw hit them made holes in the buildings, broke off concrete, cement, set fire to some of the buildings, but a lot of the buildings didn't appear to be targeted. So possibly some areas in those compounds being revisited again, Wolf.
BLITZER: Nic Robertson in Jordan, thanks very much, Nic, for that assessment.
Let's get a little bit more now on the possible targets and the weapons that were used as well as the damage that may have been done in the Iraqi capital. For that, we turn to our military analyst, retired U.S. Air Force Major General Don Shepperd. He's joining us from the CNN newsroom.
You've had a chance to sit back and absorb, over the past couple of hours, what precisely happened in Baghdad. What's your bottom line assessment, General?
MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, my bottom line assessment is that two targets were hit, Wolf, one on the west bank of the Tigris River that runs north-south through Baghdad, and one on the east bank.
The one on the east bank was what we were just looking at. It's the international communications center. And a couple of observations. A very tall building. The building itself was not hit. The lights did not even go out in that international communications center.
The other on was the Al Salaam palace over there that had been hit before and probably was struck again.
As we zoom in here, courtesy of the Earthviewer.com, you can see on the east bank of the river is this international communications center. It's right across a key bridge called the Sinok (ph) bridge. And again, the tall building that we saw there was right there where the red dot is.
Probably those weapons were either Tomahawk missiles or conventional air-launched cruise missiles off B-52s. And it appeared to me that they might have been going for something underground in that vicinity, as opposed to the building itself, because the building itself appeared not to be damaged at all and the lights stayed on.
BLITZER: General, what about the Al Salaam presidential compound, hit apparently now for the second time within a few days. Why would the U.S. have to go back and re-strike that target?
SHEPPERD: Wolf, these are huge complexes. They go for several blocks. You're looking at a building the size of a football field.
And so it could be that they missed the exact aim point they were trying to hit on the building. It could be that after looking at satellite pictures or intercepted communications, that people are still communicating from that facility. So they would go back again and re-strike some of these targets.
You may see others re-struck in the same complex, Wolf. And this complex we're talking about right now is over here on the west bank of the Tigris, on the west side of the complex. This is a major expressway that comes up here, the Halil (ph) Road. The expressway takes over into the compound. And there are living quarters over here on the west side of this road.
So that's what was hit right there, Wolf.
BLITZER; And finally, general, very briefly, you hear the words "presidential palace." It sounds almost innocuous like a museum or something. But U.S. intelligence believes it's a lot more than that.
SHEPPERD: Indeed. And there are many presidential palaces, reportedly 50 across the breadth of the country, Wolf, many built in the last few years. They are leadership and communications targets.
BLITZER: General Shepperd, thanks very much for that assessment.
From the air war, let's move to the ground war. A new front is opening. And as allied forces advance, the fighting spreads.
Here's a look at the battle lines.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over_ The northern front. Beefed up by the allies as the war enters its second week. The crucial Hareer (ph) airfield, near Bashur (ph) in the Kurdish controlled north, secured by 1,000 paratroopers from the U.S. Army 173rd Airborne Brigade. They drop in under the cover of darkness, move on to the airfield without a shot being fired, and have an unofficial greeter.
BREND SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Brent Sadler from CNN. Welcome to Iraq.
BLITZER: In central Iraq, CNN's Ryan Chilcote with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne reports that unit captures six Iraqis believed to be paramilitaries loyal to Saddam Hussein.
From Bob Franken, a forward U.S. base in central Iraq now being set up as a POW camp. But south of Baghdad, near Najaf, the U.S. Army's 3rd Squadron 7th Cavalry still in harm's way.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good-bye. We've got to dive for vehicles we think. See you, bye.
BLITZER: Allied missiles seen high. Before and after that scare, Army Sergeant Paul Wheatley, manning a 3-7th Cavalry tank, tells our Walter Rodgers how his squadron crossed the Euphrates River, took almost continuous fire and inflicted heavy Iraqi casualties.
FRANKEN: What did you think when you saw those dead Iraqis lying there?
SGT. PAUL WHEATLEY, U.S. ARMY: It's pretty sad that they were forced to fight against odds that they would never had a chance to overcome.
BLITZER: But the cavalry, the lead unit moving on Baghdad, needed help from B-52 bombers to pound what was believed to be an advancing Iraqi column.
In the south, Nasiriyah still not fully in allied control. Iraqi forces there engaged in firefights with U.S. Marine units.
Outside Basra, British tanks destroy several Iraqi tanks. British commanders vow to wipe out Iraqi resistance there. But the British still aren't sweeping into the city for fear of heavy casualties.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
U.S. military officials confirm losing an unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, but it's not clear if it's the same one seen in this picture by Al Jazeera television. The same footage also shows what Iraqi officials say are allied vehicles destroyed in fighting near An Najaf.
Also in the An Najaf fighting, these pictures show an Army Paladin artillery vehicle which was destroyed when it misfired. Two soldiers were injured, but a spokesman says their wounds were not life threatening.
Britain has followed the U.S. in saying that Iraq has executed prisoners of war. The British military says it was, quote, "shocked and appalled" at Iraq's release of pictures showing dead -- two dead soldiers, calling it a flagrant breach of the Geneva Conventions.
And during his visit with President Bush at Camp David, Prime Minister Tony Blair echoed the charge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Day by day we have seen the reality of Saddam's regime. His thugs prepare to kill their own people. The parading of prisoners of war and now the release of those pictures of executed British soldiers.
If anyone needed any further evidence of the depravity of Saddam's regime, this atrocity provides it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Iraqi officials are flatly denying the accusation.
British forces in southern Iraq have had their hands full dealing with armed Ba'ath Party militants around the city of Basra. We get more from CNN's Diana Muriel, embedded with British forces.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A taste of things to come.
In the half-light of the early morning through an enveloping mist, we followed British soldiers threading their way through an Iraqi village. They're clearing a route for the tanks to come in behind.
The target: a compound near the village of Az Zubayr, south of Basra. Holed up here, Ba'ath Party militants loyal to Saddam Hussein, whom the British Army believes have been coercing local civilians to fight against the coalition forces. With access to rocket propelled grenades, mortars and AK-47s, they've been tying up British Army resources for days.
American bombers dropped a series of 1,000-pound bombs on the compound but missed the main target. Then the big guns rolled in: seven Challenger 2 tanks and two Warriors to finish it off.
MAJ. JOHNNY BOWRON, BRITISH ARMY: We found the compound, the compound was entered by the tanks. And we were able to look around the compound, see what else was there. We draw successfully, actually picking up an enemy wounded casualty on the way out and treating him. And then withdrawing successfully.
MURIEL: No other enemy was sighted. But local villagers later said around 20 to 30 militiamen remained, this information coming from grateful villagers as they received their first coalition humanitarian aid.
Immediately after the battle for Al Zubayr, the battle for hearts and minds has begun. The nest of Iraqi fighters holed up near this village had proved a (on camera) thorn in the side of British forces for some time. It's hoped that this operation will now clear the way for the main concentrated attack on Basra itself.
Diana Muriel, CNN, Az Zubayr, southern Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Troops falling from the sky to open a new front. They jump out of the plane with the 173rd Airborne into northern Iraq.
Also, wounded on the front lines, hear firsthand what it was like to be injured in the midst of battle.
And New Yorkers host a die-in protest the war. But are all these demonstrations having any impact at all?
We'll have that and much more when we return.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Some scenes from the battle for control of Iraq.
In the southern part of the country, British forces have not been able to entirely eliminate resistance, but one tank did manage to eliminate a reminder of Saddam Hussein, whose picture seems to be everywhere in Iraq.
Nearby, fresh ammunition delicately delivered to coalition forces, who were able to quickly put it to use in their Howitzers, in this case firing at suspected Iraqi military targets about four miles away.
In northern Iraq, Kurdish officials say their forces are on the move, taking a position on a ridge line near Chamchamal that Iraqi forces apparently abandoned.
More now on the story CNN broke last night. The airdrop of U.S. Army paratroopers into northern Iraq, the first step in opening a northern front in the war. Here are some sights and sounds of that dramatic operation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's pretty much, you know, you've got to get going. There's a certain amount of time that you get from one end of the drop zone to the other. So you've got to exit real quick.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was definitely different than our training jumps in some of our other places we have. It is a country that we're at war with. But since we jumped in Kurdish controlled air, we felt a little better that we wouldn't be shot at as we wouldn't be shot as we were descending from the sky.
SADLER: Hi. Good morning. Brent Sadler from CNN.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just a second, please.
SADLER: Welcome to Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much.
SADLER: How does it feel to get down here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is nice. Nice. A little different temperature, but it's nice.
SADLER: Now, what's the routine now? You're on the ground. How are the men feeling? What are they likely to see happening here as the hours develop this day?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, the men are feeling fine. We landed with all our equipment. We're digging into positions right now to just set up a perimeter at first. And then we just take everything day by day as the situation develops.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We really don't know what to expect. You don't train to expect things. You just train for everything. So you can react to anything that the command may throw at you. It's really strange that we're actually here. It doesn't seem like we're in Iraq. But hopefully, I really look forward to seeing how the land develops and what our part is going to be in the whole play.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: We have some more now on what's happening in the air over Iraq. CNN's Gary Tuchman was on board a U.S. Air Force plane on a mission over Iraq. And he filed this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): I come to you from the cockpit of an HC-130 combat support plane. We are now flying over Iraq. I can't tell you exactly where we are for security reasons.
But the fact is that probably for the first time since the Vietnam War, journalists are able to report from combat support aircraft.
This aircraft (UNINTELLIGIBLE) this HC-130 has 10 men aboard right now. We're in the midst of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) mission. We are refueling Yowie (ph) helicopters. They are helicopters that do search and rescue missions. We're refueling them on the air so they can continue flying search and rescue as necessary.
We also go on alert status, patrolling parts of the area, make sure that there are no problems whatsoever. Aboard with us, parachute jumpers known as TJs. They're on board in case a rescue of a soldier or a Marine is necessary. They parachute out of the plane, and then find the coalition soldier or Marine who may be down.
We are all equipped with parachutes in case there's any problem whatsoever. And we are being told as much information about the flight we're on right now, we can't reveal. But what we told you so far has been allowed for us to reveal.
So we're over the nation of Iraq on a combat support flight right now with the United States Air Force.
This is Gary Tuchman, CNN, with the Air Force aboard an HC-130 over Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Wounded in action.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STAFF SGT. JAMIE VILLAFANE, U.S. ARMY: I guess we might have taken it for granted that we had no problems with any civilians up to that time, given they were -- the other guys were civilians. These were -- These were Iraqi soldiers...
(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: As only they can describe it, soldiers give firsthand accounts of the fierce fighting in Iraq.
And Iraq's defense minister gives an ominous warning about street fighting in Baghdad. We'll discuss the tactics of urban combat.
U.S. officials demand humane treatment for American POWs. But how are allied forces treating captured Iraqis? Our Ryan Chilcote is with one unit holding prisoners.
All that, much more, just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: At least 24 Americans wounded in Iraq are being treated at a U.S. military hospital in Germany. Some of them talked to reporters today about their experiences.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LANCE CPL. JOSHUA MENARD, U.S. MARINES: I was up on the bridge with six other Marines, pulling security, letting our troops over, when someone appeared to be civilians came out with RPGs -- or AK-47s from the city side and started shooting at us up on the bridge. We returned fire for about a minute before I took a bullet in the hand.
VILLAFANE: ... that we had no problems with any civilians up to that time, given they were -- the other guys were civilians. These were -- These were Iraqi soldiers wearing civilian clothes, dressed up as civilians. Because like I said, when I captured the four guys, they took off their civilian clothes, they had uniforms on underneath. So I mean, that was -- it was shocking that they would actually do that.
SGT. CHARLES MORGAN, U.S. ARMY: When it comes to going back out there, no -- like he said, nobody wants to go back out in that sort of thing, really. I mean, nobody can -- nobody can be shot and say, wow, I really want to go back in there, that was really great.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Civilians caught in the middle. That's another very real aspect of this war. One Iraqi doctor was very skeptical that American Marines would come through on a life-saving promise.
CNN's Jason Bellini, who's with the Marines in Iraq, tells us what changed the doctor's mind.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Injured Iraqis hit by coalition shrapnel lay gravely wounded in inside the U.N. compound in Umm Qasr, now under the control of U.S. Marines.
DR. WAHEL JASIM, UMM QASR HOSPITAL: He's passing about three pints of blood within two days. Within two days. Within two days inside our hospital and we have not the facilities to save him.
BELLINI: Dr. Wahel Jasim brought his patients by ambulance to the Marines at the U.N. because he didn't know what else to do, could offer them no further help from his hospital.
JASIM: They promised me, they promised me, and for -- this is the fifth hour I'm waiting for their promise.
BELLINI: The promise of help is not one he's confident the forces invading his country will keep.
JASIM: And the Americans say that they will bring food, medicines and supply and freedom, but we find missiles, we find people who are wounded.
BELLINI: Innocent Iraqis wounded, he says, in crossfire between coalition forces and the Iraqis attacking them within civilian populated areas.
The Marines we're with say theirs is a humanitarian mission. But they're forced to fight to make the area secure for relief to arrive.
Do you believe them? In your heart, do you think that they're here to help you?
JASIM: In my heart, I don't believe anything now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So they're going to come in...
BELLINI: Just moments after our conversation, a Marine medic arrived.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're going to grab the wounded and take them to a hospital.
JASIM: Now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Kuwait.
JASIM: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
BELLINI: What do you think?
JASIM: Thank you.
BELLINI: Do you feel better?
JASIM: What?
BELLINI: Do you feel better?
JASIM: I feel better because they will seek medication (ph). Everyone give me any help, I'm so gratefully thankful from him.
BELLINI: Not 30 minutes later another casualty arrived, this one brought by the British royal Marines. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need to stay back. You know what? We don't want this to be seen, all right.
BELLINI: You don't have a choice.
After explaining I had permission from the commander to be here, I was allowed to resume taking pictures.
This man, I'm told, will likely die, his intestines ripped from his abdomen by shrapnel. American and British medics will try to save him, they say, as if he were one of their own.
I asked Dr. Jasim's patient if there's anything he'd want to say to people watching this.
JASIM: He said that I can't say to American people only something, one word that we are people seeking for peace, seeking for life, justice.
BELLINI: The coalition says that is what they're seeking, life, peace for the Iraqi people but first, they need the Iraqis' trust.
Jason Bellini, CNN, embedded with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Help is on the way for U.S. troops battling in Iraq. The Army's high tech and highly lethal 4th Infantry Division is being deployed and other units are supposedly on the way, as well.
The 4th, known as the Ironhorse Division, was originally supposed to open a northern front, entering Iraq through Turkey. Its tanks and artillery were shipped out long ago. Now the soldiers are moving out, bound for here, the Persian Gulf.
CNN's Jamie Colby is joining us now live from their base, their headquarters, Ft. Hood, Texas -- Jamie.
JAMIE COLBY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. After a two-month delay, these soldiers are packed, they're ready to go. And they are now on their way.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over) The posting of colors as the 4th Infantry Division cases their flags, sounds their drum, and prepares for their deployment to the front lines.
Soldiers and their families are sure of the mission.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A great sense of pride that we can be a part of this. I just -- I'm really proud of my husband's unit.
COLBY: The strain of delay hard on those who go and those who stay. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been pretty tough, actually, waiting. There's been a lot going on, a lot of down time. Just continue to wait to build on that day. It has been pretty tough.
COLBY: And now, as 250 heavily armed soldiers board the first plane to leave Ft. Hood, it is sinking in, these families are facing what looks like a long separation ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just something I've had to deal with, because I know he loves his country and he's ready to go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think it's hit me yet. I think I'm in denial still. When he doesn't come home that day, then I think I'll realize that he's actually gone.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLBY: And Wolf, I asked military officials here how they spent the extra time, the two months that they were waiting for this new deployment. He told me they did their additional training. They also had contests like disassembling and reassembling their M-16s. He said that not only boosted morale but provided further training -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jamie Colby at Ft. Hood, Texas. Thanks, Jamie, very much.
Two allies meeting face-to-face. President Bush and Prime Minister Blair talk war and politics at Camp David.
Plus U.S. military strategy. The Pentagon prepares to go the long haul.
An eye on Baghdad. Troops wait for the order to move on Iraq's capital.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Looking at a live picture of Kuwait City. It is in the middle of the night right now. People can breathe a little bit easier here in Kuwait now as a result of a U.S. A-10 war plane that bombed a missile launcher near Basra today. It was from that launcher that ground-to-ground missiles were being targeted right here towards Kuwait. That missile launcher now destroyed, thanks to the U.S. Air Force. We're checking a lot of developments right now. We have much more coming up. First, let's check in with Heidi Collins in the CNN newsroom for all the latest developments.
(NEWS BREAK)
BLITZER: With the latest developments on the war, here's CNN's Miles O'Brien.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: 11:45 A.M. Eastern time. CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr reports 20,00 troops from the 4th Infantry Division will leave Fort Hood, Texas for Iraq in the next few days. And 100,000 more troops will be deployed next month. The Pentagon says the new deployments were already in the works and were not a change in strategy.
12:12 P.M., CNN's Bob Franken embedded with the Air Force reports the U.S. is trying to establish a forward operating base and a captured Iraqi facility. The base is 150 miles closer to the action than the current base.
12:17 P.M. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld says the Republican Guard has created rings of security around Baghdad and Saddam's birthplace, the northern city of Tikrit.
1:41 P.M. In Baghdad, Iraq's defense minister says the Coalition lied about finding chemical protection equipment in an abandoned headquarters building, but he also says every Iraqi soldier carries chemical gear to protect himself.
3:15 P.M. Eastern, 11:15 PM in Baghdad, near the Information Ministry, a huge explosion and a plume of smoke. One of many in the Iraqi capital this day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: CNN's Miles O'Brien reporting with all of today's late breaking developments. President Bush and his main ally Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, have held a war summit in Camp David in Maryland discussing both the fighting in Iraq and the humanitarian crisis that's already under way.
Let's go live to our senior White House correspondent John King -- John.
JOHN KING, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, that one-day summit came eight days into the fighting. I think it is fair to say the president and the prime minister agree most on this, putting first things first and winning the war, then worrying about any differences over post war Iraq and those still festering wounds over the bitter prewar diplomacy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING (voice-over): The president and prime minister were determined to talk about the goal of the war, not its timetable.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Saddam Hussein will be removed, no matter how long it takes.
KING: Skirmishing in southern Iraq continues. Troops are being rushed into the north. And the army's march on Baghdad has paused but the men leading the Coalition say they see more progress than problems.
BUSH: Slowly but surely the grip of terror around the throats of the Iraqi people is being loosened. KING: The Camp David summit included talk of what post war role the United Nations should play. And both British and U.S. officials tell CNN talk of a major rift on this point is exaggerated.
TONY BLAIR, PRIME MINISTER OF BRITAIN: Our primary focus now is and must be the military victory, which we will prosecute with the utmost vigor.
KING: Yet a day after Secretary of State Powell told Congress the United States, not the U.N., would take the dominant post war role, Blair suggested more consultations were needed.
BLAIR: Without trying to do it by discussion through the press conference or through megaphone diplomacy.
KING: Both leaders want quick U.N. action on another front, providing humanitarian aid. Some U.N. Security Council members are resisting. They say resuming aid now might be seen as endorsing the war.
BUSH: Iraqi people depend on this program for its sole source of food. This urgent humanitarian issue must not be politicized.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Prime Minister Blair, is at the United Nations this evening trying to break that impasse over the Oil for Food program. Now, one senior Bush administration officials note that France and Russia, two nations that sparred with the United States in the prewar diplomacy, are among those holding up a compromise on the Oil for Food program now. One official just a short time ago saying, quote, "this is not the time to fight old battles. Time to get food and medicine to the Iraqi people." -- Wolf.
BLITZER: John King at the White House. Thanks very much. John King our senior White House correspondent.
We're standing by, awaiting the arrival of the British prime minister at the United Nations for that meeting with the U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. High on the agenda, of course, the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. What the international community, specificly, the U.N. can do to help. We'll have live coverage if the prime minister stops by the microphones to speak, we'll tell you what he says. We'll bring it to you live.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration is ruling out a halt to the fighting. The Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was asked by the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier today about a possible cease- fire proposal by various Arab nations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I have no idea what some country might propose, but there isn't going to be a cease-fire.
(END VIDEO CLIP) Iraq's defense minister predicted Coalition forces would surround Baghdad within five to ten days, but he warned they'll face bloody street fighting, vowing, and I'm quoting now "we'll inflict losses they shall never forget."
Let's go live to Miles O'Brien the CNN newsroom -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Wolf, thank you very much.
I'm joined by General Don Shepperd, retired U.S. Air Force. We're going to talk about a prospect that the U.S. has contemplated, but the war planners in the Pentagon would prefer to avoid. And that is, two words which really do bring terror into military planners' mind, that is urban warfare. What you're talking about is putting the U.S. Forces in a situation, looking here at a basic map of the 5 million or 6 million population city of Baghdad, into a situation where their big advantage, the technology, is undermined by the terrain. Correct?
GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: That's our worst nightmare. The military has a word for, they calls it MOPP, military operations in urban terrain. Call it house-to-house fighting. It's the thing that the United States and Coalition forces would most like to avoid. It is what's going on in Basra now. This is an animation, of course, that shows some of the aspects.
O'BRIEN: We show you a mosque that is set aside. Some snipers up here on the building, fortifying the target. You've got anti- aircraft positions on the roof. In come the special forces, probably, right?
SHEPPERD: Indeed. Special forces and helicopters supporting ground elements. We are not showing tactics and techniques. We're showing a concept of how you might operate in an urban environment with support from helicopters. Here the helicopters are firing at things on the ground that support the soldiers and the tanks as they move in.
O'BRIEN: And the key here is that the U.S. advantage in many cases is night vision technology, superior air power, precision bombs. When you get into a place where the person you are opposing, the opposing force is home, you lose a lot of that advantage.
SHEPPERD: Indeed. We've seen the "Blackhawk Down" scenario, that's the thing that the U.S. forces -- coalition forces would like to avoid. You lose much of your advance of high technology when you go house-to-house fighting.
O'BRIEN: All right. I want to show you something -- it's just breaking -- just breaking news here.
If you take a look at this shot, this satellite imagery, we just got a brand new piece of satellite imagery which was taken at 2:30 this morning a.m. Eastern time, 10:30 in the morning Baghdad time. And as I bring it in slowly, you will see, slowly but surely, these oil fires coming through her and other indications of damage. And unfortunately, my computer is not cooperating for me -- there it goes as it comes in a little more.
As you can see -- look at -- look at the tremendous difference as those oil fires come in, Don Shepperd. Now, the first thing I want to ask as I zoom in on one of those oil fires and bring it down to you is -- what -- what -- how significant are those? Is that just an annoyance to people that live in Baghdad, or is it something more sinister for U.S. forces as they try to engage in air campaign there?
SHEPPERD: Well, the biggest thing this will cause is people coughing in downtown Baghdad. It is very bad for -- for the health of people in downtown Baghdad.
But we have division -- vision devices that see through smoke. You can see through smoke with radar, you can see through it if you're looking with the right type of equipment. So although it hampers certain things that you might be looking for visually, it does not keep you from looking through the smoke.
O'BRIEN: Very thick black smoke. We didn't see any obvious signs of damage.
For example, we went over to the Al Salaam Palace, which we know now has been struck two because we saw an additional strike just this afternoon as we were watching.
Take a look at this image here, and I can show you the before and after as I go between the current image which was, as I say, taken early this morning and the previous image which is the one we had from at least a year ago. I don't see any obvious signs of damage, Don Shepperd. What should we infer by that?
SHEPPERD: That's why bomb damage assessment takes such time. You have to get a real technical look, a really close up look. You can't see any obvious damage here to this facilities.
But also let me point out another thing. This is a huge facility. It operates -- it covers acres and acres, and imagine how many bombs with a 300 foot shrapnel, it would take to take up -- to destroy that whole palace.
O'BRIEN: All right. Precision bombing, not as obvious perhaps as other methods are. That's the first time that has been broadcast. We thank our friends at Digital Globe and earthviewer.com for making that possible, to give us our own armchair ability to do bomb damage assessment.
Don Shepperd, thank you very much -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Thanks very much to you, Miles, and to General Shepperd. Appreciate it very much.
We're still awaiting the arrival of the British prime minister, Tony Blair, at the United Nations. He has a meeting scheduled coming up in a few minutes with the U.N. secretary-general, Kofi Annan. We're going to make sure that we catch him, see if he speaks to reporters as he's walking in. If he does, we'll have live coverage. That meeting an important meeting designed to deal with the humanitarian crisis already unfolding in southern Iraq, expected to unfold elsewhere as well, as this war in Iraq continues.
And when we come back, voices of dissent against the war. They continue to ring from coast to coast.
Actually, here's Tony Blair, the British prime minister walking into the United Nations right now. He's in the motorcade. He'll be pulling in, he'll be walking in, and then once he does we'll monitor him as he goes into the meeting with the U.N. secretary-general, see if he stops and takes questions from reporters.
We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(AUDIO/VIDEO GAP)
BLITZER: ..coast to coast today.
CNN's Jason Carroll is live in New York and he has details -- Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf out of all the protests that we saw today all over -- all over the country, by far the most vocal right here in New York City.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): It happened in New York, in Oakland, California and Indianapolis. It was a day where the debate over the war took to the streets.
In Indiana, one group could barely keep up with the demand for signs of support for the troops and the war.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We knew people would be supportive, but boy, this is really an incredible outpouring.
CARROLL: While here in New York -- there were signs and sounds of discontent. Anti-war protesters disrupted business as usual for about two hours. Dozens staged a die-in, lying down in the center of Fifth Avenue, taking to civil disobedience, in hopes more people will hear their message, one they say the media ignores.
LESLIE CAGAN, PROTEST ORGANIZER: I think that in the last two or three months or so, a great deal of the media hasn't been paying attention to the antiwar movement. And I think that they are to be applauded for that.
CARROLL: Almost 200 were cuffed and carried away.
A small number of those who were not arrested moved uptown to Tiffany's, to stage a die-in there, meeting some resistance along the way. Less vocal in Oakland where a group of seventh graders carried pictures of pen pals from Baghdad as they walked out of class to support peace.
JEFF GRUBLER, ANTIWAR ACTIVIST: These are their pen pals, these are their friends -- watch your back. They're very afraid for them.
CARROLL: A battle of words.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seventy-five percent of this nation believes in what the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) doing.
CARROLL: One that is not likely to be resolved in the streets.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: And a recent poll, Wolf, suggests that where you live in the country may indicate where you stand when it comes to the war.
Of those polled of likely voters on the East Coast, 41 percent say they support the -- support the war, versus 72 percent of those polled who live in the Midwest -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jason Carroll, thank you very much for that update on the protests in New York and elsewhere.
And here is your chance to weigh in on the war in Iraq. Our "Web Question of the Day" is this: "Do antiwar protesters have an impact on U.S. government policy?" We'll have the results later in this broadcast. Vote at cnn.com/wolf.
While there, I'd like to hear from you. Send me your comments. I'll try to read some at the end of this program. That's also where you can read my daily online column. I'm writing one every day from here in Kuwait City. Just go to cnn.com /wolf.
Much more news coming up, including an update on Iraqi POWs. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: There are now more than 4,000 Iraqi prisoners of war. According to U.S. military officials, the Iraqi prisoners are being treated humanely.
Ryan Chilcote is there. They're all inside Iraq. He joins us with a look at what happened when these soldiers captured a group of Iraqis.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ryan Chilcote with the 101st Airborne in central Iraq and a forward operating base. Yesterday soldiers outside the base spotted a vehicle moving towards it, a white SUV with six Iraqis inside moving towards the base they said erratically and very slowly. Inside six Iraqi according to the U.S. military had lost their way in the sandstorm. The troops approached the vehicle, surrounded it.
The Iraqis, realizing the situation they were in, immediately surrendered. They were then taken into custody. Military commanders here say they believe those men may have been couriers for paramilitary group loyal to President Saddam Hussein. They say they found a large amount of money, in particular, U.S. dollars inside the vehicle. They also found some instructions that they believe that those six Iraqi soldiers were passing on to Ba'ath party leaders in the nearby area.
I had an opportunity to speak with one of the U.S. soldiers. I asked him how he would compare how the Iraqi soldiers in his custody are being treated with the U.S. POWs right now inside Iraq?
I think that regardless of what they do, we're not them. And just because, you know, somebody else does that, that you know, golden rule, do unto others as you would have done unto them. It makes our resolve and fight stronger because we don't want to get captured. It make theirs resolve to fight less, because they know if they get captured they're going to get fed, blankets, shelter, medical treatment.
CHILCOTE: A little bit about their conditions. One of the six of the Iraqis got a medical attention. He was complaining of some asthma. The doctor gave him some medicine. While I there, all got blankets. The soldier you just heard from promised to build some kind of shelter to get them out of the wind. This is all part of the U.S. strategy to improve, to make those conditions as good as possible for these Iraqis who were either surrendering or being captured to try to encourage other Iraqis to surrender.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Ryan Chilcote with the 101st. He's in Iraq, deep in Iraq right now, one of our embedded correspondents. We have much more news coming up including the war as seen by political cartoonist. Our Jeanne Moos has a look when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: About 7,000 people marched against the war in Bahrain's capital chanting, "death to America, death to Israel." In Cairo, a crowd said to number 100,000 filled the stadium in support of Iraq. Both Muslim and Christian leaders took part. Police and protesters clashed in Ecuador as a crowd of about 400 tried to move on the U.S. Embassy. Demonstrators also broke windows at American fast food restaurants.
Loud protest also in Caracas. Iraq's ambassador to Venezuela is calling on that country to stop exporting oil to the United States. Buenos Aires, Agrentine protesters staged a "die-in", blocking an entrance to a McDonald's. The crowd cheered as an effigy of President Bush was burned. In Mexico City, 3,000 protested outside the U.S. Embassy. At one point tearing down the fence protecting the building. Now the humor and outright cynicism on the war from political cartoonists. It is all part of drawing fire from CNN's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If the military can show before and after photos, so can "Usa Today's" cartoonist. Public expectations before reality hit and after. The "New York Post" showed Saddam Hussein orders his men to dig in, as they dug their own graves. The media were embedded in many a cartoon. As one briefer noted, some of our weapons are more likely to backfire. British cartoonists tend to be harsh. "The Guardian" had Prime Minister Tony Blair telling the Iraqi people, "We will not let you down, but we might blow you up." Iraq's treatment of civilians drew fire in a South Carolina newspaper "The State, " "In defense of the motherland, we will also put the Iraqi people first. You go first."
President Bush was shown reading a fairy tale in the "Austin American Statesman" "As the first big sparkly bomb burst, the Iraqis all dropped their guns and came dancing into the streets." A German newspaper called this one "Presidential Adviser" a delighted devil awaiting the phones of Saddam and Bush. The Australians showed its Prime Minister a staunch discreetly concealed as he kisses the president's turn. The caption reads "I see they're notice protecting us from the more offensive images of the war." Since we're on the subject of derrieres American cartoonist Ken Catlleano (ph) shows Saddam Kissing his good-bye.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: If a moment, images of war from the still photographers in the Persian Gulf. That story and the results of our web question of the day next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: CNN is bringing you dramatic images of the war, often live. Now, CNN's Bruce Morton with images of the war captured by still photographers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: War is moments. An American artillery vehicle misfires and explodes. Guns firing during the attack by British commandos in the south.
War is waiting. This man has rigged an rain shelter and is actually reading a book. War is weather. Add up sand, sandstorms and rain and you've got mud -- big time.
War is civilian, Kurdish women in northern Iraq make bread. Their men expect to fight soon.
War is kids. Looking through a soldier's binoculars is fun. Soldiers offer food and candy. But what is his future? Alone as the warriors rumble all around him. Or this baby, younger than the war, found sleeping in a cardboard fruit box 500 yards from a British encampment. Or these children sweeping a street in the Baghdad suburb whose troubles may just have begun?
War is casualties. Sometimes make believe, as with this wounded poster of Saddam Hussein. Sometimes real. The U.S. Marine carrying a wounded Iraqi. A U.S. Marine carrying injured Corporal Barry Lang from Oregon. An Iraqi prisoner getting help from Navy Corpsman, a wounded marine getting help. War is worry, 4-year-old Elizabeth Heasdman's (ph) father is with the 3rd Division outside Baghdad.
And sometimes war is just amazing luck. Royal Marine Commander Eric Walterman Kevlar helmets, Kevlar replaced the old steel pot in the 1970's took four rounds in a fire fight and he wasn't hurt. Lets hope they let him keep his dented hat. He'll be telling that story for the next 50 years.
Bruce Morton, CNN, reporting.
Here is the results of our "Web Question of the Day," Do anti-war protesters have an impact on U.S. government policy. Nineteen percent says, yes, 81 percent say, no.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Gaining Ground in Southern Iraq>
Aired March 27, 2003 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR: This is a live picture of Baghdad just two hours ago an aerial assault shook this city.
Good evening from Kuwait, where citizens were saved once again today from an Iraqi launched missile. Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer and I'm reporting tonight live from Kuwait City.
We're watching several major developments for coalition forces right now.
Within the last few hours, a massive aerial campaign struck Baghdad. Smoke could be seen billowing into the night. We'll have a complete damage assessment coming up shortly. They're also bracing for more bombs in Baghdad tonight.
Also, will a bloody street fight await America and its allies in the Iraqi capital? Today Saddam Hussein's defense minister promised the coalition will pay a huge price.
At the same time, high tech help is now on the way. The Army's most lethal division is heading here to the Persian Gulf.
We have all that coming up. But first, let's turn to Heidi Collins in CNN newsroom in Atlanta for the latest developments.
HEIDI COLLINS, ANCHOR: Thank you, Wolf. Here's a look at what's happening this hour. As Wolf was just mentioning Baghdad has been rocked by some of the strongest explosions since the start of the war.
Clouds of smoke rose hundreds of feet into the air. Reuters reports witnesses say a presidential palace was among the targets hit.
The Iraqi government says more than 350 civilians have been killed in the war and more than 3,000 wounded. Iraq's health minister says 36 were killed in Baghdad Wednesday. Allied officials are not commenting on the Iraqi figures.
In a daring nighttime mission, about 1,000 U.S. Army paratroopers were dropped over northern Iraq, the first step in opening a northern front against Baghdad. They are now dug in around an airfield. The Army plans to use the base to bring in tanks and armored troop carriers.
Those are some of the headlines. Another update at the half hour. For now back to Wolf in Kuwait City.
BLITZER: Thanks very much, Heidi.
We begin with those thunderous blasts in Baghdad. They may be the biggest explosions we've seen yet in the Iraqi capital, sending enormous clouds of smoke into the sky. One apparent target -- Iraq's information ministry.
CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson was in Baghdad until a few days ago. He's joining us live from Amman, Jordan.
Nic, the information ministry itself might not have been a direct target, but buildings around it appeared to be the case. What do you sense from what you've seen?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly one of the buildings appears to be just over the bridge into the Tigris River, an international communications center. That's a building that was hit in the '91 Gulf War, at that time it was hit by one cruise missile. But on this occasion, there appears to have been a huge blast at the base of this ten story building.
Wolf, one of the interesting things that we didn't capture on the cameras we have access to in Baghdad, while this was going on, while these explosions were happening in Baghdad, the information minister there, Muhammad Al Sahaf, was being interviewed live by one of the Arab broadcasters there in Baghdad. And in the background were these explosions going off. The information minister apparently didn't flinch during his broadcast.
An indication right now really, the Baghdad ministers, defense minister, health minister, information minister and others have all been speaking out about what's been going on. And clearly the information minister here delivering his message to an Arab audience. At the same time, the areas around the information ministry being hit.
We heard about the television station being hit a couple nights ago. That and other communications facilities are just behind the information ministry. Perhaps, we don't know at this stage, maybe they were also on the target list this particular night -- Wolf.
BLITZER: They'll be assessing the damage done. As far as you know, though, Iraqi television is still on the air right now; is that right, Nic?
ROBERTSON: Wolf, from where I am, at the border between Jordan and Iraq, that's impossible for me to know exactly what's happening in the city of Baghdad. But we certainly haven't heard any reports at this time to the contrary. So as far as we know, yes, it is still on the air at this time.
BLITZER: Another target apparently, the Al Salaam presidential palace, which was hit a few days ago, as well. What do you know about that compound?
ROBERTSON: A very large compound on the banks of the Tigris River. Many, many different buildings in that site. When we were watching it being bombed about five or six days ago, many of the buildings were struck.
However, some of them are so large, it would take several missiles, perhaps, to destroy them fully. The missiles that we saw hit them made holes in the buildings, broke off concrete, cement, set fire to some of the buildings, but a lot of the buildings didn't appear to be targeted. So possibly some areas in those compounds being revisited again, Wolf.
BLITZER: Nic Robertson in Jordan, thanks very much, Nic, for that assessment.
Let's get a little bit more now on the possible targets and the weapons that were used as well as the damage that may have been done in the Iraqi capital. For that, we turn to our military analyst, retired U.S. Air Force Major General Don Shepperd. He's joining us from the CNN newsroom.
You've had a chance to sit back and absorb, over the past couple of hours, what precisely happened in Baghdad. What's your bottom line assessment, General?
MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, my bottom line assessment is that two targets were hit, Wolf, one on the west bank of the Tigris River that runs north-south through Baghdad, and one on the east bank.
The one on the east bank was what we were just looking at. It's the international communications center. And a couple of observations. A very tall building. The building itself was not hit. The lights did not even go out in that international communications center.
The other on was the Al Salaam palace over there that had been hit before and probably was struck again.
As we zoom in here, courtesy of the Earthviewer.com, you can see on the east bank of the river is this international communications center. It's right across a key bridge called the Sinok (ph) bridge. And again, the tall building that we saw there was right there where the red dot is.
Probably those weapons were either Tomahawk missiles or conventional air-launched cruise missiles off B-52s. And it appeared to me that they might have been going for something underground in that vicinity, as opposed to the building itself, because the building itself appeared not to be damaged at all and the lights stayed on.
BLITZER: General, what about the Al Salaam presidential compound, hit apparently now for the second time within a few days. Why would the U.S. have to go back and re-strike that target?
SHEPPERD: Wolf, these are huge complexes. They go for several blocks. You're looking at a building the size of a football field.
And so it could be that they missed the exact aim point they were trying to hit on the building. It could be that after looking at satellite pictures or intercepted communications, that people are still communicating from that facility. So they would go back again and re-strike some of these targets.
You may see others re-struck in the same complex, Wolf. And this complex we're talking about right now is over here on the west bank of the Tigris, on the west side of the complex. This is a major expressway that comes up here, the Halil (ph) Road. The expressway takes over into the compound. And there are living quarters over here on the west side of this road.
So that's what was hit right there, Wolf.
BLITZER; And finally, general, very briefly, you hear the words "presidential palace." It sounds almost innocuous like a museum or something. But U.S. intelligence believes it's a lot more than that.
SHEPPERD: Indeed. And there are many presidential palaces, reportedly 50 across the breadth of the country, Wolf, many built in the last few years. They are leadership and communications targets.
BLITZER: General Shepperd, thanks very much for that assessment.
From the air war, let's move to the ground war. A new front is opening. And as allied forces advance, the fighting spreads.
Here's a look at the battle lines.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over_ The northern front. Beefed up by the allies as the war enters its second week. The crucial Hareer (ph) airfield, near Bashur (ph) in the Kurdish controlled north, secured by 1,000 paratroopers from the U.S. Army 173rd Airborne Brigade. They drop in under the cover of darkness, move on to the airfield without a shot being fired, and have an unofficial greeter.
BREND SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Brent Sadler from CNN. Welcome to Iraq.
BLITZER: In central Iraq, CNN's Ryan Chilcote with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne reports that unit captures six Iraqis believed to be paramilitaries loyal to Saddam Hussein.
From Bob Franken, a forward U.S. base in central Iraq now being set up as a POW camp. But south of Baghdad, near Najaf, the U.S. Army's 3rd Squadron 7th Cavalry still in harm's way.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good-bye. We've got to dive for vehicles we think. See you, bye.
BLITZER: Allied missiles seen high. Before and after that scare, Army Sergeant Paul Wheatley, manning a 3-7th Cavalry tank, tells our Walter Rodgers how his squadron crossed the Euphrates River, took almost continuous fire and inflicted heavy Iraqi casualties.
FRANKEN: What did you think when you saw those dead Iraqis lying there?
SGT. PAUL WHEATLEY, U.S. ARMY: It's pretty sad that they were forced to fight against odds that they would never had a chance to overcome.
BLITZER: But the cavalry, the lead unit moving on Baghdad, needed help from B-52 bombers to pound what was believed to be an advancing Iraqi column.
In the south, Nasiriyah still not fully in allied control. Iraqi forces there engaged in firefights with U.S. Marine units.
Outside Basra, British tanks destroy several Iraqi tanks. British commanders vow to wipe out Iraqi resistance there. But the British still aren't sweeping into the city for fear of heavy casualties.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
U.S. military officials confirm losing an unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, but it's not clear if it's the same one seen in this picture by Al Jazeera television. The same footage also shows what Iraqi officials say are allied vehicles destroyed in fighting near An Najaf.
Also in the An Najaf fighting, these pictures show an Army Paladin artillery vehicle which was destroyed when it misfired. Two soldiers were injured, but a spokesman says their wounds were not life threatening.
Britain has followed the U.S. in saying that Iraq has executed prisoners of war. The British military says it was, quote, "shocked and appalled" at Iraq's release of pictures showing dead -- two dead soldiers, calling it a flagrant breach of the Geneva Conventions.
And during his visit with President Bush at Camp David, Prime Minister Tony Blair echoed the charge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Day by day we have seen the reality of Saddam's regime. His thugs prepare to kill their own people. The parading of prisoners of war and now the release of those pictures of executed British soldiers.
If anyone needed any further evidence of the depravity of Saddam's regime, this atrocity provides it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Iraqi officials are flatly denying the accusation.
British forces in southern Iraq have had their hands full dealing with armed Ba'ath Party militants around the city of Basra. We get more from CNN's Diana Muriel, embedded with British forces.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A taste of things to come.
In the half-light of the early morning through an enveloping mist, we followed British soldiers threading their way through an Iraqi village. They're clearing a route for the tanks to come in behind.
The target: a compound near the village of Az Zubayr, south of Basra. Holed up here, Ba'ath Party militants loyal to Saddam Hussein, whom the British Army believes have been coercing local civilians to fight against the coalition forces. With access to rocket propelled grenades, mortars and AK-47s, they've been tying up British Army resources for days.
American bombers dropped a series of 1,000-pound bombs on the compound but missed the main target. Then the big guns rolled in: seven Challenger 2 tanks and two Warriors to finish it off.
MAJ. JOHNNY BOWRON, BRITISH ARMY: We found the compound, the compound was entered by the tanks. And we were able to look around the compound, see what else was there. We draw successfully, actually picking up an enemy wounded casualty on the way out and treating him. And then withdrawing successfully.
MURIEL: No other enemy was sighted. But local villagers later said around 20 to 30 militiamen remained, this information coming from grateful villagers as they received their first coalition humanitarian aid.
Immediately after the battle for Al Zubayr, the battle for hearts and minds has begun. The nest of Iraqi fighters holed up near this village had proved a (on camera) thorn in the side of British forces for some time. It's hoped that this operation will now clear the way for the main concentrated attack on Basra itself.
Diana Muriel, CNN, Az Zubayr, southern Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Troops falling from the sky to open a new front. They jump out of the plane with the 173rd Airborne into northern Iraq.
Also, wounded on the front lines, hear firsthand what it was like to be injured in the midst of battle.
And New Yorkers host a die-in protest the war. But are all these demonstrations having any impact at all?
We'll have that and much more when we return.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Some scenes from the battle for control of Iraq.
In the southern part of the country, British forces have not been able to entirely eliminate resistance, but one tank did manage to eliminate a reminder of Saddam Hussein, whose picture seems to be everywhere in Iraq.
Nearby, fresh ammunition delicately delivered to coalition forces, who were able to quickly put it to use in their Howitzers, in this case firing at suspected Iraqi military targets about four miles away.
In northern Iraq, Kurdish officials say their forces are on the move, taking a position on a ridge line near Chamchamal that Iraqi forces apparently abandoned.
More now on the story CNN broke last night. The airdrop of U.S. Army paratroopers into northern Iraq, the first step in opening a northern front in the war. Here are some sights and sounds of that dramatic operation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's pretty much, you know, you've got to get going. There's a certain amount of time that you get from one end of the drop zone to the other. So you've got to exit real quick.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was definitely different than our training jumps in some of our other places we have. It is a country that we're at war with. But since we jumped in Kurdish controlled air, we felt a little better that we wouldn't be shot at as we wouldn't be shot as we were descending from the sky.
SADLER: Hi. Good morning. Brent Sadler from CNN.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just a second, please.
SADLER: Welcome to Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much.
SADLER: How does it feel to get down here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is nice. Nice. A little different temperature, but it's nice.
SADLER: Now, what's the routine now? You're on the ground. How are the men feeling? What are they likely to see happening here as the hours develop this day?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, the men are feeling fine. We landed with all our equipment. We're digging into positions right now to just set up a perimeter at first. And then we just take everything day by day as the situation develops.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We really don't know what to expect. You don't train to expect things. You just train for everything. So you can react to anything that the command may throw at you. It's really strange that we're actually here. It doesn't seem like we're in Iraq. But hopefully, I really look forward to seeing how the land develops and what our part is going to be in the whole play.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: We have some more now on what's happening in the air over Iraq. CNN's Gary Tuchman was on board a U.S. Air Force plane on a mission over Iraq. And he filed this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): I come to you from the cockpit of an HC-130 combat support plane. We are now flying over Iraq. I can't tell you exactly where we are for security reasons.
But the fact is that probably for the first time since the Vietnam War, journalists are able to report from combat support aircraft.
This aircraft (UNINTELLIGIBLE) this HC-130 has 10 men aboard right now. We're in the midst of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) mission. We are refueling Yowie (ph) helicopters. They are helicopters that do search and rescue missions. We're refueling them on the air so they can continue flying search and rescue as necessary.
We also go on alert status, patrolling parts of the area, make sure that there are no problems whatsoever. Aboard with us, parachute jumpers known as TJs. They're on board in case a rescue of a soldier or a Marine is necessary. They parachute out of the plane, and then find the coalition soldier or Marine who may be down.
We are all equipped with parachutes in case there's any problem whatsoever. And we are being told as much information about the flight we're on right now, we can't reveal. But what we told you so far has been allowed for us to reveal.
So we're over the nation of Iraq on a combat support flight right now with the United States Air Force.
This is Gary Tuchman, CNN, with the Air Force aboard an HC-130 over Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Wounded in action.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STAFF SGT. JAMIE VILLAFANE, U.S. ARMY: I guess we might have taken it for granted that we had no problems with any civilians up to that time, given they were -- the other guys were civilians. These were -- These were Iraqi soldiers...
(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: As only they can describe it, soldiers give firsthand accounts of the fierce fighting in Iraq.
And Iraq's defense minister gives an ominous warning about street fighting in Baghdad. We'll discuss the tactics of urban combat.
U.S. officials demand humane treatment for American POWs. But how are allied forces treating captured Iraqis? Our Ryan Chilcote is with one unit holding prisoners.
All that, much more, just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: At least 24 Americans wounded in Iraq are being treated at a U.S. military hospital in Germany. Some of them talked to reporters today about their experiences.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LANCE CPL. JOSHUA MENARD, U.S. MARINES: I was up on the bridge with six other Marines, pulling security, letting our troops over, when someone appeared to be civilians came out with RPGs -- or AK-47s from the city side and started shooting at us up on the bridge. We returned fire for about a minute before I took a bullet in the hand.
VILLAFANE: ... that we had no problems with any civilians up to that time, given they were -- the other guys were civilians. These were -- These were Iraqi soldiers wearing civilian clothes, dressed up as civilians. Because like I said, when I captured the four guys, they took off their civilian clothes, they had uniforms on underneath. So I mean, that was -- it was shocking that they would actually do that.
SGT. CHARLES MORGAN, U.S. ARMY: When it comes to going back out there, no -- like he said, nobody wants to go back out in that sort of thing, really. I mean, nobody can -- nobody can be shot and say, wow, I really want to go back in there, that was really great.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Civilians caught in the middle. That's another very real aspect of this war. One Iraqi doctor was very skeptical that American Marines would come through on a life-saving promise.
CNN's Jason Bellini, who's with the Marines in Iraq, tells us what changed the doctor's mind.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Injured Iraqis hit by coalition shrapnel lay gravely wounded in inside the U.N. compound in Umm Qasr, now under the control of U.S. Marines.
DR. WAHEL JASIM, UMM QASR HOSPITAL: He's passing about three pints of blood within two days. Within two days. Within two days inside our hospital and we have not the facilities to save him.
BELLINI: Dr. Wahel Jasim brought his patients by ambulance to the Marines at the U.N. because he didn't know what else to do, could offer them no further help from his hospital.
JASIM: They promised me, they promised me, and for -- this is the fifth hour I'm waiting for their promise.
BELLINI: The promise of help is not one he's confident the forces invading his country will keep.
JASIM: And the Americans say that they will bring food, medicines and supply and freedom, but we find missiles, we find people who are wounded.
BELLINI: Innocent Iraqis wounded, he says, in crossfire between coalition forces and the Iraqis attacking them within civilian populated areas.
The Marines we're with say theirs is a humanitarian mission. But they're forced to fight to make the area secure for relief to arrive.
Do you believe them? In your heart, do you think that they're here to help you?
JASIM: In my heart, I don't believe anything now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So they're going to come in...
BELLINI: Just moments after our conversation, a Marine medic arrived.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're going to grab the wounded and take them to a hospital.
JASIM: Now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Kuwait.
JASIM: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
BELLINI: What do you think?
JASIM: Thank you.
BELLINI: Do you feel better?
JASIM: What?
BELLINI: Do you feel better?
JASIM: I feel better because they will seek medication (ph). Everyone give me any help, I'm so gratefully thankful from him.
BELLINI: Not 30 minutes later another casualty arrived, this one brought by the British royal Marines. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need to stay back. You know what? We don't want this to be seen, all right.
BELLINI: You don't have a choice.
After explaining I had permission from the commander to be here, I was allowed to resume taking pictures.
This man, I'm told, will likely die, his intestines ripped from his abdomen by shrapnel. American and British medics will try to save him, they say, as if he were one of their own.
I asked Dr. Jasim's patient if there's anything he'd want to say to people watching this.
JASIM: He said that I can't say to American people only something, one word that we are people seeking for peace, seeking for life, justice.
BELLINI: The coalition says that is what they're seeking, life, peace for the Iraqi people but first, they need the Iraqis' trust.
Jason Bellini, CNN, embedded with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Help is on the way for U.S. troops battling in Iraq. The Army's high tech and highly lethal 4th Infantry Division is being deployed and other units are supposedly on the way, as well.
The 4th, known as the Ironhorse Division, was originally supposed to open a northern front, entering Iraq through Turkey. Its tanks and artillery were shipped out long ago. Now the soldiers are moving out, bound for here, the Persian Gulf.
CNN's Jamie Colby is joining us now live from their base, their headquarters, Ft. Hood, Texas -- Jamie.
JAMIE COLBY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. After a two-month delay, these soldiers are packed, they're ready to go. And they are now on their way.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over) The posting of colors as the 4th Infantry Division cases their flags, sounds their drum, and prepares for their deployment to the front lines.
Soldiers and their families are sure of the mission.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A great sense of pride that we can be a part of this. I just -- I'm really proud of my husband's unit.
COLBY: The strain of delay hard on those who go and those who stay. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been pretty tough, actually, waiting. There's been a lot going on, a lot of down time. Just continue to wait to build on that day. It has been pretty tough.
COLBY: And now, as 250 heavily armed soldiers board the first plane to leave Ft. Hood, it is sinking in, these families are facing what looks like a long separation ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just something I've had to deal with, because I know he loves his country and he's ready to go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think it's hit me yet. I think I'm in denial still. When he doesn't come home that day, then I think I'll realize that he's actually gone.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLBY: And Wolf, I asked military officials here how they spent the extra time, the two months that they were waiting for this new deployment. He told me they did their additional training. They also had contests like disassembling and reassembling their M-16s. He said that not only boosted morale but provided further training -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jamie Colby at Ft. Hood, Texas. Thanks, Jamie, very much.
Two allies meeting face-to-face. President Bush and Prime Minister Blair talk war and politics at Camp David.
Plus U.S. military strategy. The Pentagon prepares to go the long haul.
An eye on Baghdad. Troops wait for the order to move on Iraq's capital.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Looking at a live picture of Kuwait City. It is in the middle of the night right now. People can breathe a little bit easier here in Kuwait now as a result of a U.S. A-10 war plane that bombed a missile launcher near Basra today. It was from that launcher that ground-to-ground missiles were being targeted right here towards Kuwait. That missile launcher now destroyed, thanks to the U.S. Air Force. We're checking a lot of developments right now. We have much more coming up. First, let's check in with Heidi Collins in the CNN newsroom for all the latest developments.
(NEWS BREAK)
BLITZER: With the latest developments on the war, here's CNN's Miles O'Brien.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: 11:45 A.M. Eastern time. CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr reports 20,00 troops from the 4th Infantry Division will leave Fort Hood, Texas for Iraq in the next few days. And 100,000 more troops will be deployed next month. The Pentagon says the new deployments were already in the works and were not a change in strategy.
12:12 P.M., CNN's Bob Franken embedded with the Air Force reports the U.S. is trying to establish a forward operating base and a captured Iraqi facility. The base is 150 miles closer to the action than the current base.
12:17 P.M. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld says the Republican Guard has created rings of security around Baghdad and Saddam's birthplace, the northern city of Tikrit.
1:41 P.M. In Baghdad, Iraq's defense minister says the Coalition lied about finding chemical protection equipment in an abandoned headquarters building, but he also says every Iraqi soldier carries chemical gear to protect himself.
3:15 P.M. Eastern, 11:15 PM in Baghdad, near the Information Ministry, a huge explosion and a plume of smoke. One of many in the Iraqi capital this day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: CNN's Miles O'Brien reporting with all of today's late breaking developments. President Bush and his main ally Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, have held a war summit in Camp David in Maryland discussing both the fighting in Iraq and the humanitarian crisis that's already under way.
Let's go live to our senior White House correspondent John King -- John.
JOHN KING, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, that one-day summit came eight days into the fighting. I think it is fair to say the president and the prime minister agree most on this, putting first things first and winning the war, then worrying about any differences over post war Iraq and those still festering wounds over the bitter prewar diplomacy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING (voice-over): The president and prime minister were determined to talk about the goal of the war, not its timetable.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Saddam Hussein will be removed, no matter how long it takes.
KING: Skirmishing in southern Iraq continues. Troops are being rushed into the north. And the army's march on Baghdad has paused but the men leading the Coalition say they see more progress than problems.
BUSH: Slowly but surely the grip of terror around the throats of the Iraqi people is being loosened. KING: The Camp David summit included talk of what post war role the United Nations should play. And both British and U.S. officials tell CNN talk of a major rift on this point is exaggerated.
TONY BLAIR, PRIME MINISTER OF BRITAIN: Our primary focus now is and must be the military victory, which we will prosecute with the utmost vigor.
KING: Yet a day after Secretary of State Powell told Congress the United States, not the U.N., would take the dominant post war role, Blair suggested more consultations were needed.
BLAIR: Without trying to do it by discussion through the press conference or through megaphone diplomacy.
KING: Both leaders want quick U.N. action on another front, providing humanitarian aid. Some U.N. Security Council members are resisting. They say resuming aid now might be seen as endorsing the war.
BUSH: Iraqi people depend on this program for its sole source of food. This urgent humanitarian issue must not be politicized.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Prime Minister Blair, is at the United Nations this evening trying to break that impasse over the Oil for Food program. Now, one senior Bush administration officials note that France and Russia, two nations that sparred with the United States in the prewar diplomacy, are among those holding up a compromise on the Oil for Food program now. One official just a short time ago saying, quote, "this is not the time to fight old battles. Time to get food and medicine to the Iraqi people." -- Wolf.
BLITZER: John King at the White House. Thanks very much. John King our senior White House correspondent.
We're standing by, awaiting the arrival of the British prime minister at the United Nations for that meeting with the U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. High on the agenda, of course, the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. What the international community, specificly, the U.N. can do to help. We'll have live coverage if the prime minister stops by the microphones to speak, we'll tell you what he says. We'll bring it to you live.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration is ruling out a halt to the fighting. The Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was asked by the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier today about a possible cease- fire proposal by various Arab nations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I have no idea what some country might propose, but there isn't going to be a cease-fire.
(END VIDEO CLIP) Iraq's defense minister predicted Coalition forces would surround Baghdad within five to ten days, but he warned they'll face bloody street fighting, vowing, and I'm quoting now "we'll inflict losses they shall never forget."
Let's go live to Miles O'Brien the CNN newsroom -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Wolf, thank you very much.
I'm joined by General Don Shepperd, retired U.S. Air Force. We're going to talk about a prospect that the U.S. has contemplated, but the war planners in the Pentagon would prefer to avoid. And that is, two words which really do bring terror into military planners' mind, that is urban warfare. What you're talking about is putting the U.S. Forces in a situation, looking here at a basic map of the 5 million or 6 million population city of Baghdad, into a situation where their big advantage, the technology, is undermined by the terrain. Correct?
GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: That's our worst nightmare. The military has a word for, they calls it MOPP, military operations in urban terrain. Call it house-to-house fighting. It's the thing that the United States and Coalition forces would most like to avoid. It is what's going on in Basra now. This is an animation, of course, that shows some of the aspects.
O'BRIEN: We show you a mosque that is set aside. Some snipers up here on the building, fortifying the target. You've got anti- aircraft positions on the roof. In come the special forces, probably, right?
SHEPPERD: Indeed. Special forces and helicopters supporting ground elements. We are not showing tactics and techniques. We're showing a concept of how you might operate in an urban environment with support from helicopters. Here the helicopters are firing at things on the ground that support the soldiers and the tanks as they move in.
O'BRIEN: And the key here is that the U.S. advantage in many cases is night vision technology, superior air power, precision bombs. When you get into a place where the person you are opposing, the opposing force is home, you lose a lot of that advantage.
SHEPPERD: Indeed. We've seen the "Blackhawk Down" scenario, that's the thing that the U.S. forces -- coalition forces would like to avoid. You lose much of your advance of high technology when you go house-to-house fighting.
O'BRIEN: All right. I want to show you something -- it's just breaking -- just breaking news here.
If you take a look at this shot, this satellite imagery, we just got a brand new piece of satellite imagery which was taken at 2:30 this morning a.m. Eastern time, 10:30 in the morning Baghdad time. And as I bring it in slowly, you will see, slowly but surely, these oil fires coming through her and other indications of damage. And unfortunately, my computer is not cooperating for me -- there it goes as it comes in a little more.
As you can see -- look at -- look at the tremendous difference as those oil fires come in, Don Shepperd. Now, the first thing I want to ask as I zoom in on one of those oil fires and bring it down to you is -- what -- what -- how significant are those? Is that just an annoyance to people that live in Baghdad, or is it something more sinister for U.S. forces as they try to engage in air campaign there?
SHEPPERD: Well, the biggest thing this will cause is people coughing in downtown Baghdad. It is very bad for -- for the health of people in downtown Baghdad.
But we have division -- vision devices that see through smoke. You can see through smoke with radar, you can see through it if you're looking with the right type of equipment. So although it hampers certain things that you might be looking for visually, it does not keep you from looking through the smoke.
O'BRIEN: Very thick black smoke. We didn't see any obvious signs of damage.
For example, we went over to the Al Salaam Palace, which we know now has been struck two because we saw an additional strike just this afternoon as we were watching.
Take a look at this image here, and I can show you the before and after as I go between the current image which was, as I say, taken early this morning and the previous image which is the one we had from at least a year ago. I don't see any obvious signs of damage, Don Shepperd. What should we infer by that?
SHEPPERD: That's why bomb damage assessment takes such time. You have to get a real technical look, a really close up look. You can't see any obvious damage here to this facilities.
But also let me point out another thing. This is a huge facility. It operates -- it covers acres and acres, and imagine how many bombs with a 300 foot shrapnel, it would take to take up -- to destroy that whole palace.
O'BRIEN: All right. Precision bombing, not as obvious perhaps as other methods are. That's the first time that has been broadcast. We thank our friends at Digital Globe and earthviewer.com for making that possible, to give us our own armchair ability to do bomb damage assessment.
Don Shepperd, thank you very much -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Thanks very much to you, Miles, and to General Shepperd. Appreciate it very much.
We're still awaiting the arrival of the British prime minister, Tony Blair, at the United Nations. He has a meeting scheduled coming up in a few minutes with the U.N. secretary-general, Kofi Annan. We're going to make sure that we catch him, see if he speaks to reporters as he's walking in. If he does, we'll have live coverage. That meeting an important meeting designed to deal with the humanitarian crisis already unfolding in southern Iraq, expected to unfold elsewhere as well, as this war in Iraq continues.
And when we come back, voices of dissent against the war. They continue to ring from coast to coast.
Actually, here's Tony Blair, the British prime minister walking into the United Nations right now. He's in the motorcade. He'll be pulling in, he'll be walking in, and then once he does we'll monitor him as he goes into the meeting with the U.N. secretary-general, see if he stops and takes questions from reporters.
We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(AUDIO/VIDEO GAP)
BLITZER: ..coast to coast today.
CNN's Jason Carroll is live in New York and he has details -- Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf out of all the protests that we saw today all over -- all over the country, by far the most vocal right here in New York City.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): It happened in New York, in Oakland, California and Indianapolis. It was a day where the debate over the war took to the streets.
In Indiana, one group could barely keep up with the demand for signs of support for the troops and the war.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We knew people would be supportive, but boy, this is really an incredible outpouring.
CARROLL: While here in New York -- there were signs and sounds of discontent. Anti-war protesters disrupted business as usual for about two hours. Dozens staged a die-in, lying down in the center of Fifth Avenue, taking to civil disobedience, in hopes more people will hear their message, one they say the media ignores.
LESLIE CAGAN, PROTEST ORGANIZER: I think that in the last two or three months or so, a great deal of the media hasn't been paying attention to the antiwar movement. And I think that they are to be applauded for that.
CARROLL: Almost 200 were cuffed and carried away.
A small number of those who were not arrested moved uptown to Tiffany's, to stage a die-in there, meeting some resistance along the way. Less vocal in Oakland where a group of seventh graders carried pictures of pen pals from Baghdad as they walked out of class to support peace.
JEFF GRUBLER, ANTIWAR ACTIVIST: These are their pen pals, these are their friends -- watch your back. They're very afraid for them.
CARROLL: A battle of words.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seventy-five percent of this nation believes in what the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) doing.
CARROLL: One that is not likely to be resolved in the streets.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: And a recent poll, Wolf, suggests that where you live in the country may indicate where you stand when it comes to the war.
Of those polled of likely voters on the East Coast, 41 percent say they support the -- support the war, versus 72 percent of those polled who live in the Midwest -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jason Carroll, thank you very much for that update on the protests in New York and elsewhere.
And here is your chance to weigh in on the war in Iraq. Our "Web Question of the Day" is this: "Do antiwar protesters have an impact on U.S. government policy?" We'll have the results later in this broadcast. Vote at cnn.com/wolf.
While there, I'd like to hear from you. Send me your comments. I'll try to read some at the end of this program. That's also where you can read my daily online column. I'm writing one every day from here in Kuwait City. Just go to cnn.com /wolf.
Much more news coming up, including an update on Iraqi POWs. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: There are now more than 4,000 Iraqi prisoners of war. According to U.S. military officials, the Iraqi prisoners are being treated humanely.
Ryan Chilcote is there. They're all inside Iraq. He joins us with a look at what happened when these soldiers captured a group of Iraqis.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ryan Chilcote with the 101st Airborne in central Iraq and a forward operating base. Yesterday soldiers outside the base spotted a vehicle moving towards it, a white SUV with six Iraqis inside moving towards the base they said erratically and very slowly. Inside six Iraqi according to the U.S. military had lost their way in the sandstorm. The troops approached the vehicle, surrounded it.
The Iraqis, realizing the situation they were in, immediately surrendered. They were then taken into custody. Military commanders here say they believe those men may have been couriers for paramilitary group loyal to President Saddam Hussein. They say they found a large amount of money, in particular, U.S. dollars inside the vehicle. They also found some instructions that they believe that those six Iraqi soldiers were passing on to Ba'ath party leaders in the nearby area.
I had an opportunity to speak with one of the U.S. soldiers. I asked him how he would compare how the Iraqi soldiers in his custody are being treated with the U.S. POWs right now inside Iraq?
I think that regardless of what they do, we're not them. And just because, you know, somebody else does that, that you know, golden rule, do unto others as you would have done unto them. It makes our resolve and fight stronger because we don't want to get captured. It make theirs resolve to fight less, because they know if they get captured they're going to get fed, blankets, shelter, medical treatment.
CHILCOTE: A little bit about their conditions. One of the six of the Iraqis got a medical attention. He was complaining of some asthma. The doctor gave him some medicine. While I there, all got blankets. The soldier you just heard from promised to build some kind of shelter to get them out of the wind. This is all part of the U.S. strategy to improve, to make those conditions as good as possible for these Iraqis who were either surrendering or being captured to try to encourage other Iraqis to surrender.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Ryan Chilcote with the 101st. He's in Iraq, deep in Iraq right now, one of our embedded correspondents. We have much more news coming up including the war as seen by political cartoonist. Our Jeanne Moos has a look when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: About 7,000 people marched against the war in Bahrain's capital chanting, "death to America, death to Israel." In Cairo, a crowd said to number 100,000 filled the stadium in support of Iraq. Both Muslim and Christian leaders took part. Police and protesters clashed in Ecuador as a crowd of about 400 tried to move on the U.S. Embassy. Demonstrators also broke windows at American fast food restaurants.
Loud protest also in Caracas. Iraq's ambassador to Venezuela is calling on that country to stop exporting oil to the United States. Buenos Aires, Agrentine protesters staged a "die-in", blocking an entrance to a McDonald's. The crowd cheered as an effigy of President Bush was burned. In Mexico City, 3,000 protested outside the U.S. Embassy. At one point tearing down the fence protecting the building. Now the humor and outright cynicism on the war from political cartoonists. It is all part of drawing fire from CNN's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If the military can show before and after photos, so can "Usa Today's" cartoonist. Public expectations before reality hit and after. The "New York Post" showed Saddam Hussein orders his men to dig in, as they dug their own graves. The media were embedded in many a cartoon. As one briefer noted, some of our weapons are more likely to backfire. British cartoonists tend to be harsh. "The Guardian" had Prime Minister Tony Blair telling the Iraqi people, "We will not let you down, but we might blow you up." Iraq's treatment of civilians drew fire in a South Carolina newspaper "The State, " "In defense of the motherland, we will also put the Iraqi people first. You go first."
President Bush was shown reading a fairy tale in the "Austin American Statesman" "As the first big sparkly bomb burst, the Iraqis all dropped their guns and came dancing into the streets." A German newspaper called this one "Presidential Adviser" a delighted devil awaiting the phones of Saddam and Bush. The Australians showed its Prime Minister a staunch discreetly concealed as he kisses the president's turn. The caption reads "I see they're notice protecting us from the more offensive images of the war." Since we're on the subject of derrieres American cartoonist Ken Catlleano (ph) shows Saddam Kissing his good-bye.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: If a moment, images of war from the still photographers in the Persian Gulf. That story and the results of our web question of the day next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: CNN is bringing you dramatic images of the war, often live. Now, CNN's Bruce Morton with images of the war captured by still photographers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: War is moments. An American artillery vehicle misfires and explodes. Guns firing during the attack by British commandos in the south.
War is waiting. This man has rigged an rain shelter and is actually reading a book. War is weather. Add up sand, sandstorms and rain and you've got mud -- big time.
War is civilian, Kurdish women in northern Iraq make bread. Their men expect to fight soon.
War is kids. Looking through a soldier's binoculars is fun. Soldiers offer food and candy. But what is his future? Alone as the warriors rumble all around him. Or this baby, younger than the war, found sleeping in a cardboard fruit box 500 yards from a British encampment. Or these children sweeping a street in the Baghdad suburb whose troubles may just have begun?
War is casualties. Sometimes make believe, as with this wounded poster of Saddam Hussein. Sometimes real. The U.S. Marine carrying a wounded Iraqi. A U.S. Marine carrying injured Corporal Barry Lang from Oregon. An Iraqi prisoner getting help from Navy Corpsman, a wounded marine getting help. War is worry, 4-year-old Elizabeth Heasdman's (ph) father is with the 3rd Division outside Baghdad.
And sometimes war is just amazing luck. Royal Marine Commander Eric Walterman Kevlar helmets, Kevlar replaced the old steel pot in the 1970's took four rounds in a fire fight and he wasn't hurt. Lets hope they let him keep his dented hat. He'll be telling that story for the next 50 years.
Bruce Morton, CNN, reporting.
Here is the results of our "Web Question of the Day," Do anti-war protesters have an impact on U.S. government policy. Nineteen percent says, yes, 81 percent say, no.
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Gaining Ground in Southern Iraq>
