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American Morning
Pentagon Says Coalition Forces Launched Cruise Missiles into Areas in Northeastern Iraq
Aired March 28, 2003 - 08:00 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Leon Harris at the CNN Center in Atlanta. And our coverage of the war in Iraq continues in just a moment.
But first, here is a look at what is happening at this hour.
British military officials say thousands of civilians fleeing Basra were fired upon by the Iraqi military, forcing them to go back into the wartorn city.
British forces are trying to get some desperately needed food and medical supplies into Basra to those people as soon as possible.
Baghdad, meantime, came under intense bombardment overnight. Coalition forces unleashed one of the heaviest bombings on the Iraqi capital city to date. Pentagon sources say two bunker-buster bombs were dropped on the communications center which operates Iraq's phone system.
In the next few days, the Pentagon plans to step up attacks on Iraq's Republican Guard. Pentagon officials say that they plan to unleash intense attacks on its positions near Baghdad before the coalition forces move into the area.
U.S. officials are unsure of what to make of a meeting aired on Iraqi TV. Yesterday, here's what Iraqis saw. The station showed a tape of Saddam Hussein meeting with several officials, including a woman in this videotape, who happens to be a germ warfare expert. You see her there.
The U.S. says it's unclear exactly when the meeting took place or if this was meant to send out a message that Saddam plans to use weapons of mass destruction.
American soldiers from the Army's 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, are now on their way to the Gulf. The first wave of what's expected to be a force of some 30,000 from Fort Hood is moving out. The Pentagon says 100,000 more troops will be deployed to the region coming in the next month.
And coming up here on the network, coalition forces shoring up an Iraqi air base in northern Iraq. We'll talk to a military analyst about its strategic significance.
And military officials are calling it the calm before the storm. We'll take a closer look at the war plan for Baghdad. Plus, the latest on humanitarian efforts for the Iraqi people.
All that and much more ahead as our coverage of the war in Iraq continues with Paula Zahn in New York and Bill Hemmer in Kuwait City.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. Welcome. Glad to have you with us as we close out the week here. I am Paula Zahn in New York. Really appreciate your dropping by.
Within the last hour, we've heard owner daily briefing from Central Command in Qatar. To pull one quote out as an overview, Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said, "The closer you get to the front lines, the more precise the realities are." He acknowledged that you're getting a different view from some of the forces on the ground than we heard from the briefing. He called it "a different view from Planet Earth."
He said that some adjustments have had to be made in the war plan because of the weather, but major steps continue -- major steps forward continue to be made.
U.S. forces have been having a difficult time with Iraqi troops taking advantage of the U.S. desire to hold down civilian casualties by posing as civilians to engage U.S. forces. That could affect the planning for urban warfare. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld suggested yesterday that a siege of Baghdad may be a better option right now than an all-out assault.
And as Leon told you just about a minute ago, two bunker-buster bombs dropped on the city last night. Central command says the strike was aimed at Iraq's command and control abilities, including Iraq's information center.
Right now, we're going to bring back in my colleague Bill Hemmer, who is standing by in Kuwait on a day where we can actually see the water towers behind you.
Is all of the sand gone, or are you getting a brief respite here?
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Pretty much gone, Paula. The haze is out of here too. Last night a cold front rolled in here. It's a beautiful day. But the military tells us with those clearing skies, they may be able to get a better idea on the battlefield right now as to where these Republican Guard troop movements have come now in the past three or four days.
So we will stand by for more on that.
Paula, I want to make mention of one thing that's of very concern to the U.S. Marines right now in and around Nasiriyah. They have 12 Marines missing. They've been missing now for about 24 hours.
Art Harris is embedded there, and he reports that there was a fierce firefight about 24 hours ago. They have yet to turn up. And if they don't turn up over the next 48 hours, they will be considered as MIAs, missing in action, something we will track from here. Becky Diamond, meanwhile, of CNN says that British ship "Sir Galahad" joined by coalition ships on its way to Umm Qasr, where it has now docked. The "Sir Galahad" carrying 200 tons of aid. Its arrival was delayed several days, you might remember, while the mines were cleared out of that waterway.
The Pentagon says coalition forces launched cruise missiles into areas in northeastern Iraq. These areas said to believe -- said to be, rather, home to terrorist groups, including one suspected of making chemical weapons.
Also, Bob Franken, embedded with a forward unit to the Air Force now in Iraq, Bob is, he says the U.S. is taking control of an airfield in central Iraq where that field will now be used as a base for the A- 10 Warthog, used primarily to kill tanks on the ground. So the A-10s will continue their operation in and around the battlefield in Iraq, Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks so much, Bill. We'll get back to you in a couple minutes.
Just in this hour, we'll also hear from our reporters from their locations with their troops all over Iraq. Christiane Amanpour is at the port of Umm Qasr, Bob Franken is reporting from southern Iraq, and Martin Savidge is with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, in central Iraq.
Let's go straight to the Pentagon right now, where Barbara Starr is standing by with reaction to that briefing that, if you were with us a half hour ago, you probably heard.
Good morning, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Well, Lieutenant General William Wallace, the head of 5th Corps, the Army's senior ground commander, had told "The New York Times" and "The Washington Post," both of them quoting, "The enemy we're fighting is different than the one we war-gamed against."
And at today's CentCom briefing, Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, the briefer, was forced to directly respond to this view from the ground.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIG. GEN. VINCENT BROOKS, U.S. ARMY: A subordinate commander's assessment is always taken into account at the next higher headquarters and the headquarters above that. We believe that we're still consistent with our plan and how we designed it. There will always be things that occur on the battlefield that not -- that are not precisely as you calculated them in your design.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: So Paula, a bit of an acknowledgment, as U.S. forces continue to get harassed and encounter fighting by these Fedayeen, these irregulars, these paramilitaries, whatever they are called, a bit of acknowledgment from Central Command today they are causing some changes in the plan on the ground down at what General Brooks called Planet Earth.
Privately, officials here, of course, saying for some days now that the U.S. military may have underestimated how well dispersed these fighters were across Iraq. Publicly, though, from the very top levels of the administration, still complete, complete view that everything is on plan, everything is on track.
As the weather does clear, we are told to expect to see more air strikes against those Republican Guard units on the outskirts of Baghdad. That is the next key set of targets, Paula.
ZAHN: Barbara, Lieutenant Wallace went on to say some other things, talking about the fighting that's been incurred is absolutely bizarre, with these Iraqi soldiers sometimes only being armed lightly, driving around in pickup trucks, taking on tanks and Bradley vehicles.
I'm just curious. He clearly doesn't seem to be on the same public page as what we've heard at these other briefings. Is there a consequence for that?
STARR: It does appear that way. There appears to be an awful lot of open air between Central Command commanders and these commanders down on the field on the main lines of the battlefield. What experts will tell you is, that often happens in war. At Central Command, they are looking at the big picture.
But the ground commanders, the people out on the field on the front lines, are seeing a very specific picture. They are seeing themselves approached with all of these types of tactics that have been described, paramilitaries dressed as civilians, faked surrenders, ambushes, sniper attacks, all the things that the paramilitaries are quite clearly using to -- attempting to use to their advantage against coalition forces.
And when you're down on the front line, that's pretty significant. So General Wallace clearly now expressing a view of the forces down on the front line. Central Command saying the big picture is going according to plan.
But the beginnings of some acknowledgments very privately, as we said, here at the Pentagon and in some places at Central Command, that they have got to address this problem.
ZAHN: Barbara Starr, thanks so much. Next time we check in with you, we'd love to talk to you about his defense for waiting for seven days to strike that communications center. We've got a lot of questions about that today, and we'll do that in our next go-around.
In the meantime, let's go back to Bill in Kuwait City.
HEMMER: Paula, thank you. Here in Kuwait, it's been quiet for almost 30 hours right now. No missiles entering Kuwaiti air space, no air raid sirens going off either. We are told that one of these key launchers around Basra has been taken out, targeted on the ground and destroyed. That may account for the level of quiet we've seen going back to yesterday morning. Whether it stays that way, though, remains to be seen, certainly.
Meanwhile, in central Iraq, CNN's Martin Savidge is embedded with the U.S. Marines, and Marty joins us for a first check this afternoon. He's by way of videophone now. Marty, what do you have?
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Bill.
We are with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines. We were on the move for the morning hours, and then suddenly pulled to the side to the road here, the highway, the main highway that is also the main supply route.
And usually when you stop like this and you sit here for a while, it means there is a change in the plans going on. So something is being rejiggered as far as how this unit is going to be used in the conflict that is already underway.
Say hello to Canteen Red. Canteen Red is right at the front of the spear, at least when it comes to 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, and the convoy on the move.
The idea of having these Humvees -- and they're heavily armed and very mobile -- is that what they can do is, they are sort of the trip wire. They run ahead of the main convoy, and they are actually looking for trouble, hoping they'll find it, and that if they do, they can quickly return a heavy amount of fire.
And if necessary, if they need support, then they call up other members, such as the APCs, the armored personnel carriers and the other heavy firepower that can be called upon, as well as infantry Marines, to quickly suppress it.
The duty of this unit for the past couple of days has been securing the supply line. That's the supply line, if you'd take a look right out there. It doesn't look like a lot. It's a straight strip of asphalt. But it is on that asphalt that everything the war is -- needs comes traveling up from southern Kuwait.
And it's been the harassment by these, well, sort of military units, quasi-military units, however you want to refer to them, that has been the aggravation. And that's how the military describes it, an aggravation.
So they have beefed up security. So these Marines are now patrolling up and down on particular stretches of this highway. There are other Marines farther down the line, they pick up after them, and after that, and after that, all the way to northern Kuwait.
And they have supplemented that with helicopters. You have the Cobra helicopters that the Marines use, much like the Apaches, and the CH-46, which are the twin-rotor helicopters as well.
So a lot of focus now is on securing the pipeline of supplies that is still continuing to head north. And we're part of that security force, as we monitor what the Marines are doing, Bill.
HEMMER: All right, Marty, thanks. Be safe. Marty Savidge embedded with the U.S. Marines.
Paula, we also know these airstrips that are starting to develop in the central part of Iraq, at some time very soon, they will continue, more support, close air support, for that supply line to keep things safe on the ground, Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks, Bill.
We're going to take a short break here. When we come back, we're going to check in with Christiane Amanpour. This is what it looks like in Umm Qasr this morning where humanitarian aid is rolling in. She'll bring us up to date on that.
We'll take a short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Welcome back. Thirteen minutes past the hour here on a Friday morning.
Let's go straight to Christiane Amanpour. She is in the port of Umm Qasr, where a ship carrying nearly 200 tons of humanitarian supplies has finally arrived. She joins us now with the very latest.
Christiane, good morning.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, good morning.
It's blazing hot here in the early afternoon or midafternoon in Umm Qasr. And this port has been the focus of a lot of attention, as you all know. And today, this first big ship has come in, the British ship "Sir Galahad" is bringing more than 200 tons of food aid, water, medical supplies, and all sorts of blankets and other humanitarian relief that's needed.
It's not just about humanitarian aid for the needy, but it's also a very powerful political and psychological that's being used as well, because for the British, certainly, this war is as much about heavy metal fighting as it is about winning hearts and minds. We keep getting this message every day about how they want to get the civilian population on side, and that is what this is, part of that battle.
What they want to do is get this aid out as quickly as possible to people in the town of Umm Qasr, to the villages along the Iraqi border, and then up to the other towns, up to Basra.
Basra is a very delicate and difficult situation right now. We've heard reports from the British military up there that there have been fights on the outskirts between the British military and these militias, who, we've been told, are inside, and preventing the people from coming out.
And today, we're told, about 2,000 Basra civilians tried to come out of the town towards the British positions, were fired upon by these militias, and then the British started to fire on these militias.
The people apparently fled back into the town. There are also some casualties, but we simply do not have a grip on just how many there are.
But it points to the strategic aim of what is happening here. This aid is meant to go up there and help win the civilian population over, instill trust, instill a level of comfort and confidence, try to get them to separate from the political leadership of the Iraqi regime, and try to give them space to rise up, for want of a better word.
So far, people are saying that they have not the confidence, they don't know who is going to win this fight. And right now, they're not quite ready to show their cards. That's why we haven't been seeing the mass signs of welcome and liberation that perhaps people in higher positions prepared us for.
Back to you, Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks so much. Christiane Amanpour reporting from Umm Qasr this morning.
Back to Bill now in Kuwait City -- Bill.
HEMMER: Yes, Paula, one note on there. The humanitarian aides working her in Kuwait City say there is plenty of water and plenty of food in Umm Qasr, but Christiane's exactly right, how do you get it to the people in Basra? That's the chief concern right now as that ship comes into port and docks now at Umm Qasr.
Meanwhile, back on the battlefield, Paula, you talked at great length last hour about these comments from Lieutenant General William Wallace. They're making headlines back in the U.S., both in "The Washington Post," also in "The New York Times."
For more on this and a battlefield update, here is Renay San Miguel standing by with our general in Atlanta.
Renay, good morning.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. Thank you very much, Bill. Good morning to you.
And we're going to get what a retired general thinks about what an active general, the man in charge of 5th Corps, is saying about how the plan may be different from what was war-gamed against.
Joining us is our military analyst, retired Army General David Grange. William Wallace saying that the battle that's going -- battles that are going right now are different from what was war-gamed against, it -- because of the paramilitary aspect of the Iraqi forces. The Army, or the coalition, did not war-game against the Fedayeen Saddam?
GEN. DAVID GRANGE (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: That's a good question. It's -- I don't know if it was taken out of context, or whatever. War games are classified.
But doctrinally, when you prepare for an operation like this, there is always conventional and unconventional forces, unconventional like the Fedayeen or other type of Iraqi special forces. You war-game what's known as the current operational environment, COO, C-O-O. And in a current operational environment, you always war-game conventional and unconventional, to include enemy forces violating the rule of land warfare.
SAN MIGUEL: So you have to take all activities, possible activities, into account, including things that don't follow the current rules of current engagement. What...
GRANGE: Right. You just may not know the speed of that engagement, you know, how long that will delay or speed up or whatever. But you know you'll encounter that.
SAN MIGUEL: One other thing that we've been hearing is, despite all of the criticism that's been coming from certain quarters, we're "still on plan," quote-unquote, from Brigadier General Vince Brooks, from President Bush yesterday. What does that mean, "We are still on plan"?
GRANGE: When you see a unit stop, like 3-7 Cav as an example, it's not their -- the -- these -- the soldiers and Marines are tired, and at times, you have to stop to refit, rearm, refuel. It's called battle stance. And when you stop temporarily, you're in a battle stance getting ready for the next phase, offensive, defensive, whatever it may be. It's this battle stance, and it's constantly changing.
And what they mean is, at the strategic level, on plan is that you are going to remove the Saddam's regime somewhere down the road. We're not privy to a time. But it's always going to be estimated anyway.
General Franks, operationally, is how that affects the entire area, all the units involved. General Wallace is concerned with Navy destroying the Medina Division.
SAN MIGUEL: OK.
GRANGE: Maybe he is on plan to destroy the Medina Division. And always in consideration with the pre -- the requirements that must be met before he does that.
SAN MIGUEL: Let's -- show us where the Medina Division is right now, right before we have to leave here.
GRANGE: Basically, south, southeast, south, and southwest of the city of Baghdad. Three basic fighting brigades, probably attritted to maybe 50 percent or something like that right now, defending the approaches to Baghdad.
SAN MIGUEL: All right. General Grange, we'll have to leave it there. We do appreciate your insight, as always.
GRANGE: Good.
SAN MIGUEL: Thank you.
Paula, back on over to you.
ZAHN: Thanks, Renay. Thank you, General Grange.
Coming up, another live report from inside Iraq, seeing the war through the eyes of the Arab world. Can the U.S. change the perception that Islam is under attack? Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Now, one of the main concerns throughout this war so far has been how to protect the rear, how do you protect your supply lines?
Now we know, with a new airstrip open in -- somewhere in south central Iraq, that close air support may be covering those on the ground, and also is going to make a far less distance for many of those aircraft to fly.
Bob Franken knows that firsthand. He is now at that air base inside Iraq and joins us by way of videophone.
Bob, hello and good afternoon. What do you have?
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're about 150 miles from where you are. And by the way, Bill, if you hear an explosion, it will not be anything to be alarmed about. Some of the demolition teams are out at the edge of this strip blowing up some munitions that were left by the Iraqis.
Although this has not been an active airport for some time, it is about to be. It took us about 50 hours on the ground all told before we were able to get here with jet fuel and other necessary supplies, but this base is going to start humming very quickly.
When you enter the base, the very first thing you see is a picture of Saddam Hussein. But instead of Iraqis in back of the gate that you enter, now you're seeing a growing number of people from the United States military and some British military. They're getting ready for the A-10 flights, the antitank plane flights, that could be starting in the next day or two.
We expect that there's going to be quite an operation from here. The A-10s, of course, very, very important to those who are on the ground. They're very much an important part of the air support that is provided. They've now brought in the jet fuel, and it's just a very quick matter of time before the A-10s start operating.
We can tell you that we've seen some of the A-10 crews, advance people, arrive, so it should be something that happens quite quickly.
When we arrived, we saw another site that was quite fascinating, and that was a group of prisoners of war sitting on the tarmac. When they -- when we came, at exactly the time we came, the U.S. guards started loading them in trucks and driving them somewhere else.
But, of course, as I said, we were able to see them, and we found that there were about 100 of them.
Now, one other thing that we saw as we came in here, and we were guided by some of the people who had gotten here much earlier, they took us to some of the bunkers and some of the buildings, because they had been on what they call an e-Bay search. And here is the most fascinating thing they found. They found these.
These are the Iraqi gas masks. Absolutely no evidence, no evidence of any chemical weapons, but the same kind of equipment that the United States uses to protect against some sort of weapons of mass destruction attack.
This is the Iraqi version of the gas mask.
Also, in back of me, you probably are seeing helicopters. The helicopters are what they call Jollies (ph). They are the revised versions of the Black Hawks. They're going to be used by the search and rescue people. We're told that they've already had one mission from here, a successful one, where they were able to pick up some U.S. personnel. Not many more details than that.
But this is going to be a base that puts them about 150 miles closer to just about everything than they were, to the combat, to the rescue, to every facet of the war. It is something that the people in this region with the Air Force consider vital, vital enough to spend a huge amount of effort to get it going up, Bill.
HEMMER: Much better in terms of air. Bob, thanks. But on the ground, 50 hours to get there. Must have been a mission and a half for better than two days. Bob, thanks.
Paula, now, again in New York.
ZAHN: Thanks, Bill.
Many in the Arab world believe the war in Iraq is a war on Islam, and that's prompted massive antiwar protests in Arab cities and expressions of support for Saddam Hussein, even from reformers and respected Muslim institutions.
What can the U.S. do about these views? Fawaz Gerges of Sarah Lawrence College is an expert on the Middle East and is the author of "The Islamists and the West." He joins us live this morning.
Always good to see you. Thanks so much for dropping by.
FAWAZ GERGES, AUTHOR, "THE ISLAMISTS AND THE WEST": Pleasure, Paula.
ZAHN: I wanted to ask you a little bit about what was talked about quite extensively in this morning briefing out of Qatar this morning. Lots of questions being asked of Brigadier General Brooks about whether the government had underestimated the strength of these paramilitary forces.
OK. In the front page of "The Washington Post" today, "New York Times," a widely quoted general basically saying, We didn't war-game against this. He described as bizarre what they're being confronted with, lightly armed Iraqis driving around in pickup trucks taking on tanks and armored vehicles.
GERGES: What does this tell you? It tells you that, I think, the United States not only underestimated the strength and staying power of Iraqi resistance, but also underestimated the entire political landscape in Iraq itself. This is not just a matter of Fedayeen. The Iraqi regime itself has create a limited social base, an important social base, and this social base is willing to stand up and defend the regime itself.
And this tells me that there are short-term risks and long-term risks. And the...
ZAHN: Talk about the short-term risks first.
GERGES: ... short-term risk is that this is going to be a very bloody and prolonged and costly battle. From the Iraqi perspective, the next face of the war is the most decisive one. After all, they have, as we know, positioned their forces in central Iraq and Baghdad itself. And this tells me that the war for Baghdad is going to be costly, bloody, and hellish (UNINTELLIGIBLE) fight.
This is the short term. And...
ZAHN: Long term?
GERGES: ... long term, I'm more concerned about the long term, because this is -- now, obviously, it's playing like it will be an occupation rather than liberation. And I'm afraid that Iraq will become to the United States what Afghanistan became to the Soviets in the 1980s, that you're going to have resistance, guerrilla warfare, you're going to have resentment, deepening suspicions.
And the big questions are the following. How will this anger and rage, not only in Iraq, but throughout the Arab and Muslim world, be translated in operational term? Will the battlefield, Paula, be limited to Iraq? How will fringe groups like al Qaeda exploit the new rage in order to recruit more alienated young Arab and Muslim men to their suicide squads?
And how will resistance in Iraq itself, after the United States win this battle militarily, I mean, prolonged against American forces?
ZAHN: Let's come back to some of your short-term concerns. The strength of these irregular forces, now being called paramilitary death squads, are you surprised by what you're seeing?
GERGES: No, I'm not surprised at all, no, no.
ZAHN: Did you actually expect the Iraqis to walk around lightly armed in pickup trucks and take on 1,000-ton...
GERGES: The truth...
ZAHN: ... you know...
GERGES: ... the truth is...
ZAHN: ... ton vehicles?
GERGES: ... the truth is, many Iraqis appear to be as suspicious of the American invasion as they are suspicious of the Iraqi regime. This is -- to them, it's the fight for their homeland, for their country, for their communities. And it's not, as it's been portrayed by certain circles, as a war of liberation, because they do not buy the argument that this is a war to liberate. Why destroy the country in order to liberate?
ZAHN: Finally, what do you make of these reports from Christiane Amanpour this morning, south of Basra, where you see Iraqi, these ragtag bands of death squads, whatever you want to call them, shooting at civilians trying to flee the fighting?
GERGES: Well, this is a total fight. I mean, obviously, the Iraqi regime is determined to put a stiff fight, and they are unwilling to accept or tolerate any kind of, you know, I mean, attrition on their side. And I have no doubts in my mind that the Iraqi forces, the bulk of the Iraqi forces, are putting a stuff fight, will put a stiff fight, and the battle is yet to come, that is the battle for Baghdad and central Iraq.
ZAHN: Once again, militarily, though, you have no doubts that the allied forces will be...
GERGES: That's not...
ZAHN: ... victorious?
GERGES: That's not the question. I mean...
ZAHN: That's my question.
GERGES: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- That's really -- there's little doubt that the United States will prevail militarily. The United States is the greatest military power in the world. Iraq is a poor third-world besieged and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) country.
But the question, is how will the ripples and reverberations, I mean, affect not just the unity and viability of Iraq, but Arab and Muslim and regional stability in America's relations with the Arab and Muslim world?
ZAHN: Well, you've raised some questions we will be talking about a lot in the days to come.
Fawaz Gerges, thank you for taking the time...
GERGES: Thanks, Paula.
ZAHN: ... to drop by here this morning.
Coming up, President Bush expressing some frustration over questions about war. We're going to go live to the White House in just a moment and hear from our senior correspondent, John King. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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into Areas in Northeastern Iraq>
Aired March 28, 2003 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Leon Harris at the CNN Center in Atlanta. And our coverage of the war in Iraq continues in just a moment.
But first, here is a look at what is happening at this hour.
British military officials say thousands of civilians fleeing Basra were fired upon by the Iraqi military, forcing them to go back into the wartorn city.
British forces are trying to get some desperately needed food and medical supplies into Basra to those people as soon as possible.
Baghdad, meantime, came under intense bombardment overnight. Coalition forces unleashed one of the heaviest bombings on the Iraqi capital city to date. Pentagon sources say two bunker-buster bombs were dropped on the communications center which operates Iraq's phone system.
In the next few days, the Pentagon plans to step up attacks on Iraq's Republican Guard. Pentagon officials say that they plan to unleash intense attacks on its positions near Baghdad before the coalition forces move into the area.
U.S. officials are unsure of what to make of a meeting aired on Iraqi TV. Yesterday, here's what Iraqis saw. The station showed a tape of Saddam Hussein meeting with several officials, including a woman in this videotape, who happens to be a germ warfare expert. You see her there.
The U.S. says it's unclear exactly when the meeting took place or if this was meant to send out a message that Saddam plans to use weapons of mass destruction.
American soldiers from the Army's 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, are now on their way to the Gulf. The first wave of what's expected to be a force of some 30,000 from Fort Hood is moving out. The Pentagon says 100,000 more troops will be deployed to the region coming in the next month.
And coming up here on the network, coalition forces shoring up an Iraqi air base in northern Iraq. We'll talk to a military analyst about its strategic significance.
And military officials are calling it the calm before the storm. We'll take a closer look at the war plan for Baghdad. Plus, the latest on humanitarian efforts for the Iraqi people.
All that and much more ahead as our coverage of the war in Iraq continues with Paula Zahn in New York and Bill Hemmer in Kuwait City.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. Welcome. Glad to have you with us as we close out the week here. I am Paula Zahn in New York. Really appreciate your dropping by.
Within the last hour, we've heard owner daily briefing from Central Command in Qatar. To pull one quote out as an overview, Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said, "The closer you get to the front lines, the more precise the realities are." He acknowledged that you're getting a different view from some of the forces on the ground than we heard from the briefing. He called it "a different view from Planet Earth."
He said that some adjustments have had to be made in the war plan because of the weather, but major steps continue -- major steps forward continue to be made.
U.S. forces have been having a difficult time with Iraqi troops taking advantage of the U.S. desire to hold down civilian casualties by posing as civilians to engage U.S. forces. That could affect the planning for urban warfare. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld suggested yesterday that a siege of Baghdad may be a better option right now than an all-out assault.
And as Leon told you just about a minute ago, two bunker-buster bombs dropped on the city last night. Central command says the strike was aimed at Iraq's command and control abilities, including Iraq's information center.
Right now, we're going to bring back in my colleague Bill Hemmer, who is standing by in Kuwait on a day where we can actually see the water towers behind you.
Is all of the sand gone, or are you getting a brief respite here?
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Pretty much gone, Paula. The haze is out of here too. Last night a cold front rolled in here. It's a beautiful day. But the military tells us with those clearing skies, they may be able to get a better idea on the battlefield right now as to where these Republican Guard troop movements have come now in the past three or four days.
So we will stand by for more on that.
Paula, I want to make mention of one thing that's of very concern to the U.S. Marines right now in and around Nasiriyah. They have 12 Marines missing. They've been missing now for about 24 hours.
Art Harris is embedded there, and he reports that there was a fierce firefight about 24 hours ago. They have yet to turn up. And if they don't turn up over the next 48 hours, they will be considered as MIAs, missing in action, something we will track from here. Becky Diamond, meanwhile, of CNN says that British ship "Sir Galahad" joined by coalition ships on its way to Umm Qasr, where it has now docked. The "Sir Galahad" carrying 200 tons of aid. Its arrival was delayed several days, you might remember, while the mines were cleared out of that waterway.
The Pentagon says coalition forces launched cruise missiles into areas in northeastern Iraq. These areas said to believe -- said to be, rather, home to terrorist groups, including one suspected of making chemical weapons.
Also, Bob Franken, embedded with a forward unit to the Air Force now in Iraq, Bob is, he says the U.S. is taking control of an airfield in central Iraq where that field will now be used as a base for the A- 10 Warthog, used primarily to kill tanks on the ground. So the A-10s will continue their operation in and around the battlefield in Iraq, Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks so much, Bill. We'll get back to you in a couple minutes.
Just in this hour, we'll also hear from our reporters from their locations with their troops all over Iraq. Christiane Amanpour is at the port of Umm Qasr, Bob Franken is reporting from southern Iraq, and Martin Savidge is with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, in central Iraq.
Let's go straight to the Pentagon right now, where Barbara Starr is standing by with reaction to that briefing that, if you were with us a half hour ago, you probably heard.
Good morning, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Well, Lieutenant General William Wallace, the head of 5th Corps, the Army's senior ground commander, had told "The New York Times" and "The Washington Post," both of them quoting, "The enemy we're fighting is different than the one we war-gamed against."
And at today's CentCom briefing, Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, the briefer, was forced to directly respond to this view from the ground.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIG. GEN. VINCENT BROOKS, U.S. ARMY: A subordinate commander's assessment is always taken into account at the next higher headquarters and the headquarters above that. We believe that we're still consistent with our plan and how we designed it. There will always be things that occur on the battlefield that not -- that are not precisely as you calculated them in your design.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: So Paula, a bit of an acknowledgment, as U.S. forces continue to get harassed and encounter fighting by these Fedayeen, these irregulars, these paramilitaries, whatever they are called, a bit of acknowledgment from Central Command today they are causing some changes in the plan on the ground down at what General Brooks called Planet Earth.
Privately, officials here, of course, saying for some days now that the U.S. military may have underestimated how well dispersed these fighters were across Iraq. Publicly, though, from the very top levels of the administration, still complete, complete view that everything is on plan, everything is on track.
As the weather does clear, we are told to expect to see more air strikes against those Republican Guard units on the outskirts of Baghdad. That is the next key set of targets, Paula.
ZAHN: Barbara, Lieutenant Wallace went on to say some other things, talking about the fighting that's been incurred is absolutely bizarre, with these Iraqi soldiers sometimes only being armed lightly, driving around in pickup trucks, taking on tanks and Bradley vehicles.
I'm just curious. He clearly doesn't seem to be on the same public page as what we've heard at these other briefings. Is there a consequence for that?
STARR: It does appear that way. There appears to be an awful lot of open air between Central Command commanders and these commanders down on the field on the main lines of the battlefield. What experts will tell you is, that often happens in war. At Central Command, they are looking at the big picture.
But the ground commanders, the people out on the field on the front lines, are seeing a very specific picture. They are seeing themselves approached with all of these types of tactics that have been described, paramilitaries dressed as civilians, faked surrenders, ambushes, sniper attacks, all the things that the paramilitaries are quite clearly using to -- attempting to use to their advantage against coalition forces.
And when you're down on the front line, that's pretty significant. So General Wallace clearly now expressing a view of the forces down on the front line. Central Command saying the big picture is going according to plan.
But the beginnings of some acknowledgments very privately, as we said, here at the Pentagon and in some places at Central Command, that they have got to address this problem.
ZAHN: Barbara Starr, thanks so much. Next time we check in with you, we'd love to talk to you about his defense for waiting for seven days to strike that communications center. We've got a lot of questions about that today, and we'll do that in our next go-around.
In the meantime, let's go back to Bill in Kuwait City.
HEMMER: Paula, thank you. Here in Kuwait, it's been quiet for almost 30 hours right now. No missiles entering Kuwaiti air space, no air raid sirens going off either. We are told that one of these key launchers around Basra has been taken out, targeted on the ground and destroyed. That may account for the level of quiet we've seen going back to yesterday morning. Whether it stays that way, though, remains to be seen, certainly.
Meanwhile, in central Iraq, CNN's Martin Savidge is embedded with the U.S. Marines, and Marty joins us for a first check this afternoon. He's by way of videophone now. Marty, what do you have?
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Bill.
We are with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines. We were on the move for the morning hours, and then suddenly pulled to the side to the road here, the highway, the main highway that is also the main supply route.
And usually when you stop like this and you sit here for a while, it means there is a change in the plans going on. So something is being rejiggered as far as how this unit is going to be used in the conflict that is already underway.
Say hello to Canteen Red. Canteen Red is right at the front of the spear, at least when it comes to 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, and the convoy on the move.
The idea of having these Humvees -- and they're heavily armed and very mobile -- is that what they can do is, they are sort of the trip wire. They run ahead of the main convoy, and they are actually looking for trouble, hoping they'll find it, and that if they do, they can quickly return a heavy amount of fire.
And if necessary, if they need support, then they call up other members, such as the APCs, the armored personnel carriers and the other heavy firepower that can be called upon, as well as infantry Marines, to quickly suppress it.
The duty of this unit for the past couple of days has been securing the supply line. That's the supply line, if you'd take a look right out there. It doesn't look like a lot. It's a straight strip of asphalt. But it is on that asphalt that everything the war is -- needs comes traveling up from southern Kuwait.
And it's been the harassment by these, well, sort of military units, quasi-military units, however you want to refer to them, that has been the aggravation. And that's how the military describes it, an aggravation.
So they have beefed up security. So these Marines are now patrolling up and down on particular stretches of this highway. There are other Marines farther down the line, they pick up after them, and after that, and after that, all the way to northern Kuwait.
And they have supplemented that with helicopters. You have the Cobra helicopters that the Marines use, much like the Apaches, and the CH-46, which are the twin-rotor helicopters as well.
So a lot of focus now is on securing the pipeline of supplies that is still continuing to head north. And we're part of that security force, as we monitor what the Marines are doing, Bill.
HEMMER: All right, Marty, thanks. Be safe. Marty Savidge embedded with the U.S. Marines.
Paula, we also know these airstrips that are starting to develop in the central part of Iraq, at some time very soon, they will continue, more support, close air support, for that supply line to keep things safe on the ground, Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks, Bill.
We're going to take a short break here. When we come back, we're going to check in with Christiane Amanpour. This is what it looks like in Umm Qasr this morning where humanitarian aid is rolling in. She'll bring us up to date on that.
We'll take a short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Welcome back. Thirteen minutes past the hour here on a Friday morning.
Let's go straight to Christiane Amanpour. She is in the port of Umm Qasr, where a ship carrying nearly 200 tons of humanitarian supplies has finally arrived. She joins us now with the very latest.
Christiane, good morning.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, good morning.
It's blazing hot here in the early afternoon or midafternoon in Umm Qasr. And this port has been the focus of a lot of attention, as you all know. And today, this first big ship has come in, the British ship "Sir Galahad" is bringing more than 200 tons of food aid, water, medical supplies, and all sorts of blankets and other humanitarian relief that's needed.
It's not just about humanitarian aid for the needy, but it's also a very powerful political and psychological that's being used as well, because for the British, certainly, this war is as much about heavy metal fighting as it is about winning hearts and minds. We keep getting this message every day about how they want to get the civilian population on side, and that is what this is, part of that battle.
What they want to do is get this aid out as quickly as possible to people in the town of Umm Qasr, to the villages along the Iraqi border, and then up to the other towns, up to Basra.
Basra is a very delicate and difficult situation right now. We've heard reports from the British military up there that there have been fights on the outskirts between the British military and these militias, who, we've been told, are inside, and preventing the people from coming out.
And today, we're told, about 2,000 Basra civilians tried to come out of the town towards the British positions, were fired upon by these militias, and then the British started to fire on these militias.
The people apparently fled back into the town. There are also some casualties, but we simply do not have a grip on just how many there are.
But it points to the strategic aim of what is happening here. This aid is meant to go up there and help win the civilian population over, instill trust, instill a level of comfort and confidence, try to get them to separate from the political leadership of the Iraqi regime, and try to give them space to rise up, for want of a better word.
So far, people are saying that they have not the confidence, they don't know who is going to win this fight. And right now, they're not quite ready to show their cards. That's why we haven't been seeing the mass signs of welcome and liberation that perhaps people in higher positions prepared us for.
Back to you, Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks so much. Christiane Amanpour reporting from Umm Qasr this morning.
Back to Bill now in Kuwait City -- Bill.
HEMMER: Yes, Paula, one note on there. The humanitarian aides working her in Kuwait City say there is plenty of water and plenty of food in Umm Qasr, but Christiane's exactly right, how do you get it to the people in Basra? That's the chief concern right now as that ship comes into port and docks now at Umm Qasr.
Meanwhile, back on the battlefield, Paula, you talked at great length last hour about these comments from Lieutenant General William Wallace. They're making headlines back in the U.S., both in "The Washington Post," also in "The New York Times."
For more on this and a battlefield update, here is Renay San Miguel standing by with our general in Atlanta.
Renay, good morning.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. Thank you very much, Bill. Good morning to you.
And we're going to get what a retired general thinks about what an active general, the man in charge of 5th Corps, is saying about how the plan may be different from what was war-gamed against.
Joining us is our military analyst, retired Army General David Grange. William Wallace saying that the battle that's going -- battles that are going right now are different from what was war-gamed against, it -- because of the paramilitary aspect of the Iraqi forces. The Army, or the coalition, did not war-game against the Fedayeen Saddam?
GEN. DAVID GRANGE (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: That's a good question. It's -- I don't know if it was taken out of context, or whatever. War games are classified.
But doctrinally, when you prepare for an operation like this, there is always conventional and unconventional forces, unconventional like the Fedayeen or other type of Iraqi special forces. You war-game what's known as the current operational environment, COO, C-O-O. And in a current operational environment, you always war-game conventional and unconventional, to include enemy forces violating the rule of land warfare.
SAN MIGUEL: So you have to take all activities, possible activities, into account, including things that don't follow the current rules of current engagement. What...
GRANGE: Right. You just may not know the speed of that engagement, you know, how long that will delay or speed up or whatever. But you know you'll encounter that.
SAN MIGUEL: One other thing that we've been hearing is, despite all of the criticism that's been coming from certain quarters, we're "still on plan," quote-unquote, from Brigadier General Vince Brooks, from President Bush yesterday. What does that mean, "We are still on plan"?
GRANGE: When you see a unit stop, like 3-7 Cav as an example, it's not their -- the -- these -- the soldiers and Marines are tired, and at times, you have to stop to refit, rearm, refuel. It's called battle stance. And when you stop temporarily, you're in a battle stance getting ready for the next phase, offensive, defensive, whatever it may be. It's this battle stance, and it's constantly changing.
And what they mean is, at the strategic level, on plan is that you are going to remove the Saddam's regime somewhere down the road. We're not privy to a time. But it's always going to be estimated anyway.
General Franks, operationally, is how that affects the entire area, all the units involved. General Wallace is concerned with Navy destroying the Medina Division.
SAN MIGUEL: OK.
GRANGE: Maybe he is on plan to destroy the Medina Division. And always in consideration with the pre -- the requirements that must be met before he does that.
SAN MIGUEL: Let's -- show us where the Medina Division is right now, right before we have to leave here.
GRANGE: Basically, south, southeast, south, and southwest of the city of Baghdad. Three basic fighting brigades, probably attritted to maybe 50 percent or something like that right now, defending the approaches to Baghdad.
SAN MIGUEL: All right. General Grange, we'll have to leave it there. We do appreciate your insight, as always.
GRANGE: Good.
SAN MIGUEL: Thank you.
Paula, back on over to you.
ZAHN: Thanks, Renay. Thank you, General Grange.
Coming up, another live report from inside Iraq, seeing the war through the eyes of the Arab world. Can the U.S. change the perception that Islam is under attack? Stay with us.
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HEMMER: Now, one of the main concerns throughout this war so far has been how to protect the rear, how do you protect your supply lines?
Now we know, with a new airstrip open in -- somewhere in south central Iraq, that close air support may be covering those on the ground, and also is going to make a far less distance for many of those aircraft to fly.
Bob Franken knows that firsthand. He is now at that air base inside Iraq and joins us by way of videophone.
Bob, hello and good afternoon. What do you have?
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're about 150 miles from where you are. And by the way, Bill, if you hear an explosion, it will not be anything to be alarmed about. Some of the demolition teams are out at the edge of this strip blowing up some munitions that were left by the Iraqis.
Although this has not been an active airport for some time, it is about to be. It took us about 50 hours on the ground all told before we were able to get here with jet fuel and other necessary supplies, but this base is going to start humming very quickly.
When you enter the base, the very first thing you see is a picture of Saddam Hussein. But instead of Iraqis in back of the gate that you enter, now you're seeing a growing number of people from the United States military and some British military. They're getting ready for the A-10 flights, the antitank plane flights, that could be starting in the next day or two.
We expect that there's going to be quite an operation from here. The A-10s, of course, very, very important to those who are on the ground. They're very much an important part of the air support that is provided. They've now brought in the jet fuel, and it's just a very quick matter of time before the A-10s start operating.
We can tell you that we've seen some of the A-10 crews, advance people, arrive, so it should be something that happens quite quickly.
When we arrived, we saw another site that was quite fascinating, and that was a group of prisoners of war sitting on the tarmac. When they -- when we came, at exactly the time we came, the U.S. guards started loading them in trucks and driving them somewhere else.
But, of course, as I said, we were able to see them, and we found that there were about 100 of them.
Now, one other thing that we saw as we came in here, and we were guided by some of the people who had gotten here much earlier, they took us to some of the bunkers and some of the buildings, because they had been on what they call an e-Bay search. And here is the most fascinating thing they found. They found these.
These are the Iraqi gas masks. Absolutely no evidence, no evidence of any chemical weapons, but the same kind of equipment that the United States uses to protect against some sort of weapons of mass destruction attack.
This is the Iraqi version of the gas mask.
Also, in back of me, you probably are seeing helicopters. The helicopters are what they call Jollies (ph). They are the revised versions of the Black Hawks. They're going to be used by the search and rescue people. We're told that they've already had one mission from here, a successful one, where they were able to pick up some U.S. personnel. Not many more details than that.
But this is going to be a base that puts them about 150 miles closer to just about everything than they were, to the combat, to the rescue, to every facet of the war. It is something that the people in this region with the Air Force consider vital, vital enough to spend a huge amount of effort to get it going up, Bill.
HEMMER: Much better in terms of air. Bob, thanks. But on the ground, 50 hours to get there. Must have been a mission and a half for better than two days. Bob, thanks.
Paula, now, again in New York.
ZAHN: Thanks, Bill.
Many in the Arab world believe the war in Iraq is a war on Islam, and that's prompted massive antiwar protests in Arab cities and expressions of support for Saddam Hussein, even from reformers and respected Muslim institutions.
What can the U.S. do about these views? Fawaz Gerges of Sarah Lawrence College is an expert on the Middle East and is the author of "The Islamists and the West." He joins us live this morning.
Always good to see you. Thanks so much for dropping by.
FAWAZ GERGES, AUTHOR, "THE ISLAMISTS AND THE WEST": Pleasure, Paula.
ZAHN: I wanted to ask you a little bit about what was talked about quite extensively in this morning briefing out of Qatar this morning. Lots of questions being asked of Brigadier General Brooks about whether the government had underestimated the strength of these paramilitary forces.
OK. In the front page of "The Washington Post" today, "New York Times," a widely quoted general basically saying, We didn't war-game against this. He described as bizarre what they're being confronted with, lightly armed Iraqis driving around in pickup trucks taking on tanks and armored vehicles.
GERGES: What does this tell you? It tells you that, I think, the United States not only underestimated the strength and staying power of Iraqi resistance, but also underestimated the entire political landscape in Iraq itself. This is not just a matter of Fedayeen. The Iraqi regime itself has create a limited social base, an important social base, and this social base is willing to stand up and defend the regime itself.
And this tells me that there are short-term risks and long-term risks. And the...
ZAHN: Talk about the short-term risks first.
GERGES: ... short-term risk is that this is going to be a very bloody and prolonged and costly battle. From the Iraqi perspective, the next face of the war is the most decisive one. After all, they have, as we know, positioned their forces in central Iraq and Baghdad itself. And this tells me that the war for Baghdad is going to be costly, bloody, and hellish (UNINTELLIGIBLE) fight.
This is the short term. And...
ZAHN: Long term?
GERGES: ... long term, I'm more concerned about the long term, because this is -- now, obviously, it's playing like it will be an occupation rather than liberation. And I'm afraid that Iraq will become to the United States what Afghanistan became to the Soviets in the 1980s, that you're going to have resistance, guerrilla warfare, you're going to have resentment, deepening suspicions.
And the big questions are the following. How will this anger and rage, not only in Iraq, but throughout the Arab and Muslim world, be translated in operational term? Will the battlefield, Paula, be limited to Iraq? How will fringe groups like al Qaeda exploit the new rage in order to recruit more alienated young Arab and Muslim men to their suicide squads?
And how will resistance in Iraq itself, after the United States win this battle militarily, I mean, prolonged against American forces?
ZAHN: Let's come back to some of your short-term concerns. The strength of these irregular forces, now being called paramilitary death squads, are you surprised by what you're seeing?
GERGES: No, I'm not surprised at all, no, no.
ZAHN: Did you actually expect the Iraqis to walk around lightly armed in pickup trucks and take on 1,000-ton...
GERGES: The truth...
ZAHN: ... you know...
GERGES: ... the truth is...
ZAHN: ... ton vehicles?
GERGES: ... the truth is, many Iraqis appear to be as suspicious of the American invasion as they are suspicious of the Iraqi regime. This is -- to them, it's the fight for their homeland, for their country, for their communities. And it's not, as it's been portrayed by certain circles, as a war of liberation, because they do not buy the argument that this is a war to liberate. Why destroy the country in order to liberate?
ZAHN: Finally, what do you make of these reports from Christiane Amanpour this morning, south of Basra, where you see Iraqi, these ragtag bands of death squads, whatever you want to call them, shooting at civilians trying to flee the fighting?
GERGES: Well, this is a total fight. I mean, obviously, the Iraqi regime is determined to put a stiff fight, and they are unwilling to accept or tolerate any kind of, you know, I mean, attrition on their side. And I have no doubts in my mind that the Iraqi forces, the bulk of the Iraqi forces, are putting a stuff fight, will put a stiff fight, and the battle is yet to come, that is the battle for Baghdad and central Iraq.
ZAHN: Once again, militarily, though, you have no doubts that the allied forces will be...
GERGES: That's not...
ZAHN: ... victorious?
GERGES: That's not the question. I mean...
ZAHN: That's my question.
GERGES: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- That's really -- there's little doubt that the United States will prevail militarily. The United States is the greatest military power in the world. Iraq is a poor third-world besieged and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) country.
But the question, is how will the ripples and reverberations, I mean, affect not just the unity and viability of Iraq, but Arab and Muslim and regional stability in America's relations with the Arab and Muslim world?
ZAHN: Well, you've raised some questions we will be talking about a lot in the days to come.
Fawaz Gerges, thank you for taking the time...
GERGES: Thanks, Paula.
ZAHN: ... to drop by here this morning.
Coming up, President Bush expressing some frustration over questions about war. We're going to go live to the White House in just a moment and hear from our senior correspondent, John King. We'll be right back.
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into Areas in Northeastern Iraq>
