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CNN Live At Daybreak
Interview With Sister of Missing Journalist
Aired March 31, 2003 - 05:00 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The UH-1 Huey went down in southern Iraq and Central Command confirms that three fatalities and one injury have occurred as a result.
A suspected terrorist facility, the remote mountains along Iraq's border with Iran targeted by air strikes this weekend. U.S. forces now on the ground there and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Richard Myers says the site was believed to be the source of toxic ricin intended for a terror attack in London that was foiled.
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, in other news today, an apartment building has been singled out for special attention in the SARS outbreak. A steep rise in cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome in that building has resulted in a 10 day quarantine. Residents will be provided three free meals per day and given instructions on how to disinfect their apartments.
You're up to date. 5:00 a.m. back on the East Coast. Bringing you various angles on the war in Iraq.
In the next hour, amid mounting casualties and the possibility of a drawn out war, we'll tell you about the public and how they feel right now about the ongoing conflict. Plus, we'll take you live to the front lines for the very latest on the push to Baghdad. Our reporters, again, embedded with the U.S. military and the British military, bringing us the very latest in real time again. And we'll take you to the front lines of dissent, as well. Anti-war protests growing louder and bigger around the world.
Hello again. It's one o'clock here in Kuwait, one o'clock in Baghdad, 5:00 a.m. on the East Coast of the U.S.
I'm back here yet again live in Kuwait City.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Carol Costello at CNN global headquarters in Atlanta.
Today is Monday, March 31, and you are looking right now at a live picture of downtown Baghdad as Operation Iraqi Freedom enters its twelfth day.
Coalition air strikes overnight targeting the Ministry of Information and Iraqi television. For a time, Iraqi dramatic television was knocked off the air. We understand it's back up and running right now.
Time now for an early briefing on stories that will be news later today. President Bush travels to Philadelphia to pay tribute to the Coast Guard, which is doing double duty, contributing to homeland security and playing and active role in the war on Iraq. On Capitol Hill, the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the Air Force's investigation into claims of sexual assault at the U.S. Air Force Academy. And American Airlines may be heading for bankruptcy court today if it does not reach a labor agreement with its major units.
First, we want to give you this, too. We want to give you a visual sense of where coalition forces are right now in the war zone. The 101st Airborne Division is near the town of Najaf. Twenty-seven Iraqis voluntarily surrendered to them. The 1st Marine Division is still trying to secure the city of Nasiriya, where sporadic fighting does continue this morning. There is also fighting in Basra, where the British are.
In the meantime, members of the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry are now about 50 miles south of Baghdad. They are in a stand-off with Republican Guard units that have taken up positions inside nearby towns -- Bill.
HEMMER: Day 12 of the war saw sporadic by intense coalition air strikes, Carol, in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, also to the south and the north, as well. Over the past 12 hours, some of the highlights now.
Anderson Cooper has the recap now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Whether it was continuing nighttime attacks on the Iraqi capital or daytime helicopter assaults on Iraqi positions in the central part of the country, coalition air power was dominant again on day 12 of the war. Even though American commanders deny there was a pause in the ground action, for many, rest and resupply seemed the order of the day. CNN's Art Harris is with the Marines in Nasiriya, scene of some of the heaviest fighting of the war.
ART HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Marines tell me they have accomplished their objective in Nasiriya, which is to keep the bridges and roads open so the supply train can roll north, resupplying troops all the way to Baghdad.
COOPER: Three major American ground units are in position to the south and west of Baghdad, but there has been no significant movement by any of them for the past few days. To the north, American and Kurdish fighters are holding their ground. But as of yet, there aren't enough troops for a major advance on the oil city of Kirkuk.
The first pictures arrived of the aftermath of that deadly suicide car bombing in the city of Najaf. Suicide attacks have been discussed by Central Command, but General Tommy Franks said this attack was, in one sense, remarkable.
GEN. TOMMY FRANKS, COMMANDER, CENTRAL COMMAND: Remarkable, though, is the connection all the way to the top of the Iraqi regime, where if my Arabic serves me well, that attack was just endorsed by those in power.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Iraqis have got their hands raised.
COOPER: In the wake of the suicide attacks, it seems tactics may have changed. These aerial pictures show what is now standard operating procedure -- unknown vehicles are quickly surrounded, maximum force is applied. Military spokesmen say drivers of two other vehicles were shot when they refused to stop as ordered.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These men walked up to a long range artillery position and asked to surrender.
COOPER: Not far from Najaf, these prisoners were identified as members of the Fedayeen, the militia group which has caused so much trouble for American troops in several Iraqi cities. In the far south around Basra, a pipe carrying precious water into the city was also completed. Not all was well, however. Al-Jazeera Television ran these pictures of a coalition tank badly disabled outside Basra. And a Marine helicopter crashed in southern Iraq, an accident, it seemed. Three on board perished.
In the north, near the city of Mosul, American B-52s dropped their bombs along a ridge line occupied by Iraqi soldiers. In Kuwait, one American soldier was hurt and a dozen or so others injured slightly when a truck driven by an Egyptian man drove into a crowded post exchange store.
The military battle continues. So, too, the battle for Iraqi hearts and minds. Murals of Saddam Hussein are being destroyed, but until the man and his regime are eliminated, hearts and minds might be a difficult battle to win.
Anderson Cooper, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: All right, let's talk about casualties right now. We have the number of casualties, the latest figures for you. According to these figures, which were provided by U.S. and British authorities, there have been 66 coalition deaths. Forty-two of them are U.S. service members, 34 killed in hostile fire and eight in non-hostile accidents. There have been 24 British deaths, five killed in hostile fire, 18 non-hostile and one is yet undetermined.
Now, the Iraqi government has not released information on military losses, but it does say 420 civilians have been killed. That's according to Iraqi authorities.
More on American casualties. Ten Americans wounded in the war in Iraq are now at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. Hospital spokesman Dr. David Ferguson says they suffered a variety of injuries, but had received good medical care both in the field and before that in Germany before they came home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. DAVID FERGUSON, NATIONAL NAVAL MEDICAL CENTER: Most of them seemed to be very revealed, although several actually expressed sadness that they weren't still with their Marine comrades back in the theater.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And Dr. Ferguson tells us they'll probably be at Bethesda about two weeks before being transferred to their home towns or to home base hospitals.
HEMMER: Carol, on Sunday General Richard Myers one of the many to make the rounds on the talk shows. He says the only thing the U.S. can count on right now, and the world, for that matter, is that the U.S. and British militaries will exercise patience as they go through the battlefield in Iraq.
Let's find out what CENTCOM is sending out today down in Qatar.
Tom Mintier joins us now for an update as we await the briefing that's a little bit more than, well, about two hours away from now -- Tom, hello and good afternoon.
TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Bill.
About two hours from now Brigadier General Vincent Brooks will brief reporters here. About four or five minutes ago, there was a test of the emergency preparedness system here. You can hear the sirens echoing through this building as they're being tested here at Central Command. That happening just a few moments ago. It was an announced test that was known about before it occurred.
Also, in Baghdad overnight, coalition officials admit that they have taken out Iraqi TV for a second time, confirming a couple of hours ago that they hit Iraq TV for the second time, knocking them off the air. There are conflicting reports. Some say that Iraq TV has returned to air. This is a dramatic channel that the coalition says is, indeed, a military target because Saddam Hussein uses it to make announcements on. So, again, Baghdad and Iraq TV struck again by coalition aircraft. They say that they did hit it for a second time, knocking it off the air. But apparently the dramatic service is once again back on.
Also, the telephone exchanges in and around Baghdad have been frequent targets. We're also hearing about Operation James, which is going on in the Basra area. We saw some nighttime video of British Royal Marines advancing along a road, rather dramatic pictures, as they were engaged by paramilitary forces and fired back. You could see the bright lights flashing back and forth as the heavy weaponry aboard these craft were used in areas of Basra.
But according to British military officials, some areas are extremely quiet today. This Operation James launched over the weekend. They say that many areas in and around Basra are under coalition control, but they are still rooting out elements of the paramilitary forces.
Once again, the briefing in less than two hours here in Doha. We're expecting to hear and see what the coalition has been up to in the last 24 hours -- Bill, back to you.
HEMMER: All right, Tom, thank you.
Again, 7:00 a.m. Eastern time for the folks back in the U.S. Certainly live coverage when that comes down. As Tom mentioned, fewer than two hours from now.
Carol now at the CNN Center.
COSTELLO: And, Bill, it is early afternoon in Baghdad and that comes after one very restless night. Bombs and missiles rained down and fires burned in the heart of the city.
We want to go live to Amman, Jordan and Rym Brahimi -- and, Rym, there is a fire burning now near a shopping center named after Saddam Hussein's birthday. It's called, what, the 28 April shopping center? But near the shopping center is an apartment complex. And tell us again who lives in that apartment complex.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, that apartment complex is located right across the road from the Ministry of Information and it's quite a big apartment complex, a lot of tall buildings there. A lot of people who live there, actually, the only people who are allowed to live there are government employees of one sort or another, some of them retired, some of them still working there. Buildup it is quite a restricted area and until recently I think many foreigners would not have been allowed to either own or rent apartments in that apartment complex. So it is reserved for people who work with government.
And that's right across from the Ministry of Information, that was also hit. You hear Tom mention the list of targets. A telephone exchange was hit, as well, and one of President Saddam Hussein's palaces that lies along the Tigris River. It's a palace that was hit on the third night of bombing. It was hit again. And the TV building was hit again.
Now, this seemed to have knocked, this time, the domestic programming off air while the satellite channel of Iraqi TV has been functioning. I understand there are, indeed, reports that the local TV station has been able to resume programming, as well.
Now, of course, the whole events, intensive bombings, that hasn't, of course, it has been monitoring very, very closely by the Arab media, the media in the Arab world. And let me just show you a few magazines here, Carol. This is a Lebanese magazine, "El Afkar," "Thoughts." And here it says, "Has Saddam Hussein dragged President Bush into a trap?" And the headline here is "The Mother of All American Losses." This is the title of main articles in the magazine.
This other magazine, "The Los Bor Weekly (ph)," it talks about the deserts on fire and the cities being the key decisive places that the battles will take place, as well as another headline here, "Washington-Baghdad: The War, The Very Long War Full of Surprises."
So a lot of comments in the Arab media. As you know, Carol, monitoring events and very critical of the spin that Washington and London are trying to put on these events as they see it -- back to you, Carol.
COSTELLO: Rym Brahimi reporting live from Amman, Jordan. Despite what those magazines were saying, of course, the Pentagon has an entirely different view.
Let's go live there now to Chris Plante -- and, Chris, first of all, I want to talk about this Iraqi television station, because coalition forces have been trying to take this out at least twice and we have reports from Reuters in Baghdad that Iraqi domestic television is back on the air.
CHRIS PLANTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, it was taken out again. It was targeted again. It is the second time. And as those of us who work in television know, it's not that difficult to put a signal up on the air. If you've got a camera, you can run a cable to a broadcast antenna or to a dish and get it up and running again. So it's not entirely surprising given that, as the Americans are quick to point out, it is a part of their internal communication apparatus, their propaganda apparatus, as the U.S. would say.
But that wasn't alone on the list of things hit in Baghdad last night. Certainly the bombing was very intense. Targets inside Baghdad and around the city. Inside the city, a presidential palace, yet another presidential palace was hit, along with the barracks for the Fedayeen Saddam, where Fedayeen Saddam troops or units lived and operated.
Also hit was the intelligence headquarters in downtown Baghdad. This, too, believed to be the operational headquarters for the Fedayeen Saddam. The reason it was hit is because they believed that members were meeting there and because their command and control for their nationwide operations are based there.
Also, outside of the city, the Republican Guard continues to be pounded from the air. The Medina division in particular, south of the city, closest to U.S. troops, taking a severe beating from heavy bombers and from tactical aircraft, smaller aircraft hitting them with precision guided bombs, going after tanks. And military sources tell me that approximately 50 percent of the tanks belonging to the Medina division have been taken out at this point. They continue to pound away at those targets and Iraqi military commanders have moved reinforcements from the Hammurabi Division (ph) up north further down south to join the Medina division.
Plenty going on around Baghdad. Clearly no pause in the action -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Chris Plante reporting live from the Pentagon.
We'll let you go and get your voice back because I know you've been talking a long time this morning.
Secretary of State Colin Powell wants Syria and Iran to do more to oppose terrorism. He made that point in a speech he gave to a pro- Israel lobby group in Washington. Powell also voiced his pride in what coalition forces have achieved so far in Iraq. The secretary of state says that while Saddam Hussein is going to lose his home, Powell says he expects Iraq to return America's POWs back to theirs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: I know that all of you are as proud as I am of the brave men and women in uniform who are making our success possible. You see them on your television sets every evening, volunteers all willing to serve. We are also thinking of the men and women who spend this night as prisoners of war. We hold the Iraqi regime accountable for their treatment and their safety until we can bring them back home, and we will bring them home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And the Secretary also says the U.S.-led coalition is meeting its goals and in good time regardless of critics who say otherwise.
HEMMER: Carol, it's been about a quick since anyone has seen freelance photojournalist Molly Bingham in Iraq. Bingham's cousin says she's especially worried because Molly has ties to Washington, a relative who was former Vice President Al Gore's official photographer in D.C.
Last Monday, Iraqi police escorted Bingham and two "Newsday" journalists, reporter Matthew McAllester and photographer Moises Saman out of their hotel in Baghdad. And when the "Newsday" team did not file a story on Monday, some other joists went to their hotel room to see if they were OK in Baghdad.
The rooms were empty.
Janey McAllester is the sister of missing "Newsday" correspondent Matthew.
She joins us live in London today.
And, Janey, we welcome you and we wish we could talk under different circumstances.
JANEY MCALLESTER, SISTER OF MISSING JOURNALIST: Yes, thanks.
HEMMER: When was the last time you had any word from Matthew?
MCALLESTER: I received an e-mail from him, which he sent on Sunday, which was totally upbeat and certainly showed absolutely no signs of leaving the country or being under any threat at that moment.
HEMMER: How are you able right now to set up any lines of communication, either with the Iraqi authorities or other journalists in Baghdad, given the situation as it's unfolding?
MCALLESTER: It is very hard, and both the British Foreign Office and Matthew's paper, "Newsday," have been as active as they can. There are very few diplomats left in the country. They've been communicating through channels such as the papal nuncio and various more charitable organizations and those who are in touch with the human shields.
And we've also, as a family we've appealed to Jesse Jackson to try and intercede and bring them back. He's been so successful in the past and we really hope that he will be able to at least find out why they're being held. That's the biggest mystery. They're all very professional journalists. Matt and Moises have been in and out of Iraq several times before, have been accredited and they're well known to the Iraqi officials. So just not having heard from them for a week is the really worrying part and just, we would just really love to know that they're safe for a start at least.
HEMMER: Janey, go back to this communication you have here. What are you hearing in return from the Iraqi officials? Anything at all?
MCALLESTER: No, nothing. Obviously the paper and the Foreign Office would let me know as soon as they heard anything. And there has been nothing, you know, since they disappeared from their hotel rooms on Tuesday morning. We haven't had a whisper out of anybody as to where they are or why.
HEMMER: Janey, I find it quite interesting, Matthew has written stories about the Iraqi children, their plight, their poverty going back to the year 2000.
MCALLESTER: That's right.
HEMMER: Has he ever been involved with not just those articles, but maybe articles that perhaps were not as complimentary toward the Iraqi government?
MCALLESTER: Not to my knowledge. I mean no more inflammatory than anything that anybody's written. As you know, everybody has minders out there, so he can't possibly have been writing any like that this time around. And every piece that I've seen on, that he's written has been pretty much in line with other people. I mean if anything, Matt really goes for the human story, you know, the story behind the story. There was, he filed a story on a pop group a few weeks ago and was talking about a football match, I think only last week.
So, you know maybe they don't like the fact that he really goes for the personal aspect on stories. Maybe they'd rather everybody just stopped at descriptions of bombs and didn't take it any further than that.
HEMMER: Well, listen, I certainly hope you can contact very soon and you can figure something out on your end to give yourself a better piece of mind right now. MCALLESTER: Thank you.
HEMMER: With him and his colleague, Matthew and his colleague there in Iraq.
MCALLESTER: Thanks very much.
HEMMER: Thanks, Janey.
Janey McAllester live in London.
There are other reports of Italian journalists, by the way, who were taken at gunpoint in the southern city of Basra. No word right now on their condition and where they are. Some reports do indicate the Italians have been taken to Baghdad and are now being detained for questioning, but as soon as we get more on that and the other reports that we're getting about the journalists in there, we will give them to you.
In the meantime, let's get a break here. It is Monday yet again, day 12, day 13 just about now in the war in Iraq.
Back here in Kuwait City and Carol in Atlanta, as well, right after this.
COMMERCIAL
COSTELLO: 5:23 Eastern time. Welcome back.
It's time to take you to northern Iraq. It was yet another night of heavy bombing there. Coalition air strikes hit a ridge above Kalak, east of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. U.S. forces there combed a suspected terrorist site for chemical and biological weapons. The facility was pounded from the air over the weekend. Mosul and another key northern city, Kirkuk, have been targets of a daily barrage of air strikes.
Let's head south now. It appears Iraqi paramilitaries no longer maintain as tight a grip on Basra as they did a few days ago. As a result, some civilians are now able to flee to the relative safety of British forces. But the situation does remain tense and dangerous, as Juliet Bremner reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JULIET BREMNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A last desperate gamble to escape. Clutching their meager possessions, Iraqi families must put their faith in British soldiers as they scramble to leave Basra. It's a chance to flee the bombs and mortars, but the road out is fraught with danger.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, everybody get back in the wagon now.
BREMNER: The Irish Guards steer them to safety. But when the order comes to take cover, some are too old or too frail to make it to the nearest ditch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The main problem now is getting the civilians to push back so when the explosions go off we don't get like any civilian casualties, which would be catastrophic.
BREMNER: Not everyone is welcome. At a checkpoint, young men suspected of belonging to the Fedayeen militia are singled out. Their faces covered, they're taken away for further interrogation. The battle to dismantle their bases now a military priority. This Challenger on a mission to destroy any equipment that could be used to receive information about British movements.
But the 7th Armored Brigade is in a dominant position, their tanks forming a ring of steel around the southeast of the city.
(on camera): After eight days, this British front line is still in roughly the same place. The heavy bombardments have now eased. But they're still being targeted by mortars and it's the job of this platoon to try and counter that threat.
(voice-over): Juliet Bremner near Basra.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: We'll take a short break. But before we go, I want to tell you what's coming up next. We're going to Alessio Vinci, our correspondent embedded with the Marines, has just filed a report, and apparently he has talked to some former Saddam militia. Hear what they had to say, right after this.
COMMERCIAL
COSTELLO: CNN continues to bring you those amazing pictures. 5:27 Eastern time. Thanks for staying with us.
Looking for military leaders, that's a priority for U.S. Marines in night scope.
CNN's Alessio Vinci is with the American forces and tells us about the objective.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A week ago, this section of the city of Nasiriya was the site of one of the fiercest battles the Marines have fought in this war yet. And now the same Marines, those who came under fire from Iraqi forces, are now patrolling the streets of Nasiriya with the aim to try to establish a contact with the civilian population here in Nasiriya.
The idea is to meet some doctors, some lawyers, some teachers, people who could try to restore some kind of life in the city of Nasiriya.
Those civilians who come into contact with the U.S. Marines appear to be genuinely welcoming the presence of U.S. forces here and one of the civilians with whom we had a chance to talk told us that he was happy that the Marines were here and they understood they were trying to help the population here.
But he also told us that there were still some pockets of resistance in town, that Saddam Hussein and he himself was afraid to mention the name of Saddam Hussein.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I say anything bad from my boss, he'd kill me.
VINCI (on camera): Who is your boss?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't. He'll kill me. Militia.
VINCI (voice-over): While patrolling the streets of Nasiriya, the Marines came across one man who had a letter for the president of the United States, George W. Bush. He wanted to meet him. Another man said please help us out because we need some water. The U.S. Marines promised that in the coming days water at least will be restored in town.
I'm Alessio Vinci, CNN, with the U.S. Marines in Nasiriya, Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And coming up next, we're going to talk about the media's role in all of this. We'll be right back.
COMMERCIAL
HEMMER: We want to bring you up to speed yet again, the latest developments at this hour, on this Monday. Baghdad again the target of coalition bombing last night. The Iraqi Ministry of Information among the sites hit in overnight strikes. A large presidential palace complex also targeted. Authorities say the strikes resulted in at least two fires and an unknown number of casualties.
Coalition air strikes pounding the northern town of Mosul today. The strikes could help pave the way for an advance by coalition troops there. The U.S. dropped more than 1,200 paratroopers into northern Iraq last week. This is night scope video. British forces attacking Iraqi positions early on Sunday, outskirts of Basra. At least two Iraqi bunkers were destroyed. The British report capturing at least five high ranking commanders, but earlier reports that a general had been captured turned out not to be true. The British have withdrawn that.
The Pentagon reports three deaths and one injury from the crash of a Marine helicopter in southern Iraq on Sunday. Central Command calls the downing of a UH-1 Huey an accident and not the result from hostile fire.
In Hong Kong now, police have quarantined an apartment building where 213 people have come down with SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome. Worldwide, about 1,600 people have been infected with the flu like illness. About 60 people so far have died. Symptoms include a fever greater than 100 degrees, headaches and body aches. Some people also have mild respiratory symptoms at the outset.
We are bringing you various angles of the war in Iraq. Coming up this hour, the mounting casualties and the possibility of a drawn out battle. We'll tell you how the public now feels about the war. Plus we'll take you live to the front lines for the latest on the push to Baghdad. Our reporters embedded yet again with the U.S. and British military bringing you the latest on the battle front.
And we'll take you to the front lines of dissent. Anti-war protests growing a bit louder and a big larger around the world.
And hello and welcome back.
I'm Bill Hemmer live in Kuwait City.
COSTELLO: And I'm Carol Costello at CNN's global headquarters in Atlanta.
Today is Monday, March 31. It is the eleventh day of Operation Iraqi Freedom. We want to bring you up to date now and give you an early briefing on stories that will be news later today.
President Bush travels to Philadelphia to pay tribute to the Coast Guard, which is doing double duty, contributing to homeland security and playing and active role in the war in Iraq. On Capitol Hill, the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the Air Force's investigation into claims of sexual assault at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
And American Airlines may be heading for bankruptcy court today if it does not reach a labor agreement with its major units.
Now, more on the war. We want to give you a visual sense on where coalition forces are right now in the war zone. The 101st Airborne Division is near the town of Najaf. Twenty-seven Iraqis voluntarily surrendered to them. The 1st Marine Division is still trying to secure the, city of Nasiriya, where sporadic fighting does continue. And there is also still some fighting in Basra to the south, where the British are.
In the meantime, members of the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry are now about 50 miles south of Baghdad. They are in a stand-off with Republican Guard units that have now taken up positions in nearby towns.
Despite mounting casualties and questions about military tactics, a new "Newsweek" poll finds nearly half of Americans are willing to support the war for the long haul. Forty-nine percent of Americans would support military action against Iraq for more than a year. The poll finds 13 percent backing the war for several months.
HEMMER: Carol, checking in again with our embedded reporters throughout the region.
On video phone, Jason Bellini is with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit. It's my understanding Jason has moved in and around the town of Nasiriya, not quite sure exactly where, and I don't think Jason could tell us even if he could.
Here's Jason -- good afternoon.
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sorry, Bill, can't tell you. But we are near Nasiriya. We just came up here today, serving in the capacity of reinforcement of the Marines already here and also participating in what some people here are calling a change of tactics, a very profound change of tactics, that is, going on the offensive in the city itself, door to door fighting is what's going on and what we can expect to see going on in the short-term here.
They're reacting to the ambushes that the Marines have taken (AUDIO GAP) to Baghdad (AUDIO GAP) was to just pass through here and to make the place secure enough for forward moving convoys and now as more and more support convoys are heading north to support the Marines up further, up towards Baghdad, they really need this area to be more secure. And they decided the only way to do that is to really go and try to weed out house by house Iraqis who are attacking them.
We heard reports about Iraqis that are not in uniform. We've even heard reports about some Iraqis dressed as women as they're attacking the Marines here. So there's great concern and now they're trying a different method of dealing with this, a much more aggressive method. In fact, right now you can probably hear in the background an occasional boom sound. I'm not sure exactly what that is, but it's safe to say that's part of these offensive actions that are taking place right now -- Bill.
HEMMER: All right, listen, Jason, thanks.
Be safe out there.
We'll check in later through the day.
Jason Bellini with the 15th MEU, south central Iraq.
Geoffrey Hoon is going to take some questions, we understand, floor of the House of Commons, from other members of parliament, about 6:30 a.m. Eastern time, just about an hour from now. We'll take you there live to London when that happens.
But for now, here's Carol again -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, good enough, Bill.
You know, Israel has feared the war against Iraq would find its way there in the form of terrorism. And sure enough, it has.
CNN's Jerrold Kessel joins us live from Netanyahu, where a suicide bomber targeted an open air cafe in Israel -- tell us.
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, well, after a relative lull, Israelis are now bracing for the possibility that the radical Palestinian groups will begin and try to begin at least launching another series of attacks, terror attacks, in their cities, like happened yesterday in the coastal city of Netanyahu. And early this morning, the Israeli security saying that they have uncovered a bomb factory for that same organization which took responsibility for yesterday's bombing, Islamic Jihad. And this time the bomb facility, say the Israelis, was in an Israeli Arab village, which is quite ominous as far as the Israeli security is concerned, not so much in the West Bank and the Palestinian areas.
But there was that bomb in Netanyahu yesterday, wounding over 40 people, and bringing to bear the fact that the lull was only temporary. And it left Israelis, and particularly in this coastal town, with a familiar feeling of facing up again to the Palestinian radicals launching attacks in their cities.
But as familiar as it was, there was an element of unfamiliarity about the nightmare because Israelis have been watching the unfolding of the war in Iraq transfixed to their television stations as if it was their war, but really thankful that it isn't their war and that they're not involved. And now it seems there has been a link to make them involved because at least on the declaratory level, on the level of rhetoric, the Islamic Jihad organization which took responsibility for sending that young suicide bomber said that there is a link and that this was, they said, a gift from Palestine to the brave people of Iraq, and promising more, said Islamic Jihad in its statement of claiming responsibility.
And this has been an attempt to underline the fact that Palestinian and Israeli -- and Iraqi struggle are in parallel, the Palestinians against Israel, the Iraqis against the United States, but supported by the Arab people.
And Islamic Jihad, that feeling that the Islamic Jihad reinforced yesterday underlined what we've seen seeing on Palestinian streets over the last 10 days and more of day by day demonstrations of solidarity and a very popular Palestinian sympathy for the Iraqis as they face up to the United States.
And, indeed, in one demonstration yesterday in Nablus on the West Bank -- this was a demonstration down in Gaza over the weekend -- there was very graphically displayed, a Hamas demonstration which showed a suicide bomber, depicting a suicide bomber acting against Israel and that suicide bomber who acted against the U.S. troops in central Iraq.
The attitude of the Palestinian Authority officially a little bit different -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Jerrold Kessel reporting live for us from Netanyahu, Israel.
And you mentioned that suicide bombing against U.S. troops. Well, the Bush White House might reject the notion, but in some parts of the world the war on Iraq mirrors the Palestinian conflict.
CNN's Anderson Cooper explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): A suicide bombing as a tactic of war. A tactic of weakness, say U.S. military planners.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even the suicide bomber in the taxi cab, these are more acts of desperation.
COOPER: Desperation, perhaps, but to many in the Arab world, it's a sign of strength, commitment, reminiscent of another conflict, the fight between Israelis and Palestinians, a conflict the Iraqi regime has tried repeatedly to link itself to. Perhaps not surprisingly, both conflicts are described in similar terms by Arab TV networks -- a foreign invader with high tech weaponry versus an Arab population trying to defend itself.
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Aired March 31, 2003 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The UH-1 Huey went down in southern Iraq and Central Command confirms that three fatalities and one injury have occurred as a result.
A suspected terrorist facility, the remote mountains along Iraq's border with Iran targeted by air strikes this weekend. U.S. forces now on the ground there and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Richard Myers says the site was believed to be the source of toxic ricin intended for a terror attack in London that was foiled.
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, in other news today, an apartment building has been singled out for special attention in the SARS outbreak. A steep rise in cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome in that building has resulted in a 10 day quarantine. Residents will be provided three free meals per day and given instructions on how to disinfect their apartments.
You're up to date. 5:00 a.m. back on the East Coast. Bringing you various angles on the war in Iraq.
In the next hour, amid mounting casualties and the possibility of a drawn out war, we'll tell you about the public and how they feel right now about the ongoing conflict. Plus, we'll take you live to the front lines for the very latest on the push to Baghdad. Our reporters, again, embedded with the U.S. military and the British military, bringing us the very latest in real time again. And we'll take you to the front lines of dissent, as well. Anti-war protests growing louder and bigger around the world.
Hello again. It's one o'clock here in Kuwait, one o'clock in Baghdad, 5:00 a.m. on the East Coast of the U.S.
I'm back here yet again live in Kuwait City.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Carol Costello at CNN global headquarters in Atlanta.
Today is Monday, March 31, and you are looking right now at a live picture of downtown Baghdad as Operation Iraqi Freedom enters its twelfth day.
Coalition air strikes overnight targeting the Ministry of Information and Iraqi television. For a time, Iraqi dramatic television was knocked off the air. We understand it's back up and running right now.
Time now for an early briefing on stories that will be news later today. President Bush travels to Philadelphia to pay tribute to the Coast Guard, which is doing double duty, contributing to homeland security and playing and active role in the war on Iraq. On Capitol Hill, the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the Air Force's investigation into claims of sexual assault at the U.S. Air Force Academy. And American Airlines may be heading for bankruptcy court today if it does not reach a labor agreement with its major units.
First, we want to give you this, too. We want to give you a visual sense of where coalition forces are right now in the war zone. The 101st Airborne Division is near the town of Najaf. Twenty-seven Iraqis voluntarily surrendered to them. The 1st Marine Division is still trying to secure the city of Nasiriya, where sporadic fighting does continue this morning. There is also fighting in Basra, where the British are.
In the meantime, members of the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry are now about 50 miles south of Baghdad. They are in a stand-off with Republican Guard units that have taken up positions inside nearby towns -- Bill.
HEMMER: Day 12 of the war saw sporadic by intense coalition air strikes, Carol, in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, also to the south and the north, as well. Over the past 12 hours, some of the highlights now.
Anderson Cooper has the recap now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Whether it was continuing nighttime attacks on the Iraqi capital or daytime helicopter assaults on Iraqi positions in the central part of the country, coalition air power was dominant again on day 12 of the war. Even though American commanders deny there was a pause in the ground action, for many, rest and resupply seemed the order of the day. CNN's Art Harris is with the Marines in Nasiriya, scene of some of the heaviest fighting of the war.
ART HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Marines tell me they have accomplished their objective in Nasiriya, which is to keep the bridges and roads open so the supply train can roll north, resupplying troops all the way to Baghdad.
COOPER: Three major American ground units are in position to the south and west of Baghdad, but there has been no significant movement by any of them for the past few days. To the north, American and Kurdish fighters are holding their ground. But as of yet, there aren't enough troops for a major advance on the oil city of Kirkuk.
The first pictures arrived of the aftermath of that deadly suicide car bombing in the city of Najaf. Suicide attacks have been discussed by Central Command, but General Tommy Franks said this attack was, in one sense, remarkable.
GEN. TOMMY FRANKS, COMMANDER, CENTRAL COMMAND: Remarkable, though, is the connection all the way to the top of the Iraqi regime, where if my Arabic serves me well, that attack was just endorsed by those in power.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Iraqis have got their hands raised.
COOPER: In the wake of the suicide attacks, it seems tactics may have changed. These aerial pictures show what is now standard operating procedure -- unknown vehicles are quickly surrounded, maximum force is applied. Military spokesmen say drivers of two other vehicles were shot when they refused to stop as ordered.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These men walked up to a long range artillery position and asked to surrender.
COOPER: Not far from Najaf, these prisoners were identified as members of the Fedayeen, the militia group which has caused so much trouble for American troops in several Iraqi cities. In the far south around Basra, a pipe carrying precious water into the city was also completed. Not all was well, however. Al-Jazeera Television ran these pictures of a coalition tank badly disabled outside Basra. And a Marine helicopter crashed in southern Iraq, an accident, it seemed. Three on board perished.
In the north, near the city of Mosul, American B-52s dropped their bombs along a ridge line occupied by Iraqi soldiers. In Kuwait, one American soldier was hurt and a dozen or so others injured slightly when a truck driven by an Egyptian man drove into a crowded post exchange store.
The military battle continues. So, too, the battle for Iraqi hearts and minds. Murals of Saddam Hussein are being destroyed, but until the man and his regime are eliminated, hearts and minds might be a difficult battle to win.
Anderson Cooper, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: All right, let's talk about casualties right now. We have the number of casualties, the latest figures for you. According to these figures, which were provided by U.S. and British authorities, there have been 66 coalition deaths. Forty-two of them are U.S. service members, 34 killed in hostile fire and eight in non-hostile accidents. There have been 24 British deaths, five killed in hostile fire, 18 non-hostile and one is yet undetermined.
Now, the Iraqi government has not released information on military losses, but it does say 420 civilians have been killed. That's according to Iraqi authorities.
More on American casualties. Ten Americans wounded in the war in Iraq are now at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. Hospital spokesman Dr. David Ferguson says they suffered a variety of injuries, but had received good medical care both in the field and before that in Germany before they came home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. DAVID FERGUSON, NATIONAL NAVAL MEDICAL CENTER: Most of them seemed to be very revealed, although several actually expressed sadness that they weren't still with their Marine comrades back in the theater.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And Dr. Ferguson tells us they'll probably be at Bethesda about two weeks before being transferred to their home towns or to home base hospitals.
HEMMER: Carol, on Sunday General Richard Myers one of the many to make the rounds on the talk shows. He says the only thing the U.S. can count on right now, and the world, for that matter, is that the U.S. and British militaries will exercise patience as they go through the battlefield in Iraq.
Let's find out what CENTCOM is sending out today down in Qatar.
Tom Mintier joins us now for an update as we await the briefing that's a little bit more than, well, about two hours away from now -- Tom, hello and good afternoon.
TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Bill.
About two hours from now Brigadier General Vincent Brooks will brief reporters here. About four or five minutes ago, there was a test of the emergency preparedness system here. You can hear the sirens echoing through this building as they're being tested here at Central Command. That happening just a few moments ago. It was an announced test that was known about before it occurred.
Also, in Baghdad overnight, coalition officials admit that they have taken out Iraqi TV for a second time, confirming a couple of hours ago that they hit Iraq TV for the second time, knocking them off the air. There are conflicting reports. Some say that Iraq TV has returned to air. This is a dramatic channel that the coalition says is, indeed, a military target because Saddam Hussein uses it to make announcements on. So, again, Baghdad and Iraq TV struck again by coalition aircraft. They say that they did hit it for a second time, knocking it off the air. But apparently the dramatic service is once again back on.
Also, the telephone exchanges in and around Baghdad have been frequent targets. We're also hearing about Operation James, which is going on in the Basra area. We saw some nighttime video of British Royal Marines advancing along a road, rather dramatic pictures, as they were engaged by paramilitary forces and fired back. You could see the bright lights flashing back and forth as the heavy weaponry aboard these craft were used in areas of Basra.
But according to British military officials, some areas are extremely quiet today. This Operation James launched over the weekend. They say that many areas in and around Basra are under coalition control, but they are still rooting out elements of the paramilitary forces.
Once again, the briefing in less than two hours here in Doha. We're expecting to hear and see what the coalition has been up to in the last 24 hours -- Bill, back to you.
HEMMER: All right, Tom, thank you.
Again, 7:00 a.m. Eastern time for the folks back in the U.S. Certainly live coverage when that comes down. As Tom mentioned, fewer than two hours from now.
Carol now at the CNN Center.
COSTELLO: And, Bill, it is early afternoon in Baghdad and that comes after one very restless night. Bombs and missiles rained down and fires burned in the heart of the city.
We want to go live to Amman, Jordan and Rym Brahimi -- and, Rym, there is a fire burning now near a shopping center named after Saddam Hussein's birthday. It's called, what, the 28 April shopping center? But near the shopping center is an apartment complex. And tell us again who lives in that apartment complex.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, that apartment complex is located right across the road from the Ministry of Information and it's quite a big apartment complex, a lot of tall buildings there. A lot of people who live there, actually, the only people who are allowed to live there are government employees of one sort or another, some of them retired, some of them still working there. Buildup it is quite a restricted area and until recently I think many foreigners would not have been allowed to either own or rent apartments in that apartment complex. So it is reserved for people who work with government.
And that's right across from the Ministry of Information, that was also hit. You hear Tom mention the list of targets. A telephone exchange was hit, as well, and one of President Saddam Hussein's palaces that lies along the Tigris River. It's a palace that was hit on the third night of bombing. It was hit again. And the TV building was hit again.
Now, this seemed to have knocked, this time, the domestic programming off air while the satellite channel of Iraqi TV has been functioning. I understand there are, indeed, reports that the local TV station has been able to resume programming, as well.
Now, of course, the whole events, intensive bombings, that hasn't, of course, it has been monitoring very, very closely by the Arab media, the media in the Arab world. And let me just show you a few magazines here, Carol. This is a Lebanese magazine, "El Afkar," "Thoughts." And here it says, "Has Saddam Hussein dragged President Bush into a trap?" And the headline here is "The Mother of All American Losses." This is the title of main articles in the magazine.
This other magazine, "The Los Bor Weekly (ph)," it talks about the deserts on fire and the cities being the key decisive places that the battles will take place, as well as another headline here, "Washington-Baghdad: The War, The Very Long War Full of Surprises."
So a lot of comments in the Arab media. As you know, Carol, monitoring events and very critical of the spin that Washington and London are trying to put on these events as they see it -- back to you, Carol.
COSTELLO: Rym Brahimi reporting live from Amman, Jordan. Despite what those magazines were saying, of course, the Pentagon has an entirely different view.
Let's go live there now to Chris Plante -- and, Chris, first of all, I want to talk about this Iraqi television station, because coalition forces have been trying to take this out at least twice and we have reports from Reuters in Baghdad that Iraqi domestic television is back on the air.
CHRIS PLANTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, it was taken out again. It was targeted again. It is the second time. And as those of us who work in television know, it's not that difficult to put a signal up on the air. If you've got a camera, you can run a cable to a broadcast antenna or to a dish and get it up and running again. So it's not entirely surprising given that, as the Americans are quick to point out, it is a part of their internal communication apparatus, their propaganda apparatus, as the U.S. would say.
But that wasn't alone on the list of things hit in Baghdad last night. Certainly the bombing was very intense. Targets inside Baghdad and around the city. Inside the city, a presidential palace, yet another presidential palace was hit, along with the barracks for the Fedayeen Saddam, where Fedayeen Saddam troops or units lived and operated.
Also hit was the intelligence headquarters in downtown Baghdad. This, too, believed to be the operational headquarters for the Fedayeen Saddam. The reason it was hit is because they believed that members were meeting there and because their command and control for their nationwide operations are based there.
Also, outside of the city, the Republican Guard continues to be pounded from the air. The Medina division in particular, south of the city, closest to U.S. troops, taking a severe beating from heavy bombers and from tactical aircraft, smaller aircraft hitting them with precision guided bombs, going after tanks. And military sources tell me that approximately 50 percent of the tanks belonging to the Medina division have been taken out at this point. They continue to pound away at those targets and Iraqi military commanders have moved reinforcements from the Hammurabi Division (ph) up north further down south to join the Medina division.
Plenty going on around Baghdad. Clearly no pause in the action -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Chris Plante reporting live from the Pentagon.
We'll let you go and get your voice back because I know you've been talking a long time this morning.
Secretary of State Colin Powell wants Syria and Iran to do more to oppose terrorism. He made that point in a speech he gave to a pro- Israel lobby group in Washington. Powell also voiced his pride in what coalition forces have achieved so far in Iraq. The secretary of state says that while Saddam Hussein is going to lose his home, Powell says he expects Iraq to return America's POWs back to theirs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: I know that all of you are as proud as I am of the brave men and women in uniform who are making our success possible. You see them on your television sets every evening, volunteers all willing to serve. We are also thinking of the men and women who spend this night as prisoners of war. We hold the Iraqi regime accountable for their treatment and their safety until we can bring them back home, and we will bring them home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And the Secretary also says the U.S.-led coalition is meeting its goals and in good time regardless of critics who say otherwise.
HEMMER: Carol, it's been about a quick since anyone has seen freelance photojournalist Molly Bingham in Iraq. Bingham's cousin says she's especially worried because Molly has ties to Washington, a relative who was former Vice President Al Gore's official photographer in D.C.
Last Monday, Iraqi police escorted Bingham and two "Newsday" journalists, reporter Matthew McAllester and photographer Moises Saman out of their hotel in Baghdad. And when the "Newsday" team did not file a story on Monday, some other joists went to their hotel room to see if they were OK in Baghdad.
The rooms were empty.
Janey McAllester is the sister of missing "Newsday" correspondent Matthew.
She joins us live in London today.
And, Janey, we welcome you and we wish we could talk under different circumstances.
JANEY MCALLESTER, SISTER OF MISSING JOURNALIST: Yes, thanks.
HEMMER: When was the last time you had any word from Matthew?
MCALLESTER: I received an e-mail from him, which he sent on Sunday, which was totally upbeat and certainly showed absolutely no signs of leaving the country or being under any threat at that moment.
HEMMER: How are you able right now to set up any lines of communication, either with the Iraqi authorities or other journalists in Baghdad, given the situation as it's unfolding?
MCALLESTER: It is very hard, and both the British Foreign Office and Matthew's paper, "Newsday," have been as active as they can. There are very few diplomats left in the country. They've been communicating through channels such as the papal nuncio and various more charitable organizations and those who are in touch with the human shields.
And we've also, as a family we've appealed to Jesse Jackson to try and intercede and bring them back. He's been so successful in the past and we really hope that he will be able to at least find out why they're being held. That's the biggest mystery. They're all very professional journalists. Matt and Moises have been in and out of Iraq several times before, have been accredited and they're well known to the Iraqi officials. So just not having heard from them for a week is the really worrying part and just, we would just really love to know that they're safe for a start at least.
HEMMER: Janey, go back to this communication you have here. What are you hearing in return from the Iraqi officials? Anything at all?
MCALLESTER: No, nothing. Obviously the paper and the Foreign Office would let me know as soon as they heard anything. And there has been nothing, you know, since they disappeared from their hotel rooms on Tuesday morning. We haven't had a whisper out of anybody as to where they are or why.
HEMMER: Janey, I find it quite interesting, Matthew has written stories about the Iraqi children, their plight, their poverty going back to the year 2000.
MCALLESTER: That's right.
HEMMER: Has he ever been involved with not just those articles, but maybe articles that perhaps were not as complimentary toward the Iraqi government?
MCALLESTER: Not to my knowledge. I mean no more inflammatory than anything that anybody's written. As you know, everybody has minders out there, so he can't possibly have been writing any like that this time around. And every piece that I've seen on, that he's written has been pretty much in line with other people. I mean if anything, Matt really goes for the human story, you know, the story behind the story. There was, he filed a story on a pop group a few weeks ago and was talking about a football match, I think only last week.
So, you know maybe they don't like the fact that he really goes for the personal aspect on stories. Maybe they'd rather everybody just stopped at descriptions of bombs and didn't take it any further than that.
HEMMER: Well, listen, I certainly hope you can contact very soon and you can figure something out on your end to give yourself a better piece of mind right now. MCALLESTER: Thank you.
HEMMER: With him and his colleague, Matthew and his colleague there in Iraq.
MCALLESTER: Thanks very much.
HEMMER: Thanks, Janey.
Janey McAllester live in London.
There are other reports of Italian journalists, by the way, who were taken at gunpoint in the southern city of Basra. No word right now on their condition and where they are. Some reports do indicate the Italians have been taken to Baghdad and are now being detained for questioning, but as soon as we get more on that and the other reports that we're getting about the journalists in there, we will give them to you.
In the meantime, let's get a break here. It is Monday yet again, day 12, day 13 just about now in the war in Iraq.
Back here in Kuwait City and Carol in Atlanta, as well, right after this.
COMMERCIAL
COSTELLO: 5:23 Eastern time. Welcome back.
It's time to take you to northern Iraq. It was yet another night of heavy bombing there. Coalition air strikes hit a ridge above Kalak, east of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. U.S. forces there combed a suspected terrorist site for chemical and biological weapons. The facility was pounded from the air over the weekend. Mosul and another key northern city, Kirkuk, have been targets of a daily barrage of air strikes.
Let's head south now. It appears Iraqi paramilitaries no longer maintain as tight a grip on Basra as they did a few days ago. As a result, some civilians are now able to flee to the relative safety of British forces. But the situation does remain tense and dangerous, as Juliet Bremner reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JULIET BREMNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A last desperate gamble to escape. Clutching their meager possessions, Iraqi families must put their faith in British soldiers as they scramble to leave Basra. It's a chance to flee the bombs and mortars, but the road out is fraught with danger.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, everybody get back in the wagon now.
BREMNER: The Irish Guards steer them to safety. But when the order comes to take cover, some are too old or too frail to make it to the nearest ditch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The main problem now is getting the civilians to push back so when the explosions go off we don't get like any civilian casualties, which would be catastrophic.
BREMNER: Not everyone is welcome. At a checkpoint, young men suspected of belonging to the Fedayeen militia are singled out. Their faces covered, they're taken away for further interrogation. The battle to dismantle their bases now a military priority. This Challenger on a mission to destroy any equipment that could be used to receive information about British movements.
But the 7th Armored Brigade is in a dominant position, their tanks forming a ring of steel around the southeast of the city.
(on camera): After eight days, this British front line is still in roughly the same place. The heavy bombardments have now eased. But they're still being targeted by mortars and it's the job of this platoon to try and counter that threat.
(voice-over): Juliet Bremner near Basra.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: We'll take a short break. But before we go, I want to tell you what's coming up next. We're going to Alessio Vinci, our correspondent embedded with the Marines, has just filed a report, and apparently he has talked to some former Saddam militia. Hear what they had to say, right after this.
COMMERCIAL
COSTELLO: CNN continues to bring you those amazing pictures. 5:27 Eastern time. Thanks for staying with us.
Looking for military leaders, that's a priority for U.S. Marines in night scope.
CNN's Alessio Vinci is with the American forces and tells us about the objective.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A week ago, this section of the city of Nasiriya was the site of one of the fiercest battles the Marines have fought in this war yet. And now the same Marines, those who came under fire from Iraqi forces, are now patrolling the streets of Nasiriya with the aim to try to establish a contact with the civilian population here in Nasiriya.
The idea is to meet some doctors, some lawyers, some teachers, people who could try to restore some kind of life in the city of Nasiriya.
Those civilians who come into contact with the U.S. Marines appear to be genuinely welcoming the presence of U.S. forces here and one of the civilians with whom we had a chance to talk told us that he was happy that the Marines were here and they understood they were trying to help the population here.
But he also told us that there were still some pockets of resistance in town, that Saddam Hussein and he himself was afraid to mention the name of Saddam Hussein.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I say anything bad from my boss, he'd kill me.
VINCI (on camera): Who is your boss?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't. He'll kill me. Militia.
VINCI (voice-over): While patrolling the streets of Nasiriya, the Marines came across one man who had a letter for the president of the United States, George W. Bush. He wanted to meet him. Another man said please help us out because we need some water. The U.S. Marines promised that in the coming days water at least will be restored in town.
I'm Alessio Vinci, CNN, with the U.S. Marines in Nasiriya, Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And coming up next, we're going to talk about the media's role in all of this. We'll be right back.
COMMERCIAL
HEMMER: We want to bring you up to speed yet again, the latest developments at this hour, on this Monday. Baghdad again the target of coalition bombing last night. The Iraqi Ministry of Information among the sites hit in overnight strikes. A large presidential palace complex also targeted. Authorities say the strikes resulted in at least two fires and an unknown number of casualties.
Coalition air strikes pounding the northern town of Mosul today. The strikes could help pave the way for an advance by coalition troops there. The U.S. dropped more than 1,200 paratroopers into northern Iraq last week. This is night scope video. British forces attacking Iraqi positions early on Sunday, outskirts of Basra. At least two Iraqi bunkers were destroyed. The British report capturing at least five high ranking commanders, but earlier reports that a general had been captured turned out not to be true. The British have withdrawn that.
The Pentagon reports three deaths and one injury from the crash of a Marine helicopter in southern Iraq on Sunday. Central Command calls the downing of a UH-1 Huey an accident and not the result from hostile fire.
In Hong Kong now, police have quarantined an apartment building where 213 people have come down with SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome. Worldwide, about 1,600 people have been infected with the flu like illness. About 60 people so far have died. Symptoms include a fever greater than 100 degrees, headaches and body aches. Some people also have mild respiratory symptoms at the outset.
We are bringing you various angles of the war in Iraq. Coming up this hour, the mounting casualties and the possibility of a drawn out battle. We'll tell you how the public now feels about the war. Plus we'll take you live to the front lines for the latest on the push to Baghdad. Our reporters embedded yet again with the U.S. and British military bringing you the latest on the battle front.
And we'll take you to the front lines of dissent. Anti-war protests growing a bit louder and a big larger around the world.
And hello and welcome back.
I'm Bill Hemmer live in Kuwait City.
COSTELLO: And I'm Carol Costello at CNN's global headquarters in Atlanta.
Today is Monday, March 31. It is the eleventh day of Operation Iraqi Freedom. We want to bring you up to date now and give you an early briefing on stories that will be news later today.
President Bush travels to Philadelphia to pay tribute to the Coast Guard, which is doing double duty, contributing to homeland security and playing and active role in the war in Iraq. On Capitol Hill, the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the Air Force's investigation into claims of sexual assault at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
And American Airlines may be heading for bankruptcy court today if it does not reach a labor agreement with its major units.
Now, more on the war. We want to give you a visual sense on where coalition forces are right now in the war zone. The 101st Airborne Division is near the town of Najaf. Twenty-seven Iraqis voluntarily surrendered to them. The 1st Marine Division is still trying to secure the, city of Nasiriya, where sporadic fighting does continue. And there is also still some fighting in Basra to the south, where the British are.
In the meantime, members of the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry are now about 50 miles south of Baghdad. They are in a stand-off with Republican Guard units that have now taken up positions in nearby towns.
Despite mounting casualties and questions about military tactics, a new "Newsweek" poll finds nearly half of Americans are willing to support the war for the long haul. Forty-nine percent of Americans would support military action against Iraq for more than a year. The poll finds 13 percent backing the war for several months.
HEMMER: Carol, checking in again with our embedded reporters throughout the region.
On video phone, Jason Bellini is with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit. It's my understanding Jason has moved in and around the town of Nasiriya, not quite sure exactly where, and I don't think Jason could tell us even if he could.
Here's Jason -- good afternoon.
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sorry, Bill, can't tell you. But we are near Nasiriya. We just came up here today, serving in the capacity of reinforcement of the Marines already here and also participating in what some people here are calling a change of tactics, a very profound change of tactics, that is, going on the offensive in the city itself, door to door fighting is what's going on and what we can expect to see going on in the short-term here.
They're reacting to the ambushes that the Marines have taken (AUDIO GAP) to Baghdad (AUDIO GAP) was to just pass through here and to make the place secure enough for forward moving convoys and now as more and more support convoys are heading north to support the Marines up further, up towards Baghdad, they really need this area to be more secure. And they decided the only way to do that is to really go and try to weed out house by house Iraqis who are attacking them.
We heard reports about Iraqis that are not in uniform. We've even heard reports about some Iraqis dressed as women as they're attacking the Marines here. So there's great concern and now they're trying a different method of dealing with this, a much more aggressive method. In fact, right now you can probably hear in the background an occasional boom sound. I'm not sure exactly what that is, but it's safe to say that's part of these offensive actions that are taking place right now -- Bill.
HEMMER: All right, listen, Jason, thanks.
Be safe out there.
We'll check in later through the day.
Jason Bellini with the 15th MEU, south central Iraq.
Geoffrey Hoon is going to take some questions, we understand, floor of the House of Commons, from other members of parliament, about 6:30 a.m. Eastern time, just about an hour from now. We'll take you there live to London when that happens.
But for now, here's Carol again -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, good enough, Bill.
You know, Israel has feared the war against Iraq would find its way there in the form of terrorism. And sure enough, it has.
CNN's Jerrold Kessel joins us live from Netanyahu, where a suicide bomber targeted an open air cafe in Israel -- tell us.
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, well, after a relative lull, Israelis are now bracing for the possibility that the radical Palestinian groups will begin and try to begin at least launching another series of attacks, terror attacks, in their cities, like happened yesterday in the coastal city of Netanyahu. And early this morning, the Israeli security saying that they have uncovered a bomb factory for that same organization which took responsibility for yesterday's bombing, Islamic Jihad. And this time the bomb facility, say the Israelis, was in an Israeli Arab village, which is quite ominous as far as the Israeli security is concerned, not so much in the West Bank and the Palestinian areas.
But there was that bomb in Netanyahu yesterday, wounding over 40 people, and bringing to bear the fact that the lull was only temporary. And it left Israelis, and particularly in this coastal town, with a familiar feeling of facing up again to the Palestinian radicals launching attacks in their cities.
But as familiar as it was, there was an element of unfamiliarity about the nightmare because Israelis have been watching the unfolding of the war in Iraq transfixed to their television stations as if it was their war, but really thankful that it isn't their war and that they're not involved. And now it seems there has been a link to make them involved because at least on the declaratory level, on the level of rhetoric, the Islamic Jihad organization which took responsibility for sending that young suicide bomber said that there is a link and that this was, they said, a gift from Palestine to the brave people of Iraq, and promising more, said Islamic Jihad in its statement of claiming responsibility.
And this has been an attempt to underline the fact that Palestinian and Israeli -- and Iraqi struggle are in parallel, the Palestinians against Israel, the Iraqis against the United States, but supported by the Arab people.
And Islamic Jihad, that feeling that the Islamic Jihad reinforced yesterday underlined what we've seen seeing on Palestinian streets over the last 10 days and more of day by day demonstrations of solidarity and a very popular Palestinian sympathy for the Iraqis as they face up to the United States.
And, indeed, in one demonstration yesterday in Nablus on the West Bank -- this was a demonstration down in Gaza over the weekend -- there was very graphically displayed, a Hamas demonstration which showed a suicide bomber, depicting a suicide bomber acting against Israel and that suicide bomber who acted against the U.S. troops in central Iraq.
The attitude of the Palestinian Authority officially a little bit different -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Jerrold Kessel reporting live for us from Netanyahu, Israel.
And you mentioned that suicide bombing against U.S. troops. Well, the Bush White House might reject the notion, but in some parts of the world the war on Iraq mirrors the Palestinian conflict.
CNN's Anderson Cooper explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): A suicide bombing as a tactic of war. A tactic of weakness, say U.S. military planners.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even the suicide bomber in the taxi cab, these are more acts of desperation.
COOPER: Desperation, perhaps, but to many in the Arab world, it's a sign of strength, commitment, reminiscent of another conflict, the fight between Israelis and Palestinians, a conflict the Iraqi regime has tried repeatedly to link itself to. Perhaps not surprisingly, both conflicts are described in similar terms by Arab TV networks -- a foreign invader with high tech weaponry versus an Arab population trying to defend itself.
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