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American Morning
Iraqi Forces Holed Up South of Baghdad
Aired March 31, 2003 - 09:37 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: Let's get to Gary Tuchman, embedded with the U.S. Air Force, on an airbase near the Iraqi border. Don't know if you know that news, Gary, or not, but is there any reaction to that?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, there is reaction to that, as a matter of fact. The Air Force is patting itself on the back for that kind of news, saying that because of Air Force action -- quote -- "The Iraqi regime is losing control over Iraq." The number of soared ease over Iraq over the last 24 hours has increased by about 20 percent, 1,800 sorties over Iraq. You're talking almost 80 different coalition planes each hour flying over the nation of Iraq. Many of those planes are the A-10 attack planes behind me.
And with us is one of the pilots who has gone on five missions himself in the last 48 hours.
This is Major Wardo. "Wardo" is his nickname, his call sign, because he doesn't want to use his real name. He is from Illinois originally, now lives in Pennsylvania.
Hi. How do you five missions in 48 hours?
MAJ. "WARDO," U.S. AIR FORCE: It's not that hard. We have a new FOL that's inside Iraq.
TUCHMAN: FOL means what?
WARDO: Forward operating location. It's an airfield that's been captured and taken over by the U.S.
So we take off out of here, we can get inside of Iraq, either do a mission, and then land, get some gas, rearm with some more ammo, then take off and do another quick one.
TUCHMAN: Have you dropped bombs in any of those five missions?
WARDO: Yes, I have. Quite a bit, as a matter of fact, in the last few days.
TUCHMAN: Tell me about the most recent one where you did drop your armaments?
WARDO: Yesterday was pretty awesome for the A-10s. There were about six A-10s up north of Basra, working almost all day during the daylight. And we found a bunch of armor out in the open, and killed quite a lot of tanks, ATVs (ph), vehicles, trucks that were all (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
TUCHMAN: How do you feel as an attack pilot when do you that?
WARDO: It is very rewarding, because I know that those tanks can -- those fighting vehicles won't be used against our guys when they start running up the highway.
TUCHMAN: Ever any concerns that when you drop your bombs or missiles it will miss the target?
WARDO: Sure. We are very, very careful on making sure we have a good positive ID on the target, and make sure there are no friendlies nobody, no civilians nearby or anything like that, but the targets that we've been hitting yesterday were completely out in the open and all military.
TUCHMAN: Major, thanks for joining us.
WARDO: Thank you.
TUCHMAN: Appreciate your talking to us.
I want to point out one thing very quickly. Spent a week and a half at this base alone; this one base, there have been 3,000 sorties- plus.
HEMMER: Wow. No stop there. Thank you, Gary. Gary Tuchman embedded with the U.S. Air Force.
Now back to Paula.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Bill, and we are going to go straight to Jane, who is following developments in northern Iraq. She joins us now from there.
Good afternoon, Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Paula.
After a lull of a few hours, this evening's bombing appears to have started again along the front lines which we're just in front of.
Now, ahead of us we're seeing U.S. fighter planes circling low enough to see the silhouette, either F-11s or F-14s, and the smoke has cleared now, but just behind us, we saw two very large explosions on the ridge which marks the Iraqi front line close to here.
Now these planes, which you may be able to see in a few seconds, are circling, and expected to drop bombs on that front line, on that ridge sometime soon.
Now, Kurdish officials are saying that there has been heavy damage and losses inflicted in U.S. bombings along the front lines with Iraq. U.S. forces have kept up that bombing campaign, at night around the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, and we have been seeing the front lines shift, in some cases Iraqi forces retreating almost eight miles.
Now, Kurdish officials are quick to point out in an apparent nod to Turkey, which is keeping a very close eye on how far Kurdish forces advance, that Kurdish and Iraqi fighting, scattered fighting in some places is not the start of a northern offensive.
But, however, Kurdish officials have not lost hope that there will be a full-fledged U.S.-northern front.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KHOSHYAR ZEBARI, KDP SPOKESMAN: The northern front I can tell you is active, although it is invisible for you. But many operations are ongoing. Along this line, behind the line, and arrival of these forces, U.S. forces has in fact given the northern front a new dimension.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARRAF: Now, the reason, obviously, that front isn't as visible as it might have been, is it isn't the tens of thousands of ground troops that the U.S. had expected to send in through Turkey. It's a scaled-down version, starting with airborne troops, and beefing up to what is now assumed to be just a few thousand forces -- Paula.
ZAHN: We are going to will leave it there at this hour.
Jane Arraf, thanks so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired March 31, 2003 - 09:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get to Gary Tuchman, embedded with the U.S. Air Force, on an airbase near the Iraqi border. Don't know if you know that news, Gary, or not, but is there any reaction to that?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, there is reaction to that, as a matter of fact. The Air Force is patting itself on the back for that kind of news, saying that because of Air Force action -- quote -- "The Iraqi regime is losing control over Iraq." The number of soared ease over Iraq over the last 24 hours has increased by about 20 percent, 1,800 sorties over Iraq. You're talking almost 80 different coalition planes each hour flying over the nation of Iraq. Many of those planes are the A-10 attack planes behind me.
And with us is one of the pilots who has gone on five missions himself in the last 48 hours.
This is Major Wardo. "Wardo" is his nickname, his call sign, because he doesn't want to use his real name. He is from Illinois originally, now lives in Pennsylvania.
Hi. How do you five missions in 48 hours?
MAJ. "WARDO," U.S. AIR FORCE: It's not that hard. We have a new FOL that's inside Iraq.
TUCHMAN: FOL means what?
WARDO: Forward operating location. It's an airfield that's been captured and taken over by the U.S.
So we take off out of here, we can get inside of Iraq, either do a mission, and then land, get some gas, rearm with some more ammo, then take off and do another quick one.
TUCHMAN: Have you dropped bombs in any of those five missions?
WARDO: Yes, I have. Quite a bit, as a matter of fact, in the last few days.
TUCHMAN: Tell me about the most recent one where you did drop your armaments?
WARDO: Yesterday was pretty awesome for the A-10s. There were about six A-10s up north of Basra, working almost all day during the daylight. And we found a bunch of armor out in the open, and killed quite a lot of tanks, ATVs (ph), vehicles, trucks that were all (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
TUCHMAN: How do you feel as an attack pilot when do you that?
WARDO: It is very rewarding, because I know that those tanks can -- those fighting vehicles won't be used against our guys when they start running up the highway.
TUCHMAN: Ever any concerns that when you drop your bombs or missiles it will miss the target?
WARDO: Sure. We are very, very careful on making sure we have a good positive ID on the target, and make sure there are no friendlies nobody, no civilians nearby or anything like that, but the targets that we've been hitting yesterday were completely out in the open and all military.
TUCHMAN: Major, thanks for joining us.
WARDO: Thank you.
TUCHMAN: Appreciate your talking to us.
I want to point out one thing very quickly. Spent a week and a half at this base alone; this one base, there have been 3,000 sorties- plus.
HEMMER: Wow. No stop there. Thank you, Gary. Gary Tuchman embedded with the U.S. Air Force.
Now back to Paula.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Bill, and we are going to go straight to Jane, who is following developments in northern Iraq. She joins us now from there.
Good afternoon, Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Paula.
After a lull of a few hours, this evening's bombing appears to have started again along the front lines which we're just in front of.
Now, ahead of us we're seeing U.S. fighter planes circling low enough to see the silhouette, either F-11s or F-14s, and the smoke has cleared now, but just behind us, we saw two very large explosions on the ridge which marks the Iraqi front line close to here.
Now these planes, which you may be able to see in a few seconds, are circling, and expected to drop bombs on that front line, on that ridge sometime soon.
Now, Kurdish officials are saying that there has been heavy damage and losses inflicted in U.S. bombings along the front lines with Iraq. U.S. forces have kept up that bombing campaign, at night around the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, and we have been seeing the front lines shift, in some cases Iraqi forces retreating almost eight miles.
Now, Kurdish officials are quick to point out in an apparent nod to Turkey, which is keeping a very close eye on how far Kurdish forces advance, that Kurdish and Iraqi fighting, scattered fighting in some places is not the start of a northern offensive.
But, however, Kurdish officials have not lost hope that there will be a full-fledged U.S.-northern front.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KHOSHYAR ZEBARI, KDP SPOKESMAN: The northern front I can tell you is active, although it is invisible for you. But many operations are ongoing. Along this line, behind the line, and arrival of these forces, U.S. forces has in fact given the northern front a new dimension.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARRAF: Now, the reason, obviously, that front isn't as visible as it might have been, is it isn't the tens of thousands of ground troops that the U.S. had expected to send in through Turkey. It's a scaled-down version, starting with airborne troops, and beefing up to what is now assumed to be just a few thousand forces -- Paula.
ZAHN: We are going to will leave it there at this hour.
Jane Arraf, thanks so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
