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CNN Live At Daybreak

War in Iraq: Nasiriya Battle

Aired April 02, 2003 - 06:16   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I believe we're going to Jason Bellini right now, is that correct? That is correct.
Jason Bellini, you've seen a lot of action today. Tell us about it.

JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, we're in the town of Nasiriya now, and the action we saw was on our way in. I know the big news yesterday was that very dramatic, very daring POW rescue. And the Marines we're embedded with, the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, weren't directly involved with that, but they did play a supporting role. The bombardment that they undertook in Nasiriya, two very selected locations, was designed to be -- to deter attention away from the site where they made that rescue. So it was a very loud, very bright night late last night here in Nasiriya.

Joe Duran (ph), our photographer, shot with night vision these photographs of -- this video of aerial bombardment from 81-millimeter mortar rounds, from 150-millimeter Howitzer artillery. There were also Cobra helicopters who were flying around using their machine guns. It was very loud, very bright, probably kept everyone here awake late into the night.

We arrived here very early in the morning, and the Marines got a little bit of shuteye. Now they're waking up and waking up to this very beautiful scene behind me, the Euphrates River. They're not going to be going -- doing any swimming anytime soon, because there's a lot of work that they have to do here, more locations that they need to seize and secure.

Their mission here is one thing, to help make the route north to Baghdad more secure. You've been hearing in the last week about the -- about the militia raids, the militia attacks on convoys that were heading north. But they also plan to try to make this city more safe.

And I was just speaking with a Marine who was looking out at this view with me earlier, and he was pointing out people down there who were -- who were fishing, who were collecting water, canoes that were crossing over the river and said that's because we're here. They see us and they feel more safe. He said that other parts of town where they've been there's -- he described the other areas as ghost towns because people are afraid of these Fedayeen militia members.

While they're here, they say it's unfortunate, but they're going to be playing the role of street cop to a large extent -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Jason, is there a sense that the Marines can better identify who the enemy is right now?

BELLINI: Well it's still a very tricky situation for them. In fact, yesterday, Marines from the command element went into this area. They were doing some scouting, planning for last night's mission, and they came under attack from what they described as a taxi. They took fire from a taxi. And they also described it as a suicide attack, because you know they were in five Humvees, very well armed Marines facing this one ambush attacker. But they said that's the kind of thing that they're on the lookout for.

In fact, you know today we've seen taxis on the road, and they're keeping a very close eye on them. They said that white pickup trucks and taxis are possible vehicles for militias who are scouting them, checking out their positions. They've seen them drive by very closely and that's very ominous to them. So it's still a very tricky situation for them here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And one more question about the POW rescue, and I don't know how much you can answer about this, but Private Jessica Lynch was found in a hospital. Do you know anything at all about that hospital?

BELLINI: What we do know is that it was under the control of Fedayeen Saddam loyalists, and that's another thing they've pointed out to me here. They said that locations that they don't really want to bombard, that they really don't want to use their artillery and their mortar rounds on, places like hospitals, places like schools, are the places where they're ending up having to go on the attack because those locations are being used by the Fedayeen. And as a -- and they're getting human intelligence on the ground saying hey that's where these guys are, they're holed up in a hospital, they're holed up in the school. And so it's a -- it's a difficult one for them, they tell me, because they really don't want to go attack a hospital, but they have to when they have these militia members who are holed up inside -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jason Bellini reporting live from along the Euphrates River this morning.

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 April 2, 2003 - 06:16   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I believe we're going to Jason Bellini right now, is that correct? That is correct.
Jason Bellini, you've seen a lot of action today. Tell us about it.

JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, we're in the town of Nasiriya now, and the action we saw was on our way in. I know the big news yesterday was that very dramatic, very daring POW rescue. And the Marines we're embedded with, the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, weren't directly involved with that, but they did play a supporting role. The bombardment that they undertook in Nasiriya, two very selected locations, was designed to be -- to deter attention away from the site where they made that rescue. So it was a very loud, very bright night late last night here in Nasiriya.

Joe Duran (ph), our photographer, shot with night vision these photographs of -- this video of aerial bombardment from 81-millimeter mortar rounds, from 150-millimeter Howitzer artillery. There were also Cobra helicopters who were flying around using their machine guns. It was very loud, very bright, probably kept everyone here awake late into the night.

We arrived here very early in the morning, and the Marines got a little bit of shuteye. Now they're waking up and waking up to this very beautiful scene behind me, the Euphrates River. They're not going to be going -- doing any swimming anytime soon, because there's a lot of work that they have to do here, more locations that they need to seize and secure.

Their mission here is one thing, to help make the route north to Baghdad more secure. You've been hearing in the last week about the -- about the militia raids, the militia attacks on convoys that were heading north. But they also plan to try to make this city more safe.

And I was just speaking with a Marine who was looking out at this view with me earlier, and he was pointing out people down there who were -- who were fishing, who were collecting water, canoes that were crossing over the river and said that's because we're here. They see us and they feel more safe. He said that other parts of town where they've been there's -- he described the other areas as ghost towns because people are afraid of these Fedayeen militia members.

While they're here, they say it's unfortunate, but they're going to be playing the role of street cop to a large extent -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Jason, is there a sense that the Marines can better identify who the enemy is right now?

BELLINI: Well it's still a very tricky situation for them. In fact, yesterday, Marines from the command element went into this area. They were doing some scouting, planning for last night's mission, and they came under attack from what they described as a taxi. They took fire from a taxi. And they also described it as a suicide attack, because you know they were in five Humvees, very well armed Marines facing this one ambush attacker. But they said that's the kind of thing that they're on the lookout for.

In fact, you know today we've seen taxis on the road, and they're keeping a very close eye on them. They said that white pickup trucks and taxis are possible vehicles for militias who are scouting them, checking out their positions. They've seen them drive by very closely and that's very ominous to them. So it's still a very tricky situation for them here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And one more question about the POW rescue, and I don't know how much you can answer about this, but Private Jessica Lynch was found in a hospital. Do you know anything at all about that hospital?

BELLINI: What we do know is that it was under the control of Fedayeen Saddam loyalists, and that's another thing they've pointed out to me here. They said that locations that they don't really want to bombard, that they really don't want to use their artillery and their mortar rounds on, places like hospitals, places like schools, are the places where they're ending up having to go on the attack because those locations are being used by the Fedayeen. And as a -- and they're getting human intelligence on the ground saying hey that's where these guys are, they're holed up in a hospital, they're holed up in the school. And so it's a -- it's a difficult one for them, they tell me, because they really don't want to go attack a hospital, but they have to when they have these militia members who are holed up inside -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jason Bellini reporting live from along the Euphrates River this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com