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CNN Live At Daybreak
Iraqi Forces Retreat, Kurdish Fighters Move In
Aired April 03, 2003 - 05:43 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 want to take you to -- back to northern Iraq now. Coalition airstrikes still ongoing there and Kurdish forces are trying to secure a stretch of road between Kalak and Mosul.
Our Brent Sadler is somewhere near those towns.
Brent, bring us up to date from your vantage point.
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol, I'm talking from Soleil Minier (ph), but I've spent many days along several key parts of this largely inactive northern front. Inactive, that is, until this last few days.
What we're seeing on the ground near Kalak today, which is a couple of hours away by car from my location, is a further degradation of Iraq's front line defenses around one of two key northern cities, Mosul. CNN's Ben Wedeman has been up on the ridgeline overlooking Kalak, a ridgeline that's been pounded by coalition airstrikes over the last couple of weeks. Iraqi soldiers abandoning those positions without a fight and pulling back toward Mosul.
It's the same sort of pattern as we've seen not far from Soleil Minier at a place called Chamchamal. Again, the Iraqis pulling back without much of a fight, really consolidating their positions around Kirkuk and Mosul.
Now, I've been able to get to within about 10 miles of Kirkuk, able to see the oil capital of the north, a burning flare, a harmless flare, burning off gases from one of the major oil fields on the outskirts of Kirkuk. The first time we've been able to get within camera shot of that city. Kirkuk largely inhabited by Kurdish families, by Kurdish people, that's why Kirkuk now is gaining a lot of attention from the United States on the ground here in northern Iraq.
I can confirm, Carol, that today there are top level meetings between the Iraqi opposition. Think of these Kurdish forces working under the umbrella of the Iraqi opposition as a whole, not just Kurdish elements of that opposition, in coordination and direct liaison with U.S. Special Forces on the ground and command and control from Central Command. We know there's been a continuing build up of U.S. presence on the ground here. And we do know that the Kurdish political levels here under the umbrella of the opposition are trying to convince the United States that Kirkuk is ripe for a joint operation. Continued U.S. airstrikes against Iraqi positions around Kirkuk and a further utilization by the United States of opposition forces. And this is what Barham Salah, the Prime Minister of the Kurdish regional government in this Soleil Minier area, has to say about the U.S. Central Command using these opposition forces to even greater effects.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARHAM SALEH, PM, KURDISTAN REGIONAL GOV.: The stakes are very high. We're telling our American friends we can do it together, we can do Baghdad together, we can do Iraq together. We, the Iraqi people, together with the American liberators and the British liberators, we can achieve the task of getting rid of Saddam Hussein and his terrorist allies.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SADLER: By terrorist allies read the fact that the Kurdish and the Iraqi opposition believe that for all intent and purposes the conventional military abilities of the Iraqi army has been very badly damaged and that Saddam Hussein is now relying on regulars for terrorist-style hit-and-run operations, consolidating in the cities to mount terror-type operations, hit-and-run, suicide attacks, this kind of activity.
Back to you -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I understand. Brent Sadler reporting live from northern Iraq.
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 3, 2003 - 05:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I want to take you to -- back to northern Iraq now. Coalition airstrikes still ongoing there and Kurdish forces are trying to secure a stretch of road between Kalak and Mosul.
Our Brent Sadler is somewhere near those towns.
Brent, bring us up to date from your vantage point.
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol, I'm talking from Soleil Minier (ph), but I've spent many days along several key parts of this largely inactive northern front. Inactive, that is, until this last few days.
What we're seeing on the ground near Kalak today, which is a couple of hours away by car from my location, is a further degradation of Iraq's front line defenses around one of two key northern cities, Mosul. CNN's Ben Wedeman has been up on the ridgeline overlooking Kalak, a ridgeline that's been pounded by coalition airstrikes over the last couple of weeks. Iraqi soldiers abandoning those positions without a fight and pulling back toward Mosul.
It's the same sort of pattern as we've seen not far from Soleil Minier at a place called Chamchamal. Again, the Iraqis pulling back without much of a fight, really consolidating their positions around Kirkuk and Mosul.
Now, I've been able to get to within about 10 miles of Kirkuk, able to see the oil capital of the north, a burning flare, a harmless flare, burning off gases from one of the major oil fields on the outskirts of Kirkuk. The first time we've been able to get within camera shot of that city. Kirkuk largely inhabited by Kurdish families, by Kurdish people, that's why Kirkuk now is gaining a lot of attention from the United States on the ground here in northern Iraq.
I can confirm, Carol, that today there are top level meetings between the Iraqi opposition. Think of these Kurdish forces working under the umbrella of the Iraqi opposition as a whole, not just Kurdish elements of that opposition, in coordination and direct liaison with U.S. Special Forces on the ground and command and control from Central Command. We know there's been a continuing build up of U.S. presence on the ground here. And we do know that the Kurdish political levels here under the umbrella of the opposition are trying to convince the United States that Kirkuk is ripe for a joint operation. Continued U.S. airstrikes against Iraqi positions around Kirkuk and a further utilization by the United States of opposition forces. And this is what Barham Salah, the Prime Minister of the Kurdish regional government in this Soleil Minier area, has to say about the U.S. Central Command using these opposition forces to even greater effects.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARHAM SALEH, PM, KURDISTAN REGIONAL GOV.: The stakes are very high. We're telling our American friends we can do it together, we can do Baghdad together, we can do Iraq together. We, the Iraqi people, together with the American liberators and the British liberators, we can achieve the task of getting rid of Saddam Hussein and his terrorist allies.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SADLER: By terrorist allies read the fact that the Kurdish and the Iraqi opposition believe that for all intent and purposes the conventional military abilities of the Iraqi army has been very badly damaged and that Saddam Hussein is now relying on regulars for terrorist-style hit-and-run operations, consolidating in the cities to mount terror-type operations, hit-and-run, suicide attacks, this kind of activity.
Back to you -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I understand. Brent Sadler reporting live from northern Iraq.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
