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American Morning

With 7th Marines in Central Iraq

Aired April 03, 2003 - 09:04   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.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to go to Martin Savidge in central Iraq with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines. He joins us now.
Martin, what's going on?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, the U.S. Marines have now secured the key city of Al Kut. Al Kut is located on the Tigris River. It is one of the last rivers you're going to be crossing before you get toward Baghdad. It's a very ancient and a very crucial city because of its geographic location. Also thought it could have been a key city when came to some sort of fight with the Republican Guard. It was the Baghdad division of the Republican Guard that was headquartered in this particular region.

However, no indications of heavy fighting, but certainly if you take a look over here, all the indications of a clear U.S. military Marine buildup already in this particular area. We are beyond Al Kut now, continuing to push north. We are to the east, southeast of Baghdad, relative distance here, not accurate. It would be about 40 miles away and closing, as the Marines would like to say. There is a very large military presence in this region now.

As we drove up this road, we did pass by burned out Iraqi tanks, also also burned out Iraqi armored personnel carriers that would appear to be artillery positions, and trucks and ammunition that were blown up. This may have come as a results of the early barrage of artillery that came from the Marines this morning, and then the ground units moved in. Another burst of artillery coming from the Marines and then things got quiet, an indication if there was a fight, it was short, and if there was any kind of cleanup operation required militarily, the Marines were capable of handling with their own units, such as the mobile missiles in the back of Humvees and armored personnel carriers -- Paula.

ZAHN: Martin. We're going to break away from your report for just about 20 seconds to give our audience an idea of what the president is up to today. He is now boarding Air Force One with the first lady. He will visit Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, a little bit later on today, where he will meet privately with family members of some of the 13 known war dead from that base.

Back to Marty now. Marty, why don't we pick up with where you were talking about the whole issue of what kind of resistance you've met so far in reports indicating that the Iraqi military leadership has called the Republican guard back into Baghdad.

SAVIDGE: Well, this is something that is also being talked about here. Obviously, they expected more of a fight than they had received. The Marines are always prepared for the hardest fight, just in case it doesn't necessarily go that way. It's always a bonus. They did expect more of a fight than they got here in Al Kut. Could it be that the forces that were here were degraded because of air strikes and artillery? Maybe. Could it be they went to Iran? That remains to be seen, or could they have gone back to Baghdad? Basically, we have three options there. You can take your pick at this particular point.

What we obviously will do is continue to push on to Baghdad. The Marines are going at that time from the east side, and you've got the Army going up from the west side. I'm not a statistician, and I'm not giving away a plan here, but it would look like an encirclement, or at least an attempt to try to enclose around much Baghdad -- Paula.

ZAHN: General McChrystal warning yesterday, the closer coalition troops get to the core of the Iraqi regime, the greater the likelihood of weapons of mass destruction potentially being used. What is it then the Marines are prepared for?

SAVIDGE: Well, the Marines yesterday, as we began to move all of the way up through here, we were told they boarded their various vehicles to go to MOPP 2. We've always had the chem-suits on, had it on since the very first day of the ground offensive. MOPP 2 means we put on the rubber boots. The next step after that would be of course face mask and then finally gloves.

So there was another indication passed to us last night. We don't know what triggered that, whether there was specific intelligence or whether there was something that military forces had seen, but there was a new warning issue to all of the troops, make sure you're prepared, make sure your gear is ready, make sure it's very close at hand.

So far, though, no one has had to go farther than MOPP 2, which is the way we're dressed now -- Paula.

ZAHN: Martin Savidge, thanks so much for the update.

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 - 09:04   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to go to Martin Savidge in central Iraq with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines. He joins us now.
Martin, what's going on?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, the U.S. Marines have now secured the key city of Al Kut. Al Kut is located on the Tigris River. It is one of the last rivers you're going to be crossing before you get toward Baghdad. It's a very ancient and a very crucial city because of its geographic location. Also thought it could have been a key city when came to some sort of fight with the Republican Guard. It was the Baghdad division of the Republican Guard that was headquartered in this particular region.

However, no indications of heavy fighting, but certainly if you take a look over here, all the indications of a clear U.S. military Marine buildup already in this particular area. We are beyond Al Kut now, continuing to push north. We are to the east, southeast of Baghdad, relative distance here, not accurate. It would be about 40 miles away and closing, as the Marines would like to say. There is a very large military presence in this region now.

As we drove up this road, we did pass by burned out Iraqi tanks, also also burned out Iraqi armored personnel carriers that would appear to be artillery positions, and trucks and ammunition that were blown up. This may have come as a results of the early barrage of artillery that came from the Marines this morning, and then the ground units moved in. Another burst of artillery coming from the Marines and then things got quiet, an indication if there was a fight, it was short, and if there was any kind of cleanup operation required militarily, the Marines were capable of handling with their own units, such as the mobile missiles in the back of Humvees and armored personnel carriers -- Paula.

ZAHN: Martin. We're going to break away from your report for just about 20 seconds to give our audience an idea of what the president is up to today. He is now boarding Air Force One with the first lady. He will visit Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, a little bit later on today, where he will meet privately with family members of some of the 13 known war dead from that base.

Back to Marty now. Marty, why don't we pick up with where you were talking about the whole issue of what kind of resistance you've met so far in reports indicating that the Iraqi military leadership has called the Republican guard back into Baghdad.

SAVIDGE: Well, this is something that is also being talked about here. Obviously, they expected more of a fight than they had received. The Marines are always prepared for the hardest fight, just in case it doesn't necessarily go that way. It's always a bonus. They did expect more of a fight than they got here in Al Kut. Could it be that the forces that were here were degraded because of air strikes and artillery? Maybe. Could it be they went to Iran? That remains to be seen, or could they have gone back to Baghdad? Basically, we have three options there. You can take your pick at this particular point.

What we obviously will do is continue to push on to Baghdad. The Marines are going at that time from the east side, and you've got the Army going up from the west side. I'm not a statistician, and I'm not giving away a plan here, but it would look like an encirclement, or at least an attempt to try to enclose around much Baghdad -- Paula.

ZAHN: General McChrystal warning yesterday, the closer coalition troops get to the core of the Iraqi regime, the greater the likelihood of weapons of mass destruction potentially being used. What is it then the Marines are prepared for?

SAVIDGE: Well, the Marines yesterday, as we began to move all of the way up through here, we were told they boarded their various vehicles to go to MOPP 2. We've always had the chem-suits on, had it on since the very first day of the ground offensive. MOPP 2 means we put on the rubber boots. The next step after that would be of course face mask and then finally gloves.

So there was another indication passed to us last night. We don't know what triggered that, whether there was specific intelligence or whether there was something that military forces had seen, but there was a new warning issue to all of the troops, make sure you're prepared, make sure your gear is ready, make sure it's very close at hand.

So far, though, no one has had to go farther than MOPP 2, which is the way we're dressed now -- Paula.

ZAHN: Martin Savidge, thanks so much for the update.

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