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American Morning
Rodgers: 3-7th Cavalry Under Heavy Fire For Hours
Aired April 04, 2003 - 08:05 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: Let's check in with Walt Rodgers, who is with the 3-7th Cav at this hour to explain to us what they are doing right now.
Walt, good morning.
WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
The 7th Cavalry has seen at least 12 hours of very heavy fighting. Indeed, over the past 90 hours or more the 7th Cavalry has been under fire.
But they withstood Iraqi attempt last night to overrun their positions on more than one occasion, perhaps three occasions or more. The Iraqis set out their tank columns, T-72 tanks, and they tried to overrun the 7th Cavalry's position, which it have taken to the flank of the airport in Baghdad -- that is, Baghdad International Airport.
Again, it was not our orders to go near the airport so we're holding a flanking position and there has been extraordinarily heavy fighting throughout the earlier hours of the morning and well in to midday, early afternoon of the 7th Cavalry and that includes us. We are taking 20 millimeter, anti-aircraft fire, airburst right over our head. They were firing rocket-propelled grenades at us. There were very serious firefights.
The Bradley fighting vehicles ended up shooting depleted Uranium 25 millimeter shells at the charging Iraqi vehicles. That being the case, we had to pull back because those depleted uranium shells are not very good to stand around. But we are now back a mile-and-a-half or so from our original position, which is still taking rather heavy fire. We can hear the incoming mortars and rocket-propelled grenades -- Paula.
ZAHN: Walter, if you could, give us an idea of how heavily armed any of these Iraqi soldiers are. How are they fighting?
RODGERS: Well, what they do is they come charging forward in companies, tank companies, with fairly decent armor, Soviet vintage T- 72 tanks, although the Bradley fighting vehicles were able to knock those out. Again, none of the equipment they have is much younger than 25 years old. They do come charging forward, sometimes on dump trucks, sometimes on pickup trucks, guns blazing. Of course they are no match with the heavier fire power of the 7th Cavalry with the 7th Cav's tanks and with its Bradley fighting vehicles. But you can't fault the courage of the Iraqi soldiers and they are making something of a desperation last ditch stand to basically try to harass the 7th Cavalry in its flanking position, which it is holding somewhere west of the airport.
Again, the Iraqi soldiers some of them making kamikaze attacks, many of them determined. Again we came upon a wounded Iraqi soldier, however, whom we gave some first aid to, and I can assure you -- for him at least -- he was grateful the war was over and he was still alive -- Paula.
ZAHN: Walt Rodgers, thanks so much. We will be getting back to you throughout the 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 4, 2003 - 08:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's check in with Walt Rodgers, who is with the 3-7th Cav at this hour to explain to us what they are doing right now.
Walt, good morning.
WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
The 7th Cavalry has seen at least 12 hours of very heavy fighting. Indeed, over the past 90 hours or more the 7th Cavalry has been under fire.
But they withstood Iraqi attempt last night to overrun their positions on more than one occasion, perhaps three occasions or more. The Iraqis set out their tank columns, T-72 tanks, and they tried to overrun the 7th Cavalry's position, which it have taken to the flank of the airport in Baghdad -- that is, Baghdad International Airport.
Again, it was not our orders to go near the airport so we're holding a flanking position and there has been extraordinarily heavy fighting throughout the earlier hours of the morning and well in to midday, early afternoon of the 7th Cavalry and that includes us. We are taking 20 millimeter, anti-aircraft fire, airburst right over our head. They were firing rocket-propelled grenades at us. There were very serious firefights.
The Bradley fighting vehicles ended up shooting depleted Uranium 25 millimeter shells at the charging Iraqi vehicles. That being the case, we had to pull back because those depleted uranium shells are not very good to stand around. But we are now back a mile-and-a-half or so from our original position, which is still taking rather heavy fire. We can hear the incoming mortars and rocket-propelled grenades -- Paula.
ZAHN: Walter, if you could, give us an idea of how heavily armed any of these Iraqi soldiers are. How are they fighting?
RODGERS: Well, what they do is they come charging forward in companies, tank companies, with fairly decent armor, Soviet vintage T- 72 tanks, although the Bradley fighting vehicles were able to knock those out. Again, none of the equipment they have is much younger than 25 years old. They do come charging forward, sometimes on dump trucks, sometimes on pickup trucks, guns blazing. Of course they are no match with the heavier fire power of the 7th Cavalry with the 7th Cav's tanks and with its Bradley fighting vehicles. But you can't fault the courage of the Iraqi soldiers and they are making something of a desperation last ditch stand to basically try to harass the 7th Cavalry in its flanking position, which it is holding somewhere west of the airport.
Again, the Iraqi soldiers some of them making kamikaze attacks, many of them determined. Again we came upon a wounded Iraqi soldier, however, whom we gave some first aid to, and I can assure you -- for him at least -- he was grateful the war was over and he was still alive -- Paula.
ZAHN: Walt Rodgers, thanks so much. We will be getting back to you throughout the 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
