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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

War in Iraq: Iraqi Capital in State of Siege

Aired April 06, 2003 - 17:00   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.


WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: A high-ranking Army official warns Iraqis if they want to stay alive, to stay off the roads.
And Marines are on the move on a dangerous mission, searching for Iraqi forces and weapons that may be hiding in civilian areas. We'll take you along on this search in the suburbs.

Standing by for us right now, though, senior CNN's senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, who spent his last assignment reporting in the Iraqi capital. And CNN's Jane Arraf, who's reporting now on a U.S. bombing mission gone bad in the northern part of the country.

We'll get to them in just a moment, but first to Fredricka Whitfield.

(NEWSBREAK)

BLITZER: These are historic moments, hours in the Iraqi capital which is now in the state of siege. The U.S. military says coalition forces have Baghdad virtually cut off and warplanes are flying around the clock missions overhead. CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is tracking developments from Ruwaished, Jordan right near the Iraqi border. Another tumultuous night, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Wolf, just an hour ago I was speaking to a source in Baghdad. He said the bombing had calmed down somewhat at that time. It was lighter, the bombardments were somewhat lighter than they had been earlier in the day. Earlier in the day, he said, targets were being hit around the city in many different locations, locations that hadn't been targeted before. Up till now, it has been presidential sites, government buildings and military headquarters. He said there were places in the east of the city that were being targeted, perhaps around Iraqi troop concentrations that hadn't been targeted before. Indeed, he said in the center of the city, on occasion machine gunfire could be heard.

What he and other sources have found striking today is the number of armed Iraqis on the street of the capital, particularly in the western side, particularly in the areas close to the international airport. He says there are Republican Guard, Fedayeen fighters and Baath party fighters on the streets all with machine guns, many with rocket-propelled grenades. There are some heavy Iraqi artillery pieces, some tanks in the west of the city.

But what is striking all the people in Baghdad I'm talking to at the moment is the sheer number of people, armed people who are on the streets of the west of Baghdad at this time. And the fact that when these people are talked to, they say at this time they fully intend to continue to fight. Now, the civilians at this time in the city are saying they very much feel that they're getting caught in the crossfire. Civilians say that they believe that when they are being hit by coalition forces, hit by Iraqi forces as they try and either get out of harm's way or literally get caught up in the firefights.

The people I'm talking to in Baghdad, the sources there say, they believe 70 to 80 percent of the city's population have moved, in fact, moved out of the line of fire. But those that remain, some of them seem to be ending up in hospitals. Certainly, according to hospital authorities in Baghdad, an increasing number of people, some of them civilians arriving in the hospitals, beginning to overwhelm the hospital there. But perhaps the biggest indication of the disposition of Iraqi forces at this time coming in a statement from President Saddam Hussein to the Iraqi people delivered on Iraqi television by a news anchor dressed in a military uniform, essentially calling on those members of military units who found themselves broken away, dislocated from their original units to join back in the fight, but join up with other military units.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): In the name of God the most compassionate, the most merciful, from Saddam Hussein to all of the fighters of the Iraqi armed forces, peace be upon you. When it is in hard or difficult for any member to join their own respective unit, they can join -- they can link up with any other unit and they will be counted as such until further notice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: The overriding impression, Wolf, that we're getting from our sources in Baghdad is that those fighters on the streets of Baghdad at this time say that they fully intend to continue to fight - Wolf.

BLITZER: Nic, and this news anchor reading the statement from Saddam Hussein, making promises of rewards for martyrs or suicide bombers or others who fight with different units, what's that all about?

ROBERTSON: The motivational, we've heard this from the Iraqi leader before. This is a way to motivate people, essentially, to throw down their lives for the leadership. They have tried many other different methods appealing to religion, appealing to national identity, appealing to people's patriotism, but this is something that they're using to try and convince people that it is worth going into the fight, that it is worth dying for.

If one remembers back to Iraq when it went to war with Iran at the beginning of the 1980s, the Iraqi government paid huge amounts of money to families at that time of people, soldiers who died fighting the Iranian forces. The money the country has had since that time completely disappeared. So, it would seem this is a particularly desperate measure by the Iraqi leadership to reinstitute this feature, if you will, that if you die in the fight, if you throw down your life, then your family will get money - Wolf.

BLITZER: Nic Robertson reporting for us as he always does. Thanks Nic very much.

CNN's senior international correspondent Walter Rogers is embedded with the Army's hard-charging 3-7th Cavalry, which is now in the business of blocking roads in and out of Baghdad. More now from Walter Rodgers who's near the Iraqi capital.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALTER RODGERS, CNN SNR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: This is Walter Rogers with the U.S. 7th Calvary on the outskirts of Baghdad. The Iraqi capital, Baghdad, is now completely encircled by U.S. forces, according to U.S. Army sources. The Marines are over on the northeast and southeast quadrants, the Army, controls all other entrances to the city. What that means is all the highways into and out of the Iraqi capital are now under the control of U.S. military forces. One officer said to me, no one goes in those highways or out of those highways if they want to live. Earlier, the same Army sources told CNN that elements of the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division conducted yet another reconnaissance mission within the city limits of Baghdad. It was an armed reconnaissance position. They were not intending to stay, what they did was made a foray into the city and then retreat outward.

In the western suburbs, there continue to be operating elements of the Iraqis irregulars. They are firing on U.S. troops. Some officers are saying that the local Iraqis are saying that the Iraqi partisans, the Iraqi irregulars are now taking refuge in schools by day and coming out and fighting at night. Back to you, Wolf.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Thanks very much, Walter Rodgers. He's with the 3-7th Cavalry, right outside of Baghdad.

And just south of Baghdad, U.S. Marines are securing the suburbs as well. And it's taking them into neighborhoods where families and perhaps Iraqi forces live. CNN's Martin Savidge captures the dramatic and scary exchange for both sides, the Marines and the home owners.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): As they have for the past three days, the Marines continue to drive into the southeastern suburbs of Baghdad. And as they do, they have been encountering pockets of resistance. This is sporadic fighting that does not occur all the time but does flare-up from place to place. And they have been moving into more built up areas, complicating things for the movement of the convoys.

Other units have pushed ahead, but now the 1st Battalion 7th Brigs. In this specific area where we are at has been tasked for the job of cleanup, trying to find where the resistance is coming from. Who is it? The search-and-destroy missions, as they call it. The difficulty, of course, is they are now mixed in with the civilian population. Opposing forces are using that to their advantage. For the Marines, they have to be very careful now, have to be careful that they select their targets, and to make sure that the targets they aim at are, in fact, hostiles, while the innocent civilians are not caught in the way. It is house-to-house searches at some point.

A very poignant scene at one time that cameraman Scott McWhinnie (ph) found as these Marines moved in on a house. Now, we do have translators but not all the units have translators. They came across this one family. Through voice and hand gestures that they try to get them to come out of the house. And they do. But it's clear you can tell that the family is terrified of the presence of these Marines. Now, the Marines also as you may notice in this video are keeping their weapons well away. They are not pointing them at the women and children and the men of this family. And they are trying to assure them that it's for their own safety. The Marines have been receiving fire from this specific area. They are trying to simply search in and around the homes and once that is completed, the family was allowed to return back to their house.

Meanwhile, though, in the backyards and the back alleys and the side streets it's a different story. At times infantry units are fired upon. They call in artillery, which is used to take out some of the heavier fortified positions of Iraqi opposition.

This is the way it has gone for the past three days and may continue like that for sometime. However, last night, a special find, the 1st Battalion 7th Marines managed to capture three members of the special Republican Guard. These were men that were identified because of the I.D. cards they had with them. They weren't wearing uniforms, but they did have them in the back seat of their vehicles, as well as their weapons. The three are now being interrogated and reportedly cooperating with the Marines. It is hard, difficult, dangerous work, within the forefront of their minds always protecting Iraqi civilians.

Martin Savidge, CNN, southeast of Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: In northern Iraq, U.S. troops and their Kurdish allies have been backed by heavy air strikes in Iraqi positions, but today one of those air strikes apparently went wrong, taking a heavy toll on a Kurdish convoy. CNN's Jane Arraf is near Erbil in northern Iraq, she is joining us live.

BLITZER: Jane, tell us what happened.

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it could hardly have been more horrific or more unfortunate. Essentially, it was a convoy of Peshmerga Kurdish fighters. And as you know, the Kurdish fighters are badly paid, badly equipped but love the American forces. They see them as a liberation army. They were approaching the frontlines in northern Iraq about 20 miles from the city of Erbil, about 60 miles from Mosul when they were hit by a U.S. bomb. The bomb, obviously, dropped by mistake, but it did hit this convoy which contained, unfortunately, a senior Kurdish military leader. He happens to be the brother of Massoud Barzani, who is known here as the president, in a sense, of the region.

It also injured the son of Massoud Barzani. It killed a translator for the BBC and it injured an Afghan journalist, as well. All together, the toll was at least 18 killed, and at least 45 injured. Now, the Peshmerga, the Kurdish forces say this will not affect their relationship with the U.S. despite that. They still believe in them and still very much want to work with them. What this convoy was aiming for was the frontline of a ridge.

Now, this morning it was an amazing scene. Special forces on the ground told us that Iraqi tanks actually advanced in a rare offensive maneuver. They were without air cover at the time, so they called in air strikes. Apparently, one of these air strikes that was called in resulted in the bomb being dropped on this convoy. All throughout the day, these special forces continue to fire at the Iraqi tanks. They used mortar, gunfire, anti-tank missiles, as well as these very dramatic shots that we see indicating that they were using laser- guided bombs dropped from F-14s. In the end, they said they disabled probably about ten tanks, and they were still continuing to hold that position - Wolf.

BLITZER: Jane Arraf with all the late-breaking developments in the northern part of Iraq. Jane, thanks very much.

Let's get back to this huge battle for Baghdad, historic developments unfolding right now. CNN's Miles O'Brien is joining us. He has a satellite view of the military moves in the Iraqi capital - Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much, Wolf. The U.S. military indicating it has encircled Baghdad. Imagine what it would take to encircle Chicago or Philadelphia. Let's move in on Baghdad and give you a sense of what they're talking about. By no means are there enough U.S. troops in Baghdad to completely hermetically seal it around. This area you're seeing right here extends about 15 miles across. That's 15 miles, and it's a city of five to six million people. I'm going to overlay a map here just to help you understand a little bit better what we're talking about. There's the map. That's, the center of Baghdad. Now, if you look very closely, you can see there are key points along here, key highways which are of interest. It comes out to between eight and ten, which are the main choke points, which would be the focus for the U.S. troops. So, when they say they have it encircled, they're going after these key highways. Certainly, by no means indicates that the city is sealed off by any stretch of the imagination.

Let's talk a little bit about the airport for just a moment. Significant bit of history there as C-130, U.S. C-130 landed at what is now Baghdad International Airport, formerly Saddam International Airport. Beginning the process of bringing supplies in. That's a cargo aircraft. And no doubt that will be this runway here, runway 33 right will become a very busy place filled with U.S. aircraft in the days to come. Let's talk a little bit about this as a base of operation for the 3rd Infantry, and tell you about their foray outside the airport grounds. This is a look at it right from the ground. We're told between 2 and 3,000 Iraqi fighters became casualties as a result of this 25-mile foray into the city of Baghdad, significant casualties, very few, conversely, on the U.S. side. I'll show you quickly on the map here exactly their route. It took them right toward the center of Baghdad, and after I get a chance to do that, here we go, right there. It just went around that way.

Now, let's talk about the Marines. We haven't talked much about them. We'll take you down to a place called Salman Pak, Salman Pak is a place that supposedly had a terrorist camp. Marines expected to find 2,000 fighters. Those fighters, as Martin Savidge has been reporting to us, more or less just melted into the landscape, if you will. Take a look at some of the pictures as those Marines went through town there. Some tense moments as they went through these towns, tried to seal things up, tried to secure things.

In many cases, seeing innocents or what appeared to be innocents, obviously, expressing in this case apparent happiness as seeing the U.S. forces. But as they move north, the Marines will move toward yet another key point, which I predict we'll be hearing a little bit about in the future, up route 8 to the Rasheed airport, another significant airport in the Baghdad area, primarily a military airport. Not sure what its situation is now. Special operations perhaps has gained a foothold there, but its right along the Marine path. And we look to hear from the Marines getting near this region very soon. That's a brief overview of what's going on, Wolf.

BLITZER: Miles O'Brien, thanks very much. I suspect we'll also be hearing in the days ahead a lot about a place called Tikrit, which is Saddam Hussein's hometown just north of Baghdad, as well.

History is unfolding right now before all of us on this pivotal day. You won't want to turn away from us this hour and throughout the night here on CNN. Baghdad's in the balance as U.S. planes start landing at the huge airport there, and allied troops prepare to take the city. We'll give you all the late-breaking developments as soon as they happen.

Also, just ahead, a bold move in Basra. British forces make a dramatic push into the city. What did they encounter? We'll show you

And trying to win hearts and minds. Can the Marines bring the local population to their side as they move toward Baghdad?

All that, as well as a top United States general, he has some choice words about Saddam Hussein. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: As fighting continues across Iraq, here are some more battle scenes unfolding right now with troops now ringing Baghdad. Coalition aircraft are over the capital flying urban combat support missions around the clock and looking for so-called targets of opportunity. Some battle scenes are behind the scenes. The U.S. Central Command today showed video of special operations forces dropping in on an Iraqi airfield, securing it for coalition military use. The supply lines to the frontlines stretch for hundreds of miles. British paratroopers in southern Iraq are using helicopters to step up instant stop-and-search checkpoints along the route.

After weeks of waiting, coalition forces finally make their big push into the southern Iraqi city of Basra. British troops are striking Saddam Hussein's forces and destroying symbols of the Iraqi leader. CNN's Diana Muriel reports from Basra.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We crossed into Basra with units attached to the 1st Battalion, the Black Watch, who are part of the 7th Army Brigade, the Desert Rats. They moved into the city from the south across a bridge heading towards the shanty town district. There the tanks were engaged by Iraqi fighters, who fired AK-57s, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars. As the tanks opened fire and as the two Attack Cobra helicopters were sent in from the United States forces to strike targets, the fighters withdrew ever northward towards the center of Basra. The mortars are being fired by mobile base plates. And they were taken with them as they left the district.

The British forces were able to sweep through the south of the city. After that first engagement, there was relatively little engagement with the Iraqi fighters. There was artillery bombardment over military compounds with several Iraqi tanks destroyed in that attack. As the tanks rolled into the center of Basra, the people came out to stare, some to wave and to give the thumbs up, others more of them (ph) standing unmoved (ph) and expressionless at the side of the road.

The British forces fanned out throughout the city and have taken up various defensive positions, strategic positions within the city. They are also finding safe compounds to keep their tanks in overnight. The true test as to whether or not the Iraqi fighters have really left the city may come this evening if British forces are engaged in further fighting with them.

Diana Muriel, CNN, Basra, southern Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And stay with us for this hour. We're ready to bring you all the latest developments as U.S. forces start bringing in planes, planes to the Baghdad International Airport. The city's fate could be decided very soon.

Also, just ahead, a forward air base in southern Iraq. What kind of air cover is it providing for allied troops in Baghdad.

And the sites and sounds of a capture.

Up close and raw with British troops as they went into Basra today. U

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: Coalition forces say they've surrounded Baghdad now, are in control of all the roads leading out of the Iraqi capital. It's a noose around the neck of Saddam Hussein's regime, and that noose will tighten in the hours and days ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

Encircling Baghdad, a battle line of coalition forces. U.S. Army sources tell CNN Marines and Army troops are surrounding the capital, controlling all routes in and out, warning Iraqi forces, if you want to stay alive, stay off those roads. But U.S. commanders say they expect their soldiers to take fire from pockets of resistance in the capital. Coalition sources and people inside Baghdad tell CNN, Iraqi forces are using hospitals, schools, mosques, and even private homes to launch military operations. The Iraqis accuse the coalition of intentionally bombing those places.

Southwest of Baghdad, U.S. commanders say the first U.S. military planes landed at Baghdad's International Airport Sunday night. Two days after its capture by American troops. In the north, near Mosul, a reported friendly fire incident. At least 12 Kurdish fighters aligned with U.S.-led forces are killed. At least 45 wounded. Apparently hit by a coalition bomb as they traveled in a convoy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Amerikee (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, Amerikee.

BLITZER: In the south, a dramatic advance by British forces into Basra. The move was intended to be a raid, but British troops took only light resistance, then took hold of several key strategic positions to secure the city.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

As coalition forces stream into Baghdad, wounded Iraqi civilians and soldiers stream into Iraqi hospitals, but some injured Iraqis are also getting treatment from surgeons with the U.S. Navy. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our medical correspondent, is embedded with the U.S. military. And he has a close-up look at how the U.S. military doctors known as the Devil Docs, how they're doing.

Sanjay, tell us what's going on.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Wolf, as we've talked about so many times, this particular situation the Devil Docs are in something called a mobile operating group. They pack up and they move. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) from the actual. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we're in the back of a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) never experienced anything like this either. It is truly a thick (UNINTELLIGIBLE), and we're sitting in the back of it. And I'll tell you that it was supposed to be a three-hour trip, we are now over nine hours. That is not atypical. A lot of these road trips are heavily guarded, just not that long ago, we saw an actual fire fight. And we saw Cobra helicopters come in and really gave us an impressive light show for one thing, a lot of air-to- surface air power to end that particular fire fight. Extra security was brought in. We were in no particular danger ourselves, and now on our way even further north.

Wolf, yesterday, you and I spoke. We were 30 miles from Baghdad at that point. We are now headed even further north. Why? So that this particular mobile operating room , hospital front post, surgical operating room, can actually support frontline troops. They are ready for (UNINTELLIGIBLE). They know there's a lot going on north of here. All of these surgical operating rooms are slowly piggybacking their way closer and closer to Baghdad, are going to consolidate and develop a large hospital - large operating center to take care of whatever may come over the next couple of days, next couple of weeks in the capital - Wolf.

BLITZER: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our medical correspondent. Thanks for that report.

Some of it was hard to hear, but we certainly appreciate the excellent work you're doing. Certainly appreciate the work that the Devil Docs are doing, saving lives, U.S. as well as Iraqi lives.

And as U.S. troops tighten their grip on Baghdad, they're being backed up by coalition fighter pilots. CNN's Harris Whitbeck is at an air base in southern Iraq, the launching point for much of that air support.

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The coalition says as its forces encircle Baghdad, they are receiving a lot of support from the air, 24-7 air patrols now in the skies of Baghdad. And a lot of those air missions come from this forward air base in southern Iraq, A-10 Warthog combat planes have been flying missions pretty much constantly today. They don't tell us exactly where they're going, but we have been told they are very near the vicinity of Baghdad. Mostly providing close ground support for those troops that are on the ground.

Meanwhile, on this Sunday, a lot of people tried to take some time to attend worship services. The chaplain here, U.S. Air Force chaplain held the first Protestant worship service at this forward air base since it was taken by coalition forces several days ago. Troops here saying they expect to be here for quite some time. Coalition saying that this air base is expected to become a major hub for the flow of humanitarian aid once security conditions permit it.

Harris Whitbeck, CNN, at a forward air base in southern Iraq.

BLITZER: And we're watching Baghdad very closely tonight, significant Iraqi casualties have been reported in the battle for the capital. And we'll bring you all the latest from there as soon as it happens

Just ahead, what a top United States general says about Saddam Hussein. Calling into question his prowess as a commander.

The raw images of urban combat, up close with British troops as they move in on Basra.

And remembering a colleague. Another prominent American journalist dies in Iraq. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: These are critical hours in Baghdad. It's almost daybreak over there. It's getting, obviously, closer towards daylight. A lot of activity going on today. Much more activity will be going on tomorrow. The U.S. military now having encircled the Iraqi capital, all roads leading in and out of Baghdad now firmly under U.S. military control. We're watching the situation in Baghdad. We're also watching the latest headlines. For that, let's go back to CNN's Fredricka Whitfield in the newsroom in Atlanta.

(NEWSBREAK)

BLITZER: Amid all these momentous developments in and around the capital, President Bush is now preparing for this week's summit in Northern Ireland. He and the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his closest ally, will discuss the course of the war and also look ahead to postwar Iraq. Let's go live to our White House correspondent, Chris Burns -- Chris.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf. The president making a quick stop overnight here from Camp David passing through to the White House on his way to Belfast. Why this hastily organized trip to Belfast is how quickly things are moving on the battlefield, and how quickly they have to decide what to replace Saddam Hussein with. That is the overriding issue as they meet in Belfast through Tuesday night. The question is how quickly should they hand power from a military regime or military authority over to some kind of an Iraqi interim authority. How much power should be given to them, how much of a role the U.N. should play. The face-off between the leading members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN WARNER (R-VA), CHAIRMAN, ARMED SERVICES CMTE.: The president through his secretary of state said that the United Nations should be partners. I add to that phrase, yes, they should be partners, but the managing partners. In other words, those with the ultimate responsibility for the interim period should be representatives from the coalition forces, the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Poland and others who have taken a very active role.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNS: Carl Levin, the ranking Democrat on that committee coming back and saying you don't want an American occupation force. You want to quickly hand it over to some kind of a regime that includes perhaps supervision by the United Nations, a debate that's going to play out with Tony Blair pushing that angle when he meets with President Bush on Tuesday - Wolf.

BLITZER: Chris Burns at the White House. Chris, thank you very much for that report.

And as the U.S. military tightens its stranglehold around Baghdad, there's one big remaining obstacle standing between it and toppling the regime, namely innocent civilians. For that, let's go to our senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre - Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SNR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: And in that interview with you Earlier today Wolf, Peter Pace, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs had another warning that despite the success so far by the United States, the U.S. military faces significant combat ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE ((voice-over): The tears of a terrified girl as U.S. Marines hold An Iraqi family at gunpoint illustrate the biggest complication for U.S. troops as they move in on Baghdad. How to surgically destroy the Iraqi regime without devastating the Iraqi people.

BRIG. GEN. VINCENT BROOKS, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: It is clear, at this point, that the risk is increasing to the civilian population because of decisions made by regime leaders.

MCINTYRE: The U.S. Central Command says the blue arrows in this reconnaissance photograph point to places in Baghdad where military equipment has been placed next to homes in a residential area to protect it from aerial attack. And the U.S. accuses Iraqi forces of conducting military operations from the mother-of-all-battles mosque, a sacred site in the northwest section of the city, as well as the Saddam Hospital, both of which are on the U.S. no strike list.

The U.S. is moving quickly to consolidate its gains, flying supplies into its main operating base at the renamed Baghdad International Airport, while concentrating ground forces and aerial surveillance on the main roads.

GEN. PETER PACE, JOINT CHIEFS VICE CHAIR.: We do control the highways in and out of the city and do have the capability to interject, to stop, to attack any Iraqi military forces that might try to either escape or to engage our forces.

MCINYTRE: Pentagon sources say the U.S. will conduct more armored raid in which U.S. tanks and Bradleys roar through the streets. The idea is twofold: A show of force and a chance to lure Iraqi troops into an overmatched dual. The Pentagon doesn't know, but estimates its conquest of Baghdad may have killed between 2,000 and 3,000 Iraqi soldiers. And it believes thousands of others have abandoned their weapons and melted into the city. Sources also say the U.S. may launch other forays into Baghdad if there's a chance to capture or kill Saddam Hussein or any of his inner circle.

BROOKS: We want to attack a specific regime location where a meeting is ongoing and kill everyone that is in the meeting. We might do that in some cases. That could happen in Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: While the U.S. doesn't discuss future operations, this prediction from a senior defense official, look for the United States to seize more territory in Baghdad over the next 24 hours - Wolf.

BLITZER: Jamie McIntyre, thanks very much. Jamie is at the Pentagon, of course

And will the reopening of the Baghdad International Airport to coalition military transports alter the battle for Baghdad? Joining me now from Little Rock, CNN military analyst, retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark, the former NATO supreme allied commander. General Clark, what does that do for the takeover of the Iraqi capital, the fact that that huge airport outside of Baghdad is now firmly under U.S. military control?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), FMR. NATO SUPREME ALLIED CMDR., CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Wolf, it certainly gives us a lot more flexibility in the coalition forces. It can bring in supplies, and logistics. You can bring in special operations units. You can use it as a launching pad.

Plus, it's a huge important psychological symbol, not only inside Iraq but for the whole world the effectiveness of the coalition campaign.

CLARK: When I spoke with General Pace, Peter Pace, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs earlier today, he said they could go in on these forays, he called them armored raids into Baghdad almost at will, and then they leave. But at some point, they're going to have to stay and fight it out, maybe street to street, maybe house to house with those Fedayeen Saddam and the special security organization fighters that the Iraqis still have. That sounds like it could be incredibly risky to U.S. lives.

CLARK: It could, Wolf, but I think that the strategy the administration has picked here for the fight on Baghdad is a wise one, for this reason, because there's a lot of flexibility, there's a lot of deception, there's a lot of surprise in the raid process. And each raid consumes casualties, throws the Iraqis off balance and demonstrates again the overpowering superiority of the coalition, the American forces that are in Baghdad. And so, by the time, it is necessary to seize those facilities or the opportunity presents itself, we'll have a very good understanding of the enemy's strengths, dispositions, his capabilities. We will have reduced their air force significantly, and we'll be more confident that we can not only seize but hold and secure key areas of the terrain. I think this is very similar in pattern to what you've seen unfolding in Basra over the last two weeks.

BLITZER: In that initial three-hour foray into Baghdad, General Pace told me that they believe they wound up killing 2,000 to 3,000 Iraqi soldiers, virtually no U.S. casualties. How do you explain that?

CLARK: Well, the United States has very, very important technological advantages. Unlike previous efforts in urban combat, we control the skies. We have unmanned aerial vehicles overhead. We have real-time communications with our Air Force, our artillery, the intelligence community. We know where we are in that city. So this is important. But the other side of it is the Iraqi side. They're disorganized, they're not effectively trained. They're full of fighting spirit but they lack the real hard organizational skills, and training and fighting capabilities at the bottom to be terribly effective against these very competent American forces.

BLITZER: One final question, General, before I let you go, the fear of chemical or biological weapons being used against U.S. troops as they move into Baghdad. The notion is a lot of experts are saying that fear is really realistically gone now because the Iraqis would wind up killing thousands of Iraqis, very few U.S. Marines or soldiers, because they're well prepared for that. They have the equipment. They have the suits. But in an urban area, they would wind up killing their own people. Is that a realistic assessment?

CLARK: I think that would be the great probability. There's always a small possibility that these weapons could be used in some pinpoint area. But you know, as you look at the whole course of this campaign, Wolf, what we've seen is the initiative and the tempo of the coalition of operations have continuously kept the Iraqis off balance. The U.S. forces and British forces did not sit in Kuwait waiting to be, in the terms of the soldiers, slimed with chemical weapons. They moved out. And even now as they're moving around Baghdad, from the standpoint of an Iraqi targeting cell, these allied forces must form a very difficult target. Other than Baghdad International Airport, no one knows precisely where they are. And, after all, that airport's a very big target. So it's not as easy to strike them even if you had the will to do so and the means at hand, because you can't really pin them down.

BLITZER: And I can only imagine the excitement of seeing that first C-130 Hercules transport land at Baghdad International Airport earlier in the day. General Clark, thanks so much for joining us.

Baghdad is again where the battle lines are being drawn. Will there be another significant move on the capital tonight? Stay with us throughout this hour, indeed, throughout the night here on CNN. We'll be updating you whenever anything happens. We're live 24 hours a day.

Just ahead, capturing Basra. You're there with British troops making a bold move on that city.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Turning now to some of the dramatic images of this war in Iraq. The U.S. Central Command says it's investigating an apparently friendly fire incident in northern Iraq, where a convoy of Kurdish fighters working with coalition forces was bombed. The Kurds say 18 people were killed. In Baghdad, Iraqi soldiers and civilians climbed on top of charred tanks. Iraqi officials said it was an American vehicle destroyed Saturday when U.S. armor pushed into the streets of the capital.

In southern Iraq, Navy CBs have been rebuilding bridges to help keep supplies flowing to the troops. Some bridges destroyed in fighting at the outset of the war have been replaced with temporary floating bridges. While U.S. troops say they've surrounded Baghdad, British forces are pushing deep into the southern Iraqi city of Basra. The British military says it's taken up key positions there but is battling pockets of resistance. Here's a look at the battle for Iraq's second largest city. We're taking you to the front lines right now, take a look and a listen.

And as you are watching that battle, Reuters is now reporting six huge explosions heard in the southern outskirts of the Iraqi capital. We're watching, we're waiting to see what that means. We're watching all of the situation in Baghdad right now at this hour, indeed, Baghdad is clearly in the balance. We're watching developments there, as well as elsewhere around the country, and we'll bring them to you as soon as they happen.

Also, just ahead, Saddam Hussein's command authority questioned by the vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Following several hours of relative quiet, six huge explosions have just rocked the southern outskirts of Baghdad. We're watching live pictures from Baghdad. We're watching what's happening, southern outskirts of Baghdad. U.S. Marines are there, U.S. Army soldiers are there. They're also in control of the airport in the southwestern suburbs of the Iraqi capital. We'll continue to update you on information as we get it. Events, as you can see, are unfolding rapidly inside Iraq. CNN's Miles O'Brien has a quick recap of the most recent developments.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): At 9:02 a.m., CNN's Walter Rogers reports, according to a senior official, Marine and Army troops now have Baghdad encircled, controlling all roads into and out of the city.

11:37 a.m., Howard Kurtz of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES" reports embedded journalist David Bloom has died of natural causes while covering the war in Iraq.

12:20 p.m., a spokesman for the Russian foreign ministry says at least five people were injured when a convoy carrying Russian diplomats and journalists trying to flee war-torn Iraq was attacked as it headed for the Syrian border. U.S. officials said there were no coalition forces operating in the area at the time of the incident.

1:11 p.m., CNN's Walter Rogers reports the first U.S. military aircraft has landed at Baghdad's International Airport. Baghdad Airport was captured by American troops two days ago.

3:11 p.m., CNN's Nic Robertson reports his sources say many civilians in Baghdad feel that they are being caught in the crossfire. They say they are being hit by both coalition and Iraqi forces.

3:31 p.m., CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, embedded with the coalitions Devil Docs, reports that the medical convoy is slowly approaching Baghdad. The doctors are expecting to deal with thousands of casualties in the next few days.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: CNN's Miles O'Brien reporting on the most recent developments. Earlier today, I discussed the war, its striking successes and the dangers which still lie ahead with the vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace. He also had some choice words about Saddam Hussein. General Pace appeared on CNN's "LATE EDITION."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEN. PETER PACE, VICE CHMN. JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: There's no doubt that it is still possible that we will have some significant combat ahead of us, and I would never want anyone to think that that is not possible. On the other hand, I am very comfortable and very confident that the soldiers and Marines who we might call on to do that have been trained exceptionally well, and that they will be equally efficient in the city as they have been in the countryside. There are significant military force all around the city of Baghdad, but it is a huge perimeter.

So, I don't want the viewers to think that there's a soldier every 10 or 15 feet. We do control the highways in and out of the city and do have the capability to interject, to stop, to attack any Iraqi military forces that might try to either escape or to engage our forces. The force that has arrived on their doorstep is a significant, capable force that we prefer that the leaders of the Iraqi armed forces do the honorable thing, stop fighting for a regime that does not deserve your loyalty. Surrender your forces and give yourselves and your troops the opportunity to be a part of Iraq's future and not a part of Iraq's past.

Part of the mission is to do away with the Iraqi regime, to have that regime replaced by free government. Whether or not Saddam is killed or captured is not -- the specifics of that are not as important as the fact that his regime will be replaced. His people will feel free to stand up and determine what their own future is going to be. Don't know if he's alive or dead. Do know that the night that we attacked the location that we thought he was, that we had very, very good intelligence corroborated by several sources. Since that time, those same sources have not shown any indication that he's alive. So, if he is alive, he is proving himself to be one of the world's worst generals. And if he's dead, he's dead.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: General Peter Pace, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff appearing earlier today on CNN's late edition. We're monitoring dramatic developments in Baghdad right now, within the past few moments. Six more explosions heard in the southern outskirts of the Iraqi capital. The moment something else happens, we'll bring it to you. You'll see it here live first on CNN.

Also at the top of the next hour, the latest on the investigation into a deadly friendly fire incident in northern Iraq. But just ahead, the unexpected loss of a colleague and a friend in Iraq today. Remembering David bloom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Friends and colleagues remember journalist David bloom who died of natural causes, a blood clot while covering the war in Iraq, remember him as a great reporter, a great friend, a great father, a great husband. Those of us who knew the ten-year veteran of NBC News say while his passing is indeed tragic and oh, so sad, he died doing what he loved best. Here's Howard Kurtz of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOWARD KURTZ, "RELIABLE SOURCES": When I last talked to David Bloom in Iraq a few days ago, he told me with his usual burst of enthusiasm, we're here to tell the soldiers' stories. He was clearly having the time of his life riding in that tank reporting from sandstorms, in night vision goggles, his face covered with dust, hair whipping in the wind, narrating the 3rd Infantry Divisions progress toward Baghdad. It would prove to be his last assignment.

As a young reporter in Miami, Bloom charged up to a looter during Hurricane Andrew and asked a man making off with boxes whether he was embarrassed at what he was doing.

DAVID BLOOM: Are you trying to hide your face?

KURTZ: Bloom seemed impossible to embarrass. As a White House correspondent, he charged up to President Clinton to shout a question in a roped off area, then laughed it off when Clinton got even by stiffing him at the next press conference. Bloom knew he was sometimes regarded as a pretty boy, and he overcame that impression by working his tail off. Three years ago, he was drafted as the co-anchor of "Weekend Today." And while it seemed to me to be a waste of reporting talent, while he did the fluff and the cooking segments, he put his heart into it. I wasn't surprised, though, when he answered the bell, jumping at the chance to cover a war.

I know we in the news business make too much of journalism wartime when American soldiers take greater risks. "Washington Post" columnist Michael Kelly also got plenty of press when he died in a Humvee accident this week. But someone like Bloom reporting from the desert around the clock on little sleep becomes, in a sense, the face of the war, the narrator of the war, bringing the soldiers stories, good and bad, into our homes.

The last thing David Bloom said to me when I asked a question about embedded correspondents getting to close to the troops was that he could identify with the soldier who told him he just missed his kid's birthday. Bloom told me he had just missed the birthdays of his nine-year-old twins. Now, all of us in his extended television family will miss him. "RELIABLE SOURCES," I'm Howard Kurtz.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: And from everyone here at CNN, from the top management on down, our deepest condolences to David Bloom's wife, his three daughters and his entire family.

Please stay with CNN throughout the night for up-to-the-minute war coverage. A reminder you can catch another hour of "WOLF BLITZER REPORTS." That begins right now. But first, we have another edition of our top headlines. Here's CNN's Fredricka Whitfield.

(NEWSBREAK)

BLITZER: You're looking at live pictures of Baghdad, where there has been sporadic gunfire and bombing on the outskirts of the city all day long, including in the last few minutes. Six explosions heard in the southern part of the city.

Hello from Kuwait City. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting. U.S. forces say they have indeed encircled the Iraqi capital, controlling all roads in and out of Baghdad. The latest from there in just a moment.

In southern Iraq, British forces have moved into the city of Basra after having encircled it for two weeks. They've been able to take strategic positions, despite meeting some resistance in town and at the city's airport. Tim Ewart of Britain's ITN is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TIM EWART, ITN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The British tanks rolled out this morning, two weeks after laying siege to the city of one million people. From their positions on its outskirts, they rumbled through the city gates. Hundreds of tanks, armored vehicles and fighting men of the Desert Rats. From the ground, they took out enemy positions. And from the air, they flew in reinforcements.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had an IED, an improvised explosion device, thrown in over the wall, which took out quite a lot of the windows in this school building that we had occupied.

EWART: Most of the resistance came from small arms fire, from radical militia dressed in civilian clothes. There seemed to be no cohesive fighting force here and no sign of the feared Republican Guard. Soldiers of the Irish Guards were soon out of their worry of fighting vehicles and on the streets for the first time. The road behind them littered with the shells of burnt out Iraqi tanks.

This was meant to be a lightning raid. But now they're here to stay, and it does appear that some of the locals, at least, are happy to see them, knowing that help and the end of an oppressive regime is on its way.

By early afternoon, flanked by helicopter gunships, British Challenger tanks had shot their way close to the city's center. They're now fortifying their positions and clearing away the last pockets of resistance.

(on camera): Tonight the British control most of Basra, but not all of it. They think any significant opposition has been crushed, but they can't be sure. This remains a dangerous place for the troops to be.

Tim Ewart, ITV News, Basra.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: At the same time, the first coalition plane has landed at the newly named Baghdad International Airport, two days after the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry took control of the sprawling facility. The first flight was a C-130, Hercules transport plane. Two more flights were expected to follow. Iraq's information minister, Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf, has been denying that the airport is in coalition hands. Although it may not completely be secure, the airport is clearly under coalition control and U.S. troops are making some surprising discoveries as they explore the giant complex, including several dozen missiles as well as a VIP lounge used by Iraqi officials.

And on the streets of Baghdad itself, there is some semblance of normality, not much but some. The daily calls to prayer continue, and people were on the streets today doing a bit of shopping. But that changed with nightfall; the Iraq government has imposed an overnight curfew.

U.S. Army forces are entrenched just southwest of Baghdad. And today they launched another reconnaissance mission directly into the capital city. CNN's Walter Rodgers is with the 3-7th Cavalry.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RODGERS: U.S. Army sources have told CNN that the Iraq capital of Baghdad is now, quote, "completely encircled." He went on to tell us that the highways into and out of the city, both to the northeast and southwest, northwest, southeast are controlled by the United States Marines and the United States Army. And one soldier said quote, "nothing goes into that city or out of that city if they want to live." Now, that same source also told us there was another armed reconnaissance into Baghdad earlier by the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, again armed reconnaissance, looking for Iraqi pockets of resistance. It made a foray into the city, did not stay and his since come out.

Again, the 7th Cavalry, the unit with which I am embedded, continually comes under sporadic fire. CNN has been told that local civilians have approached the Army and explained to the Army that the Fedayeen, the most militant of Saddam Hussein's troops, take refuge in Iraqi schools during the day, and then they leave the sanctuary of those schools, come out at night, fire anti-tank missiles, machine guns and sniper fire at the U.S. 7th Cavalry in the darkness. Again, this is a battle particularly in the western suburbs, that continues to know no real boundaries nor frontlines.

Walter Rodgers, CNN, with 7th Cavalry, on the western outskirts of Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: For more now on this historic battle for Baghdad, let's go to CNN's Nic Robertson. He's monitoring developments just over the border from Iraq in Ruwaished (ph), Jordan. What's your latest assessment? What's unfolding on the streets of Baghdad right now, Nic?

ROBERTSON: Streets very quiet. That curfew pretty much in place. The roads in and out of the city sealed by Iraqi forces on the inside, coalition forces on the outside. What we're hearing from our sources who have been into the west of Baghdad, which is predominantly becoming a very militarized area now, they're seeing a lot of Republican Guard fighters, a lot of Fedayeen fighters and a lot of Baath Party activists all armed.

What is surprising the people we're talking to is the numbers of people that are armed and on those streets in the west of Baghdad. And they're saying they're very surprised when they talk to these people, because these people say that they will continue to fight, continue to hold out. That's their intention.

When they talk to civilians, it's a completely different picture. The civilians, they say at this time are becoming increasingly afraid, increasingly concerned, increasingly worried. Indeed, the civilians are saying they just don't care anymore. They want the conflict to be over. They just want to get back to peace. The civilians, they say, are beginning to feel that they're getting caught in the crossfire. Certainly the images coming from the hospitals in Baghdad that are getting increasing numbers of wounded and dead beginning to support that picture. The civilians are saying that it's both -- they're getting caught up somehow in both coalition forces fire and both Iraqi forces fire, that they are becoming the unintended targets, because they are just where the fighting is.

Now, our sources do say that about 70 or 80 percent of the civilians have moved out of the line of fire, out of those residential areas that are close to both the coalition forces and close to Iraqi forces. But perhaps the best indication of how the battle is going so far, a message from President Saddam Hussein today to Iraqi fighters, saying that if they had lost contact with their units, then they should remake contact with other elements of the army and fight in an organized way with those other elements.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful from Saddam Hussein to all of the fighters of the Iraqi armed forces, peace be upon you. When it is hard or difficult for any member to join their own respective unit, they can join -- they can link up with any other unit and they will be counted as such until further notice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: And perhaps this is the first indication that there is a breakdown in the structure, if you will, of the Iraqi military at this time -- Wolf. BLITZER: The whole Arab world is obviously watching this oh so carefully. These daily briefings we get from the Iraqi minister of information, Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf, are they credible in the Arab world? Are people in the Arab world really believing what he's saying?

ROBERTSON: Well, Wolf, it's not even clear if it's credible in Baghdad at this time, never mind the Arab world. I think the picture that is emerging for the Arab world is the same picture that we're seeing, that is that coalition forces definitely are at Baghdad International Airport, that they are coming under fire. But they are not, as the minister of information is telling everyone, being killed off and being driven out. And I think that is the message that is being seen in the Arab world.

Obviously many people in the Arab world extremely sympathetic to the Iraqi population, the civilians who live in Baghdad, and that's perhaps the element of the situation in Baghdad, that they're focusing on at this time. But I don't think there is any doubt really for most people, apart from the most die-hard fighters, if you will, the people who are backing the regime and have done for years, I don't think there is any doubts of them that the coalition is there on the outskirts of Baghdad, in control and not planning to leave any time soon -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Nic Robertson, helping us better understand what's going on inside Iraq right now. Thanks, Nic, very much.

And joining me now to talk a little bit more about these late- breaking developments in the war in Iraq is CNN military analyst, retired U.S. Army Brigadier General David Grange. He's joining us in Oak Brook, Illinois. General Grange, how difficult is it going to be to capture Baghdad?

BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, it depends on when the assault starts, Wolf. You know, I was just looking at some of the footage that was shown in the discussions with Nic Robertson, and if you look at some of the Iraqi soldiers that were doing the drill, getting into fighting position and getting out, if you notice carefully, they had an AK-47 or whatever weapon they had; they had no other ammunition. They had no military web gear to hold ammunition. It's almost like it's obviously a propaganda piece. They're forced to do that. So a lot of I think the armed resistance that you may see is not going to be armed resistance except for the Fedayeen, the special Republican Guards and the Iraqi special forces, those types, in the city. But if they keep the pressure on, the coalition force keeps the pressure on, it may not be as difficult. And again, it's one of those things, why rush in if the conditions aren't right yet?

BLITZER: So do you think that the model that the British used over the past two weeks in basically encircling Basra, the second largest city of Iraq, more than a million residents there, that might be the same kind of model the U.S. will use, having encircled Baghdad right now, 4.5, five million people who live there? GRANGE: Maybe so, because a lot of the people are just waiting to see what's going to happen. And then I think that a lot of the Iraqi people will cooperate with the coalition forces. Right now, of course, if you cooperate, you die by the hard-core elements in Saddam's regime. And I think the British example in Basra is a good one. If you have positional advantage -- in other words, you call the shots on time -- why rush it? Why not attack when the time, the supplies, the conditions with the people, because the people have to be a part of this thing, are proper for certain victory? There really is no rush.

BLITZER: If the U.S. Army or the Marines were to send in M1A1 battle tanks or these Bradley armored personnel carriers into Baghdad itself, do the Iraqis have anti-tank missiles, if you will, the kind of weaponry that can destroy a tank or an APC?

GRANGE: There are some anti-tank weapons that, yes, can destroy, can at least disable U.S. and British tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. But the conditions have to be right. Quite often, it takes multiple shots like from above and buildings above and narrow streets and things like that. But the coalition forces know that, and they will employ their armor with dismounted infantry and other combined (UNINTELLIGIBLE), like artillery, mortars and attack gunships in concert as they move throughout the city. And so, yes, it's dangerous, but they can operate. It's just that the ranges are short, it's very face-to-face type combat, and some of the coalition armor is degraded in their capability.

BLITZER: And certainly a lot of civilians in Baghdad, and the U.S. anxiously trying to avoid innocent Iraqi deaths. General Grange, thanks very much. We'll talk, obviously, later as well. General David Grange, retired U.S. Army brigadier general.

It looked like the scene from hell. A friendly fire attack leaves 18 dead, 45 wounded.

Plus, civilians in the crossfire. Urban combat forces, Marines, U.S. Marines. It forces them to go down a delicate tightrope.

And fallen friend. NBC loses a veteran journalist. We all lose a good friend, a great colleague. But first, these images from the frontlines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: You're looking at earlier pictures of Baghdad, a remarkable, remarkable scene, the sounds of gunfire, the sounds of bombs and the sounds of prayer all ring out. Welcome back to our continuing coverage. U.S. Central Command says an investigation is now under way into an apparent friendly fire incident in northern Iraq that killed 17 Kurdish fighters working with U.S. Special Forces along with a civilian translator. Julian Manyon of Britain's ITN has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIAN MANYON, ITN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is another friendly fire disaster. This morning, an American bomb destroyed a convoy carrying high officials of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, which have been fighting alongside the Americans on the northern front. At least 17 Kurdish commanders and their guards were killed, along with an interpreter working for the BBC. More than 40 were injured. The military chief of the Kurdish KDP, the brother of their leader, Massud Barzani, was gravely hurt.

(on camera): Trying to organize a northern front with just a few hundred U.S. Special Forces troops and the poorly armed Kurdish Peshmerga guerrillas was always going to be a high-risk exercise. The idea was to open the way with heavy sustained American bombing of Iraqi positions. But today, it all went disastrously wrong.

(voice-over): Even as we filmed the wreckage, U.S. jets were still dropping their bombs nearby. Giant explosions erupted down the road.

Earlier, we had joined another convoy of U.S. Special Forces troops and Kurdish fighters as they tried to move south through country abandoned by the Iraqi army. At first, all was calm. American troops controlled the operation from a rooftop. Then, as the Kurds advanced again, the Iraqis opened up.

(on camera): Now we're hearing the boom of Iraqi guns as they fire towards our positions. All morning, the Kurds have been trying to advance, and that was the shell going off.

(voice-over): The Iraqi gunners rapidly found our range, and we took refuge in an abandoned farm house.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down. Get down!

MANYON: We finally managed to get out by car.

Here in the north, Iraqi tanks and guns are still firing, and the American effort is looking a little ragged.

Julian Manyon, ITV News, on the northern front.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And a grizzly find in southern Iraq as well. Soldiers stumble upon the remains of as many as 400 people. We'll have a full report.

And as U.S. forces push into Baghdad, I'll talk to the grandson of General George Patton about lessons learned from World War II. First, these images from the battlefield.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: You're looking at more images from the battle for Basra, the second largest city in Iraq. British Royal Marines have moved into the city, but the U.S. Central Command reports there are still pockets of stiff resistance. Forensic teams are on the scene of a gruesome discovery. Yesterday, British Marines near Basra found a warehouse full of remains which experts now believe date back to the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

CNN's Richard Blystone has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD BLYSTONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It had been billed as a helicopter trip, a rarity. The lure: news reports about possible evidence of atrocities by the Baghdad regime. The military warned reporters they'd have to stay back from a "crime investigation."

The merciless crushing of a southern Iraqi uprising 12 years ago is well-known, but visual proof now of the regime's brutality would bolster the U.S. and British government's case for removing it. The buses were the first indication this might not be the big one.

Finally, southwest of the battle for Basra, the scene: an artillery complex now occupied by British troops, what might have been a prison. These words mean, My life is suffering, I have nothing left. And piles and piles of documents, records of these dead, 408 of them, mostly Iraqi, the rest Iranian.

There is a U.S. exploitation team here. It looks for evidence of Baghdad wrongdoing, like weapons of mass destruction.

COL. RICHARD MCPHEE, EXPLOITATION TEAM: Exploitation is more than just WMD. It's -- in a case just like here, why we have this team we brought out, in that we were here to see if there were any abuses conducted.

BLYSTONE: The forensic investigation, we're told, is going on. The remains themselves ask a question. If this was a murder camp, would the killers dig up the bodies, put them in bags, and keep careful records of them?

C.W.O. DAN WALTERS: The indications are is that this was a makeshift morgue. This facility was used in the process of repatriating soldiers from Iran and Iraq back to their families.

BLYSTONE: The remains, we're told, date from the 1980 to '88 Iran-Iraq war which killed hundreds of thousands on both sides.

Before this war, the two countries had been periodically exchanging prisoners and remains. These will, in time, be processed and, with honor, returned to their families. Meanwhile, this day, a sad substitute for a gun salute.

Richard Blystone, CNN, near Basra, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Now a brief look at some other scenes from the battle front today. While Baghdad remains the focus of attention, coalition forces are still very busy in the south. Abu Dhabi TV showed heavy fighting in Karbala in south central Iraq. We have no word on casualties. And farther south in Umm Qasr, there is food, but not yet enough water. Crowds of civilians surrounded coalition forces as they handed out bottles. United Nations officials say water has been in short supply since before the war.

In northern Iraq, with the help of coalition air strikes, another town has fallen to Iraqi Kurds, the largest one yet.

CNN's Ben Wedeman has the story from there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There is a new sheriff in this town north of Mosul. The Iraqi army left after overnight air strikes and a battle with Kurdish forces. Now the Kurds stroll triumphantly through the dusty, rubble-strewn streets of Shaikhan, a mixed town of Arabs, Kurds, Christians, and Yazides (ph), adherents of an ancient religion indigenous to northern Iraq.

Savoring the glow of victory, a Kurdish fighter tinkers with an antiaircraft gun freshly captured from the Iraqi army. Shaikhan took a heavy pounding from coalition aircraft. Huge craters dot the landscape. One bomb fell in this residential area, killing at least one civilian and destroying several homes.

(on camera): This is the biggest town yet to fall to the Kurds. But despite the retreat of the Iraqi army, the fear of Saddam Hussein stays on.

(voice-over): Townspeople flee Shaikhan, worried the Iraqi army might counterattack. And after nearly two and a half decades under Saddam Hussein, the concept that the Iraqi leader could become history is hard to grasp.

"In 1991, the Iraqis were slaughtered because you Americans told us to rise up," this man tells me. "We just don't trust you." What if Saddam were to actually go this time, I ask him. "It would be a miracle from God," he responds.

Not everyone is skeptical. One local leader seemed pleased to see CNN camerawoman Mary Rogers (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to Shaikhan. Thank you. Thank you for you and for all American man and British men, and all men help Kurdish people to freedom of Iraq.

WEDEMAN: Freedom for some means prison for others. These Iraqi soldiers had changed into civilian dress hoping to avoid arrest. Before being driven away, a small act of kindness from their captors.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Shaikhan, northern Iraq. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: U.S. troops circling Baghdad, the noose around Saddam Hussein's regime getting tighter and tighter. Find out the latest.

Also, urban combat, civilians in the cross fire. The delicate balance of security and humanity.

And gone, but not forgotten. An untimely death, very untimely. Journalists mourn the loss of a good friend and colleague. But first, these images from the front lines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

BLITZER: Thanks very much, Fredricka. I want to go immediately to CNN's Thomas Nybo. He is in northern Iraq. We have him on the phone. There appears to be a significant artillery battle underway right now. Thomas, if you can hear me, tell us what is going on, where you are, and set the scene for us.

THOMAS NYBO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in northern Iraq, I am in the vicinity of Erbil. I just returned from a night attack with the 173rd Airborne. Essentially what happened was they had Special Forces guys on the ground. They had word of about -- as many as 500 Iraqi soldiers dug into fighting positions. And so, they got within about 16 kilometers. They had two Howitzer cannons, and they unleashed a fury of about 50 rounds fired down, rained down upon the Iraqi soldiers. The initial word is that the attack was successful. It could take 24 hours to get a full battle assessment. Now, the reason that this is important, there had been aerial bombardments before, but the Iraqis supposedly could see the planes coming. The 173rd wanted to catch them off guard. They had no way of knowing what was coming. The ammunition just rained down from the sky, 50 rounds fired here in northern Iraq.

BLITZER: Thomas, what kind of artillery does the U.S. have, what kind of artillery pieces do they have mobile that can move into a battle like that?

NYBO: Essentially, I was part of a convoy -- there were about 12 vehicles in the convoy, Humvees, and they were towing two Howitzers. They were firing 105 millimeter shells. It was very quick. We moved in. They set up very quickly. All of the firing took place within about one hour.

They fired 50 rounds of 105 millimeter artillery. As soon as they were finished, they packed up and got out of there as quickly as they could.

BLITZER: Thomas Nybo with the latest from northern Iraq, not far from the strategically important town of Erbil. A huge artillery blast, U.S. Army personnel attacking Iraqi troops with artillery, Howitzers, a strong report from Thomas Nybo. Thanks very much, Tom, for that. In the southeast suburbs of Baghdad, meanwhile, U.S. Marines have a difficult task -- indeed, a very difficult task trying to root out pockets of Iraqi resistance in a residential area. CNN's Martin Savage is with the 1st Battalion of the 7th Marines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: As they have for the past three days, the Marines continue to drive into the southeastern suburbs of Baghdad. And as they do, they have been encountering pockets of resistance. This is sporadic fighting that does not occur all the time, but does flare up from place to place, and they have been moving into built-up areas, and that is complicating things for the movement of the convoys.

Other units have pushed ahead, but now the 1st Battalion 7th Marines in this specific area we are at, has been tasked with the job of cleanup, trying to find where the resistance is coming from. Who is it? The search and destroy missions as they call it. The difficulty, of course, is they are now mixed in with the civilian population. Opposing forces are using that to their advantage. For the Marines, they have to be very careful now, have to be careful that they select their targets and make sure that the targets they aim at are, in fact, hostiles while the innocent civilians are not caught in the way. It is now house-to-house searches some time.

A very poignant scene at one point, the cameraman, Scott McWinnie found as these Marines moved in on a house. Now, we do have translators, but not all the units have translators. They came across this one family. It's through voice and through hand gestures that they try to get them to come out of the house, and they do. But it's clear, you can tell, that the family is terrified in the presence of these Marines.

Now, the Marines also, as you may notice in this video, are keeping their weapons well away. They are not pointing them at the women and children and the men of this family, and they are trying to assure them that it's for their own safety. The Marines have been receiving fire from this specific area. They are trying to simply search in and around the home. And once that is completed, the family was allowed to return back to their house.

Meanwhile, though, in the backyards and the back alleys and the side streets, it's a different story. At times, infantry units are fired upon. They call in artillery, which is used to take out some of the heavier fortified positions of Iraqi opposition.

It is hard, difficult, dangerous work. Within the forefront of their minds, always protecting Iraqi civilians.

Martin Savidge, CNN, southeast of Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: President Bush will discuss the post-war plan for Iraq with the British prime minister, Tony Blair, tomorrow in Northern Ireland. CNN's Chris Burns is live at the White House for us, and he has more -- Chris.

BURNS: Wolf, it is a matter of balance. How do you try to avoid the image of being an occupying force, and how do you steer Iraq towards some kind of an effective government.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BURNS (voice-over): Back from his Camp David retreat, President Bush overnights at the White House before heading to Belfast. The hastily organized trip comes after rapid battlefield gains, increasing the urgency of deciding who should run a post-Saddam Iraq.

PAUL WOLFOWITZ, DEPUTY DEFENSE SECRETARY: If I could paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, Of the Iraqis, by the Iraqis, for the Iraqis. Not to make them a colonial administration or a U.N. administration, or run in any way by foreigners. But it is going to be a partnership of the coalition countries. The U.N. has an important role to play in that.

BURNS: Wolfowitz expects it to take more than six months to establish a government after the war. But with which Iraqis? How many exiles? How many from within Iraq? How much of a U.N. role? The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee face off.

WARNER: ... president, through his secretary of state, said that the United Nations should be partners. I add to that phrase, Yes, they should be partners, but the managing partners. In other words, those with the ultimate responsibility for the interim period should be representatives from the coalition forces.

BURNS: Many Democrats, the State Department, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are pushing for more of a U.N. role.

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: It is critically important for all kinds of reasons that this not be an American occupation.

BURNS: Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair will try to reconcile those opposing views. They are also expected to discuss how to jump start the peace process in Northern Ireland, as well as the Middle East. The British prime minister wants to speed up a road map to peace between Israelis and Palestinians to try to mend relations with the Arab world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNS: And President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice has made an unannounced trip to Moscow to try to mend relations with one of the biggest opponents of the Iraq war, also to seek more support in this very risky, costly job of state building after Saddam Hussein -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Chris Burns at the White House. Thanks, Chris, very much. Advances on the ground are meaningless unless there is a way to get supplies to the forward, front-line troops. In one case that job is falling to elements of the 82nd Airborne Division. Karl Penhaul is embedded with these troops, and talked to their commander about the job they're doing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEN. CHARLES SWANNACH, COMMANDER, 82ND AIRBORNE: 3rd Infantry Division, part of 5th Corps, has attacked very, very rapidly up into the outskirts of Baghdad, and we have been responsible to come in behind them and mop up any resistance. So we're maintaining the ground lines of communication so that fuel trucks, ammo trucks, rations, water can all go forward to the forward elements.

Urban warfare is very difficult. Probable more difficult in terms of bringing to bear all the combat power a unit might have because of the combined spaces that you have to go and fight, to bring in your artillery so you don't create collateral damage, to go ahead and bring in air power to go ahead and accomplish the target, and then get the paratroopers that we have in this division close to go ahead and do the close battle combat drill, and clear buildings and clear streets. I see the battle in Baghdad to be very similar in terms of the confined spaces where you go ahead and apply combat power. It is a very difficult fight, but coalition forces train very, very much at this, and it is right in our bread and butter-type drills that we do.

Conventional forces will go ahead and occupy positions. However, when they are confronted with overwhelming combat power that we have, normally we can break their defenses very, very quickly. Their paramilitary forces, I'm a little bit surprised at the fanatical, dedicated commitment to killing Americans. The asymmetric threat, or the paramilitary threat, suicide, kamikaze-type bombers is something that our troopers are not all that well versed in, but they can make the right decisions.

Shock and awe at the, possibly, Air Force level is different from the Shock and Awe associated with a paratrooper trying to take -- cross that bridge into Samawa (ph), and seize the foothold on the far side. Every level we have got in our military, I think, we have awesome combat power. That's a very difficult issue, and how we prosecute the fight to minimize collateral damage. I think we are doing a pretty good job at that. Identifying whether or not civilians are actual combatants or not is very difficult, and that's what our soldiers have to be attuned to.

(UNINTELLIGIBLE) during the Burma campaign said "use a sledgehammer to crush a walnut," and I try to translate that same philosophy to our paratroopers here in the division and our leaders, and I try to tell them, this is not a football game where we have got 11 on one side and 11 on the other side. That's not how we fight this fight. We use overwhelming combat power to destroy the enemy and accomplish our mission.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: The 82nd Airborne Division speaking with our own Karl Penhaul. A key element in this war. As always, we are keeping our eye on the skies over Baghdad. Right now, we are watching for coalition forces on the ground, as well as they push into the capital city. Joining me next to talk about strategy for Baghdad, and parallels between this war and World War II is the grandson of General George Patton. And later, U.S. troops may not be able to get e-mail in Iraq, but they are getting letters. We'll read the mail with the U.S. Marines in just a few minutes. First, these photos from the Associated Press.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

BLITZER: CNN's Miles O'Brien with that update. There are lessons to be learned from every war. My next guest wrote about some of them in the op-ed page of the "New York Times" only yesterday, drawing parallels between World War II and the current campaign in Iraq. Robert Patton is the grandson of General George Patton. He joins me live now from New York. Thanks very much, Robert, for joining us. What do you think -- how do you think your grandfather would have fought this war any differently than General Tommy Franks?

ROBERT PATTON, GEN. PATTON'S GRANDSON: Well, I'll tell you, as different as they are outwardly, General Franks, of course, being rather reluctant to get in front of the microphone, and General Patton always looking to make good copy, it does seem that their war plans are very similar. Patton was an early exemplar of combined arms -- air power, tanks, infantry working in concert. And obviously in even greater measure we've seen General Franks combining ground force, advanced intelligence, special operations, Naval assets, air power and of course logistics, and ultimately humanitarian aid. This is a massive choreography that Patton, I don't think, even could have imagined.

BLITZER: Do you think your grandfather would have approved of General Franks' strategy?

PATTON: You know, I think it's clear that he would have very much tipped his hat to the general's audacity, as again as reluctant as General Franks seems to want to be about getting out in front of the cameras, his plan is audacious. This reconnaissance in force yesterday, of that mechanized infantry brigade passing through Baghdad was utterly daring and utterly brazen, and I think Patton would only have tipped his hat to that.

BLITZER: If you can hear me, Robert, we have just lost communications here for a moment briefly. I'm going to take a quick commercial break, we're going to try to re-establish our communications. We'll continue this interview in just a moment. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: You are watching images from a battle in northern Iraq. Kurdish forces shelling Iraqi positions with the help of U.S. warplanes. Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the war in Iraq. We were talking with Robert Patton, the grandson of General George Patton. Sorry for the technical problem, Mr. Patton, but let's talk a little bit about this war. If your grandfather were fighting it right now with embedded journalists, would he be able to do the kind of war that he did during World War II?

PATTON: I think it would have been a challenge for him. He had a kind of a love-hate relationship with the press. He did like to get reported upon, but I think he also didn't want the press to kind of say bad things about him, or probably get in the way on the battlefield. I think, again, all of our sensibilities have changed over the last decades, and we understand that those reporters in the field are a part of the citizenry and probably aren't that different from the men that they are accompanying at the front. But sure, Patton would have thought that this might be more trouble than it is worth.

BLITZER: What about the whole issue of the taking of Baghdad right now? If your grandfather could give General Franks some advice, what advice would he give him?

PATTON: He would tell him to do what Patton himself did not do when he came across the French fortified city of Metz at the end of his famous run across France in 1944. Patton at that time got off plan, got away from his strengths of maneuver, concentrated fire power, surprise, and got involved in a war of attrition in taking this fortified town. It was a mutual crucifixion, as he put it, between himself and the Nazi defenders, and I think he would applaud, as do I frankly, Wolf, the continuation of Franks' style, General Franks' style of maneuver, audacity, opportunism, these things that we have seen as exemplified in yesterday's brigade sweep through Baghdad.

BLITZER: Robert Patton, the grandson of George Patton. Thanks very much for your insight. Very, very interesting. I know you have written extensively on your grandfather and his battle plans. Appreciate it very much.

We have much more news coming up. Much more coverage, including some striking images of war. We have been hearing how important it is to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. It's a little easier with their children, as any soldier carrying a bag of candy can attest. Abu Dhabi TV captured this scene near Basra. Also near that city, British forces were cheered as they moved in from positions on the outskirts. Keep in mind, most of these people are Shiite Muslims who have been persecuted in many cases by Saddam Hussein regime.

Magazines, letters and mom's homemade cookies. U.S. soldiers are getting a taste at home even though they are thousands of miles away from the ones they love. CNN's Jason Bellini tells us how mail call has kept hope alive in the Iraqi desert.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the best of times and the worst of times for the mail to arrive. The best because the Marines could benefit from a morale boost. The worst because the cookies, candy, magazines and shaving supplies will only weigh down their packs further, just as the next mission, likely involving long, hard humps awaits them. Mail call is about talking with one another about home, about finding a few minutes alone. About making sure no one feels left out.

(on camera): It's nice. Everybody shares. That's cool.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Everybody gets something, you know? (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

BELLINI (voice-over): The Marines of Gulf company already know what the week ahead will likely bring. The danger, the adrenaline, and the confusion of door to door combat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: September 11, my -- I lost two of my relatives in the bomb, and my sister was out wandering around the city that day. And I couldn't get in touch with my sister for like a week. So I really freaked out about that.

BELLINI: Today he opens an envelope from his mom, Rosemary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Joseph, letters might not be so frequent, but always remember we are very proud of what you are doing for our country. Love, mom." That's -- I needed this.

BELLINI (on camera): Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I haven't gotten letters -- I haven't gotten a letter from my mom since I have been out here, and this -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE) tonight, I feel a lot better right now. Glad to know that she still loves me and that she supports everything we are doing out here.

BELLINI (voice-over): He says he will keep his mom's note in his pocket while he and the rest of Gulf company, to use a phrase often written in Marines' letters home, do what we've got to do.

Jason Bellini, CNN, embedded with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: A dedicated journalist, a dear colleague and a good friend. We'll take a look back at the life and times of David Bloom of NBC News when we come back. But first, these images.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: You are watching a religious service conducted by U.S. troops this Sunday morning in central Iraq. Welcome back to our coverage.

There is another casualty to this war, this time one very, very unexpected. NBC correspondent David Bloom, a great correspondent, a good colleague, and an excellent friend of all of ours has died from a blood clot in his lung while traveling with the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry near Baghdad. More now about David Bloom from CNN's Jason Carroll. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the last three years, he has been the friendly, familiar face on NBC's "Weekend Today." Sunday morning, his colleagues, his friends began with one of the most difficult stories they've ever had to tell.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, NBC ANCHOR: Good morning. Sad news today from the front lines of Iraq. NBC's David Bloom, a husband and father, adventurous spirit and our colleague, died overnight, of course, covering the story in Iraq that he loved to cover so much. It's just -- it leaves you speechless, really.

CARROLL: Bloom died early Sunday of a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot in the lungs.

BLOOM: If you talk, you've got to yell to me, because it's really hard to hear out here.

CARROLL: He died doing what he loved, reporting on the big story, no matter where it was.

BLOOM: These are not, obviously, ideal living or working conditions.

CARROLL: While in Iraq, Bloom met his deadlines from the front lines. He was embedded with the 3rd Infantry.

BLOOM: What the sheriff's department calls the first real break in this case...

CARROLL: Bloom joined NBC News 10 years ago, he came from WTVJ in Miami. He was an award-winning reporter at that station.

BLOOM: Are you trying to hide your face? Are you embarrassed that you're doing this?

CARROLL: And while at NBC, he quickly rose through the ranks, becoming to the network's go-to guy.

TIM RUSSERT: If there was a hurricane, flood, a coup in Haiti, wherever there was something breaking he wanted to be there.

CARROLL: The O.J. Simpson trial, presidential impeachment hearings, the serial sniper -- Bloom did it all, and did it well.

As White House correspondent, he showed why he was so respected. He was a journalist who cared.

BLOOM: Under the cover of the bombings, or despite the bombings, the Serbs are rushing to complete their ethnic cleansing. Is there at least no sense of urgency about trying to stop that now?

CARROLL: Bloom wasn't all business. It was his boyish charm that endeared him to so many at NBC.

Humor, commitment and devotion to family. Bloom is survived by his wife and three young daughters. He would have been 40 next month.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And our deepest condolences to his wife and three daughters, indeed, all of David Bloom's family and friends. We will miss him a great deal. A good colleague, a good friend. Spent several years working with him closely when we both covered the Clinton White House.

And please stay with CNN throughout the night for up to the minute coverage in the war in Iraq. Paula Zahn and I will be back for two hours of special coverage right after this news alert.

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 6, 2003 - 17:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: A high-ranking Army official warns Iraqis if they want to stay alive, to stay off the roads.
And Marines are on the move on a dangerous mission, searching for Iraqi forces and weapons that may be hiding in civilian areas. We'll take you along on this search in the suburbs.

Standing by for us right now, though, senior CNN's senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, who spent his last assignment reporting in the Iraqi capital. And CNN's Jane Arraf, who's reporting now on a U.S. bombing mission gone bad in the northern part of the country.

We'll get to them in just a moment, but first to Fredricka Whitfield.

(NEWSBREAK)

BLITZER: These are historic moments, hours in the Iraqi capital which is now in the state of siege. The U.S. military says coalition forces have Baghdad virtually cut off and warplanes are flying around the clock missions overhead. CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is tracking developments from Ruwaished, Jordan right near the Iraqi border. Another tumultuous night, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Wolf, just an hour ago I was speaking to a source in Baghdad. He said the bombing had calmed down somewhat at that time. It was lighter, the bombardments were somewhat lighter than they had been earlier in the day. Earlier in the day, he said, targets were being hit around the city in many different locations, locations that hadn't been targeted before. Up till now, it has been presidential sites, government buildings and military headquarters. He said there were places in the east of the city that were being targeted, perhaps around Iraqi troop concentrations that hadn't been targeted before. Indeed, he said in the center of the city, on occasion machine gunfire could be heard.

What he and other sources have found striking today is the number of armed Iraqis on the street of the capital, particularly in the western side, particularly in the areas close to the international airport. He says there are Republican Guard, Fedayeen fighters and Baath party fighters on the streets all with machine guns, many with rocket-propelled grenades. There are some heavy Iraqi artillery pieces, some tanks in the west of the city.

But what is striking all the people in Baghdad I'm talking to at the moment is the sheer number of people, armed people who are on the streets of the west of Baghdad at this time. And the fact that when these people are talked to, they say at this time they fully intend to continue to fight. Now, the civilians at this time in the city are saying they very much feel that they're getting caught in the crossfire. Civilians say that they believe that when they are being hit by coalition forces, hit by Iraqi forces as they try and either get out of harm's way or literally get caught up in the firefights.

The people I'm talking to in Baghdad, the sources there say, they believe 70 to 80 percent of the city's population have moved, in fact, moved out of the line of fire. But those that remain, some of them seem to be ending up in hospitals. Certainly, according to hospital authorities in Baghdad, an increasing number of people, some of them civilians arriving in the hospitals, beginning to overwhelm the hospital there. But perhaps the biggest indication of the disposition of Iraqi forces at this time coming in a statement from President Saddam Hussein to the Iraqi people delivered on Iraqi television by a news anchor dressed in a military uniform, essentially calling on those members of military units who found themselves broken away, dislocated from their original units to join back in the fight, but join up with other military units.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): In the name of God the most compassionate, the most merciful, from Saddam Hussein to all of the fighters of the Iraqi armed forces, peace be upon you. When it is in hard or difficult for any member to join their own respective unit, they can join -- they can link up with any other unit and they will be counted as such until further notice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: The overriding impression, Wolf, that we're getting from our sources in Baghdad is that those fighters on the streets of Baghdad at this time say that they fully intend to continue to fight - Wolf.

BLITZER: Nic, and this news anchor reading the statement from Saddam Hussein, making promises of rewards for martyrs or suicide bombers or others who fight with different units, what's that all about?

ROBERTSON: The motivational, we've heard this from the Iraqi leader before. This is a way to motivate people, essentially, to throw down their lives for the leadership. They have tried many other different methods appealing to religion, appealing to national identity, appealing to people's patriotism, but this is something that they're using to try and convince people that it is worth going into the fight, that it is worth dying for.

If one remembers back to Iraq when it went to war with Iran at the beginning of the 1980s, the Iraqi government paid huge amounts of money to families at that time of people, soldiers who died fighting the Iranian forces. The money the country has had since that time completely disappeared. So, it would seem this is a particularly desperate measure by the Iraqi leadership to reinstitute this feature, if you will, that if you die in the fight, if you throw down your life, then your family will get money - Wolf.

BLITZER: Nic Robertson reporting for us as he always does. Thanks Nic very much.

CNN's senior international correspondent Walter Rogers is embedded with the Army's hard-charging 3-7th Cavalry, which is now in the business of blocking roads in and out of Baghdad. More now from Walter Rodgers who's near the Iraqi capital.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALTER RODGERS, CNN SNR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: This is Walter Rogers with the U.S. 7th Calvary on the outskirts of Baghdad. The Iraqi capital, Baghdad, is now completely encircled by U.S. forces, according to U.S. Army sources. The Marines are over on the northeast and southeast quadrants, the Army, controls all other entrances to the city. What that means is all the highways into and out of the Iraqi capital are now under the control of U.S. military forces. One officer said to me, no one goes in those highways or out of those highways if they want to live. Earlier, the same Army sources told CNN that elements of the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division conducted yet another reconnaissance mission within the city limits of Baghdad. It was an armed reconnaissance position. They were not intending to stay, what they did was made a foray into the city and then retreat outward.

In the western suburbs, there continue to be operating elements of the Iraqis irregulars. They are firing on U.S. troops. Some officers are saying that the local Iraqis are saying that the Iraqi partisans, the Iraqi irregulars are now taking refuge in schools by day and coming out and fighting at night. Back to you, Wolf.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Thanks very much, Walter Rodgers. He's with the 3-7th Cavalry, right outside of Baghdad.

And just south of Baghdad, U.S. Marines are securing the suburbs as well. And it's taking them into neighborhoods where families and perhaps Iraqi forces live. CNN's Martin Savidge captures the dramatic and scary exchange for both sides, the Marines and the home owners.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): As they have for the past three days, the Marines continue to drive into the southeastern suburbs of Baghdad. And as they do, they have been encountering pockets of resistance. This is sporadic fighting that does not occur all the time but does flare-up from place to place. And they have been moving into more built up areas, complicating things for the movement of the convoys.

Other units have pushed ahead, but now the 1st Battalion 7th Brigs. In this specific area where we are at has been tasked for the job of cleanup, trying to find where the resistance is coming from. Who is it? The search-and-destroy missions, as they call it. The difficulty, of course, is they are now mixed in with the civilian population. Opposing forces are using that to their advantage. For the Marines, they have to be very careful now, have to be careful that they select their targets, and to make sure that the targets they aim at are, in fact, hostiles, while the innocent civilians are not caught in the way. It is house-to-house searches at some point.

A very poignant scene at one time that cameraman Scott McWhinnie (ph) found as these Marines moved in on a house. Now, we do have translators but not all the units have translators. They came across this one family. Through voice and hand gestures that they try to get them to come out of the house. And they do. But it's clear you can tell that the family is terrified of the presence of these Marines. Now, the Marines also as you may notice in this video are keeping their weapons well away. They are not pointing them at the women and children and the men of this family. And they are trying to assure them that it's for their own safety. The Marines have been receiving fire from this specific area. They are trying to simply search in and around the homes and once that is completed, the family was allowed to return back to their house.

Meanwhile, though, in the backyards and the back alleys and the side streets it's a different story. At times infantry units are fired upon. They call in artillery, which is used to take out some of the heavier fortified positions of Iraqi opposition.

This is the way it has gone for the past three days and may continue like that for sometime. However, last night, a special find, the 1st Battalion 7th Marines managed to capture three members of the special Republican Guard. These were men that were identified because of the I.D. cards they had with them. They weren't wearing uniforms, but they did have them in the back seat of their vehicles, as well as their weapons. The three are now being interrogated and reportedly cooperating with the Marines. It is hard, difficult, dangerous work, within the forefront of their minds always protecting Iraqi civilians.

Martin Savidge, CNN, southeast of Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: In northern Iraq, U.S. troops and their Kurdish allies have been backed by heavy air strikes in Iraqi positions, but today one of those air strikes apparently went wrong, taking a heavy toll on a Kurdish convoy. CNN's Jane Arraf is near Erbil in northern Iraq, she is joining us live.

BLITZER: Jane, tell us what happened.

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it could hardly have been more horrific or more unfortunate. Essentially, it was a convoy of Peshmerga Kurdish fighters. And as you know, the Kurdish fighters are badly paid, badly equipped but love the American forces. They see them as a liberation army. They were approaching the frontlines in northern Iraq about 20 miles from the city of Erbil, about 60 miles from Mosul when they were hit by a U.S. bomb. The bomb, obviously, dropped by mistake, but it did hit this convoy which contained, unfortunately, a senior Kurdish military leader. He happens to be the brother of Massoud Barzani, who is known here as the president, in a sense, of the region.

It also injured the son of Massoud Barzani. It killed a translator for the BBC and it injured an Afghan journalist, as well. All together, the toll was at least 18 killed, and at least 45 injured. Now, the Peshmerga, the Kurdish forces say this will not affect their relationship with the U.S. despite that. They still believe in them and still very much want to work with them. What this convoy was aiming for was the frontline of a ridge.

Now, this morning it was an amazing scene. Special forces on the ground told us that Iraqi tanks actually advanced in a rare offensive maneuver. They were without air cover at the time, so they called in air strikes. Apparently, one of these air strikes that was called in resulted in the bomb being dropped on this convoy. All throughout the day, these special forces continue to fire at the Iraqi tanks. They used mortar, gunfire, anti-tank missiles, as well as these very dramatic shots that we see indicating that they were using laser- guided bombs dropped from F-14s. In the end, they said they disabled probably about ten tanks, and they were still continuing to hold that position - Wolf.

BLITZER: Jane Arraf with all the late-breaking developments in the northern part of Iraq. Jane, thanks very much.

Let's get back to this huge battle for Baghdad, historic developments unfolding right now. CNN's Miles O'Brien is joining us. He has a satellite view of the military moves in the Iraqi capital - Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much, Wolf. The U.S. military indicating it has encircled Baghdad. Imagine what it would take to encircle Chicago or Philadelphia. Let's move in on Baghdad and give you a sense of what they're talking about. By no means are there enough U.S. troops in Baghdad to completely hermetically seal it around. This area you're seeing right here extends about 15 miles across. That's 15 miles, and it's a city of five to six million people. I'm going to overlay a map here just to help you understand a little bit better what we're talking about. There's the map. That's, the center of Baghdad. Now, if you look very closely, you can see there are key points along here, key highways which are of interest. It comes out to between eight and ten, which are the main choke points, which would be the focus for the U.S. troops. So, when they say they have it encircled, they're going after these key highways. Certainly, by no means indicates that the city is sealed off by any stretch of the imagination.

Let's talk a little bit about the airport for just a moment. Significant bit of history there as C-130, U.S. C-130 landed at what is now Baghdad International Airport, formerly Saddam International Airport. Beginning the process of bringing supplies in. That's a cargo aircraft. And no doubt that will be this runway here, runway 33 right will become a very busy place filled with U.S. aircraft in the days to come. Let's talk a little bit about this as a base of operation for the 3rd Infantry, and tell you about their foray outside the airport grounds. This is a look at it right from the ground. We're told between 2 and 3,000 Iraqi fighters became casualties as a result of this 25-mile foray into the city of Baghdad, significant casualties, very few, conversely, on the U.S. side. I'll show you quickly on the map here exactly their route. It took them right toward the center of Baghdad, and after I get a chance to do that, here we go, right there. It just went around that way.

Now, let's talk about the Marines. We haven't talked much about them. We'll take you down to a place called Salman Pak, Salman Pak is a place that supposedly had a terrorist camp. Marines expected to find 2,000 fighters. Those fighters, as Martin Savidge has been reporting to us, more or less just melted into the landscape, if you will. Take a look at some of the pictures as those Marines went through town there. Some tense moments as they went through these towns, tried to seal things up, tried to secure things.

In many cases, seeing innocents or what appeared to be innocents, obviously, expressing in this case apparent happiness as seeing the U.S. forces. But as they move north, the Marines will move toward yet another key point, which I predict we'll be hearing a little bit about in the future, up route 8 to the Rasheed airport, another significant airport in the Baghdad area, primarily a military airport. Not sure what its situation is now. Special operations perhaps has gained a foothold there, but its right along the Marine path. And we look to hear from the Marines getting near this region very soon. That's a brief overview of what's going on, Wolf.

BLITZER: Miles O'Brien, thanks very much. I suspect we'll also be hearing in the days ahead a lot about a place called Tikrit, which is Saddam Hussein's hometown just north of Baghdad, as well.

History is unfolding right now before all of us on this pivotal day. You won't want to turn away from us this hour and throughout the night here on CNN. Baghdad's in the balance as U.S. planes start landing at the huge airport there, and allied troops prepare to take the city. We'll give you all the late-breaking developments as soon as they happen.

Also, just ahead, a bold move in Basra. British forces make a dramatic push into the city. What did they encounter? We'll show you

And trying to win hearts and minds. Can the Marines bring the local population to their side as they move toward Baghdad?

All that, as well as a top United States general, he has some choice words about Saddam Hussein. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: As fighting continues across Iraq, here are some more battle scenes unfolding right now with troops now ringing Baghdad. Coalition aircraft are over the capital flying urban combat support missions around the clock and looking for so-called targets of opportunity. Some battle scenes are behind the scenes. The U.S. Central Command today showed video of special operations forces dropping in on an Iraqi airfield, securing it for coalition military use. The supply lines to the frontlines stretch for hundreds of miles. British paratroopers in southern Iraq are using helicopters to step up instant stop-and-search checkpoints along the route.

After weeks of waiting, coalition forces finally make their big push into the southern Iraqi city of Basra. British troops are striking Saddam Hussein's forces and destroying symbols of the Iraqi leader. CNN's Diana Muriel reports from Basra.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We crossed into Basra with units attached to the 1st Battalion, the Black Watch, who are part of the 7th Army Brigade, the Desert Rats. They moved into the city from the south across a bridge heading towards the shanty town district. There the tanks were engaged by Iraqi fighters, who fired AK-57s, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars. As the tanks opened fire and as the two Attack Cobra helicopters were sent in from the United States forces to strike targets, the fighters withdrew ever northward towards the center of Basra. The mortars are being fired by mobile base plates. And they were taken with them as they left the district.

The British forces were able to sweep through the south of the city. After that first engagement, there was relatively little engagement with the Iraqi fighters. There was artillery bombardment over military compounds with several Iraqi tanks destroyed in that attack. As the tanks rolled into the center of Basra, the people came out to stare, some to wave and to give the thumbs up, others more of them (ph) standing unmoved (ph) and expressionless at the side of the road.

The British forces fanned out throughout the city and have taken up various defensive positions, strategic positions within the city. They are also finding safe compounds to keep their tanks in overnight. The true test as to whether or not the Iraqi fighters have really left the city may come this evening if British forces are engaged in further fighting with them.

Diana Muriel, CNN, Basra, southern Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And stay with us for this hour. We're ready to bring you all the latest developments as U.S. forces start bringing in planes, planes to the Baghdad International Airport. The city's fate could be decided very soon.

Also, just ahead, a forward air base in southern Iraq. What kind of air cover is it providing for allied troops in Baghdad.

And the sites and sounds of a capture.

Up close and raw with British troops as they went into Basra today. U

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: Coalition forces say they've surrounded Baghdad now, are in control of all the roads leading out of the Iraqi capital. It's a noose around the neck of Saddam Hussein's regime, and that noose will tighten in the hours and days ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

Encircling Baghdad, a battle line of coalition forces. U.S. Army sources tell CNN Marines and Army troops are surrounding the capital, controlling all routes in and out, warning Iraqi forces, if you want to stay alive, stay off those roads. But U.S. commanders say they expect their soldiers to take fire from pockets of resistance in the capital. Coalition sources and people inside Baghdad tell CNN, Iraqi forces are using hospitals, schools, mosques, and even private homes to launch military operations. The Iraqis accuse the coalition of intentionally bombing those places.

Southwest of Baghdad, U.S. commanders say the first U.S. military planes landed at Baghdad's International Airport Sunday night. Two days after its capture by American troops. In the north, near Mosul, a reported friendly fire incident. At least 12 Kurdish fighters aligned with U.S.-led forces are killed. At least 45 wounded. Apparently hit by a coalition bomb as they traveled in a convoy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Amerikee (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, Amerikee.

BLITZER: In the south, a dramatic advance by British forces into Basra. The move was intended to be a raid, but British troops took only light resistance, then took hold of several key strategic positions to secure the city.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

As coalition forces stream into Baghdad, wounded Iraqi civilians and soldiers stream into Iraqi hospitals, but some injured Iraqis are also getting treatment from surgeons with the U.S. Navy. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our medical correspondent, is embedded with the U.S. military. And he has a close-up look at how the U.S. military doctors known as the Devil Docs, how they're doing.

Sanjay, tell us what's going on.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Wolf, as we've talked about so many times, this particular situation the Devil Docs are in something called a mobile operating group. They pack up and they move. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) from the actual. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we're in the back of a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) never experienced anything like this either. It is truly a thick (UNINTELLIGIBLE), and we're sitting in the back of it. And I'll tell you that it was supposed to be a three-hour trip, we are now over nine hours. That is not atypical. A lot of these road trips are heavily guarded, just not that long ago, we saw an actual fire fight. And we saw Cobra helicopters come in and really gave us an impressive light show for one thing, a lot of air-to- surface air power to end that particular fire fight. Extra security was brought in. We were in no particular danger ourselves, and now on our way even further north.

Wolf, yesterday, you and I spoke. We were 30 miles from Baghdad at that point. We are now headed even further north. Why? So that this particular mobile operating room , hospital front post, surgical operating room, can actually support frontline troops. They are ready for (UNINTELLIGIBLE). They know there's a lot going on north of here. All of these surgical operating rooms are slowly piggybacking their way closer and closer to Baghdad, are going to consolidate and develop a large hospital - large operating center to take care of whatever may come over the next couple of days, next couple of weeks in the capital - Wolf.

BLITZER: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our medical correspondent. Thanks for that report.

Some of it was hard to hear, but we certainly appreciate the excellent work you're doing. Certainly appreciate the work that the Devil Docs are doing, saving lives, U.S. as well as Iraqi lives.

And as U.S. troops tighten their grip on Baghdad, they're being backed up by coalition fighter pilots. CNN's Harris Whitbeck is at an air base in southern Iraq, the launching point for much of that air support.

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The coalition says as its forces encircle Baghdad, they are receiving a lot of support from the air, 24-7 air patrols now in the skies of Baghdad. And a lot of those air missions come from this forward air base in southern Iraq, A-10 Warthog combat planes have been flying missions pretty much constantly today. They don't tell us exactly where they're going, but we have been told they are very near the vicinity of Baghdad. Mostly providing close ground support for those troops that are on the ground.

Meanwhile, on this Sunday, a lot of people tried to take some time to attend worship services. The chaplain here, U.S. Air Force chaplain held the first Protestant worship service at this forward air base since it was taken by coalition forces several days ago. Troops here saying they expect to be here for quite some time. Coalition saying that this air base is expected to become a major hub for the flow of humanitarian aid once security conditions permit it.

Harris Whitbeck, CNN, at a forward air base in southern Iraq.

BLITZER: And we're watching Baghdad very closely tonight, significant Iraqi casualties have been reported in the battle for the capital. And we'll bring you all the latest from there as soon as it happens

Just ahead, what a top United States general says about Saddam Hussein. Calling into question his prowess as a commander.

The raw images of urban combat, up close with British troops as they move in on Basra.

And remembering a colleague. Another prominent American journalist dies in Iraq. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: These are critical hours in Baghdad. It's almost daybreak over there. It's getting, obviously, closer towards daylight. A lot of activity going on today. Much more activity will be going on tomorrow. The U.S. military now having encircled the Iraqi capital, all roads leading in and out of Baghdad now firmly under U.S. military control. We're watching the situation in Baghdad. We're also watching the latest headlines. For that, let's go back to CNN's Fredricka Whitfield in the newsroom in Atlanta.

(NEWSBREAK)

BLITZER: Amid all these momentous developments in and around the capital, President Bush is now preparing for this week's summit in Northern Ireland. He and the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his closest ally, will discuss the course of the war and also look ahead to postwar Iraq. Let's go live to our White House correspondent, Chris Burns -- Chris.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf. The president making a quick stop overnight here from Camp David passing through to the White House on his way to Belfast. Why this hastily organized trip to Belfast is how quickly things are moving on the battlefield, and how quickly they have to decide what to replace Saddam Hussein with. That is the overriding issue as they meet in Belfast through Tuesday night. The question is how quickly should they hand power from a military regime or military authority over to some kind of an Iraqi interim authority. How much power should be given to them, how much of a role the U.N. should play. The face-off between the leading members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN WARNER (R-VA), CHAIRMAN, ARMED SERVICES CMTE.: The president through his secretary of state said that the United Nations should be partners. I add to that phrase, yes, they should be partners, but the managing partners. In other words, those with the ultimate responsibility for the interim period should be representatives from the coalition forces, the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Poland and others who have taken a very active role.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNS: Carl Levin, the ranking Democrat on that committee coming back and saying you don't want an American occupation force. You want to quickly hand it over to some kind of a regime that includes perhaps supervision by the United Nations, a debate that's going to play out with Tony Blair pushing that angle when he meets with President Bush on Tuesday - Wolf.

BLITZER: Chris Burns at the White House. Chris, thank you very much for that report.

And as the U.S. military tightens its stranglehold around Baghdad, there's one big remaining obstacle standing between it and toppling the regime, namely innocent civilians. For that, let's go to our senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre - Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SNR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: And in that interview with you Earlier today Wolf, Peter Pace, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs had another warning that despite the success so far by the United States, the U.S. military faces significant combat ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE ((voice-over): The tears of a terrified girl as U.S. Marines hold An Iraqi family at gunpoint illustrate the biggest complication for U.S. troops as they move in on Baghdad. How to surgically destroy the Iraqi regime without devastating the Iraqi people.

BRIG. GEN. VINCENT BROOKS, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: It is clear, at this point, that the risk is increasing to the civilian population because of decisions made by regime leaders.

MCINTYRE: The U.S. Central Command says the blue arrows in this reconnaissance photograph point to places in Baghdad where military equipment has been placed next to homes in a residential area to protect it from aerial attack. And the U.S. accuses Iraqi forces of conducting military operations from the mother-of-all-battles mosque, a sacred site in the northwest section of the city, as well as the Saddam Hospital, both of which are on the U.S. no strike list.

The U.S. is moving quickly to consolidate its gains, flying supplies into its main operating base at the renamed Baghdad International Airport, while concentrating ground forces and aerial surveillance on the main roads.

GEN. PETER PACE, JOINT CHIEFS VICE CHAIR.: We do control the highways in and out of the city and do have the capability to interject, to stop, to attack any Iraqi military forces that might try to either escape or to engage our forces.

MCINYTRE: Pentagon sources say the U.S. will conduct more armored raid in which U.S. tanks and Bradleys roar through the streets. The idea is twofold: A show of force and a chance to lure Iraqi troops into an overmatched dual. The Pentagon doesn't know, but estimates its conquest of Baghdad may have killed between 2,000 and 3,000 Iraqi soldiers. And it believes thousands of others have abandoned their weapons and melted into the city. Sources also say the U.S. may launch other forays into Baghdad if there's a chance to capture or kill Saddam Hussein or any of his inner circle.

BROOKS: We want to attack a specific regime location where a meeting is ongoing and kill everyone that is in the meeting. We might do that in some cases. That could happen in Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: While the U.S. doesn't discuss future operations, this prediction from a senior defense official, look for the United States to seize more territory in Baghdad over the next 24 hours - Wolf.

BLITZER: Jamie McIntyre, thanks very much. Jamie is at the Pentagon, of course

And will the reopening of the Baghdad International Airport to coalition military transports alter the battle for Baghdad? Joining me now from Little Rock, CNN military analyst, retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark, the former NATO supreme allied commander. General Clark, what does that do for the takeover of the Iraqi capital, the fact that that huge airport outside of Baghdad is now firmly under U.S. military control?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), FMR. NATO SUPREME ALLIED CMDR., CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Wolf, it certainly gives us a lot more flexibility in the coalition forces. It can bring in supplies, and logistics. You can bring in special operations units. You can use it as a launching pad.

Plus, it's a huge important psychological symbol, not only inside Iraq but for the whole world the effectiveness of the coalition campaign.

CLARK: When I spoke with General Pace, Peter Pace, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs earlier today, he said they could go in on these forays, he called them armored raids into Baghdad almost at will, and then they leave. But at some point, they're going to have to stay and fight it out, maybe street to street, maybe house to house with those Fedayeen Saddam and the special security organization fighters that the Iraqis still have. That sounds like it could be incredibly risky to U.S. lives.

CLARK: It could, Wolf, but I think that the strategy the administration has picked here for the fight on Baghdad is a wise one, for this reason, because there's a lot of flexibility, there's a lot of deception, there's a lot of surprise in the raid process. And each raid consumes casualties, throws the Iraqis off balance and demonstrates again the overpowering superiority of the coalition, the American forces that are in Baghdad. And so, by the time, it is necessary to seize those facilities or the opportunity presents itself, we'll have a very good understanding of the enemy's strengths, dispositions, his capabilities. We will have reduced their air force significantly, and we'll be more confident that we can not only seize but hold and secure key areas of the terrain. I think this is very similar in pattern to what you've seen unfolding in Basra over the last two weeks.

BLITZER: In that initial three-hour foray into Baghdad, General Pace told me that they believe they wound up killing 2,000 to 3,000 Iraqi soldiers, virtually no U.S. casualties. How do you explain that?

CLARK: Well, the United States has very, very important technological advantages. Unlike previous efforts in urban combat, we control the skies. We have unmanned aerial vehicles overhead. We have real-time communications with our Air Force, our artillery, the intelligence community. We know where we are in that city. So this is important. But the other side of it is the Iraqi side. They're disorganized, they're not effectively trained. They're full of fighting spirit but they lack the real hard organizational skills, and training and fighting capabilities at the bottom to be terribly effective against these very competent American forces.

BLITZER: One final question, General, before I let you go, the fear of chemical or biological weapons being used against U.S. troops as they move into Baghdad. The notion is a lot of experts are saying that fear is really realistically gone now because the Iraqis would wind up killing thousands of Iraqis, very few U.S. Marines or soldiers, because they're well prepared for that. They have the equipment. They have the suits. But in an urban area, they would wind up killing their own people. Is that a realistic assessment?

CLARK: I think that would be the great probability. There's always a small possibility that these weapons could be used in some pinpoint area. But you know, as you look at the whole course of this campaign, Wolf, what we've seen is the initiative and the tempo of the coalition of operations have continuously kept the Iraqis off balance. The U.S. forces and British forces did not sit in Kuwait waiting to be, in the terms of the soldiers, slimed with chemical weapons. They moved out. And even now as they're moving around Baghdad, from the standpoint of an Iraqi targeting cell, these allied forces must form a very difficult target. Other than Baghdad International Airport, no one knows precisely where they are. And, after all, that airport's a very big target. So it's not as easy to strike them even if you had the will to do so and the means at hand, because you can't really pin them down.

BLITZER: And I can only imagine the excitement of seeing that first C-130 Hercules transport land at Baghdad International Airport earlier in the day. General Clark, thanks so much for joining us.

Baghdad is again where the battle lines are being drawn. Will there be another significant move on the capital tonight? Stay with us throughout this hour, indeed, throughout the night here on CNN. We'll be updating you whenever anything happens. We're live 24 hours a day.

Just ahead, capturing Basra. You're there with British troops making a bold move on that city.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Turning now to some of the dramatic images of this war in Iraq. The U.S. Central Command says it's investigating an apparently friendly fire incident in northern Iraq, where a convoy of Kurdish fighters working with coalition forces was bombed. The Kurds say 18 people were killed. In Baghdad, Iraqi soldiers and civilians climbed on top of charred tanks. Iraqi officials said it was an American vehicle destroyed Saturday when U.S. armor pushed into the streets of the capital.

In southern Iraq, Navy CBs have been rebuilding bridges to help keep supplies flowing to the troops. Some bridges destroyed in fighting at the outset of the war have been replaced with temporary floating bridges. While U.S. troops say they've surrounded Baghdad, British forces are pushing deep into the southern Iraqi city of Basra. The British military says it's taken up key positions there but is battling pockets of resistance. Here's a look at the battle for Iraq's second largest city. We're taking you to the front lines right now, take a look and a listen.

And as you are watching that battle, Reuters is now reporting six huge explosions heard in the southern outskirts of the Iraqi capital. We're watching, we're waiting to see what that means. We're watching all of the situation in Baghdad right now at this hour, indeed, Baghdad is clearly in the balance. We're watching developments there, as well as elsewhere around the country, and we'll bring them to you as soon as they happen.

Also, just ahead, Saddam Hussein's command authority questioned by the vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Following several hours of relative quiet, six huge explosions have just rocked the southern outskirts of Baghdad. We're watching live pictures from Baghdad. We're watching what's happening, southern outskirts of Baghdad. U.S. Marines are there, U.S. Army soldiers are there. They're also in control of the airport in the southwestern suburbs of the Iraqi capital. We'll continue to update you on information as we get it. Events, as you can see, are unfolding rapidly inside Iraq. CNN's Miles O'Brien has a quick recap of the most recent developments.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): At 9:02 a.m., CNN's Walter Rogers reports, according to a senior official, Marine and Army troops now have Baghdad encircled, controlling all roads into and out of the city.

11:37 a.m., Howard Kurtz of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES" reports embedded journalist David Bloom has died of natural causes while covering the war in Iraq.

12:20 p.m., a spokesman for the Russian foreign ministry says at least five people were injured when a convoy carrying Russian diplomats and journalists trying to flee war-torn Iraq was attacked as it headed for the Syrian border. U.S. officials said there were no coalition forces operating in the area at the time of the incident.

1:11 p.m., CNN's Walter Rogers reports the first U.S. military aircraft has landed at Baghdad's International Airport. Baghdad Airport was captured by American troops two days ago.

3:11 p.m., CNN's Nic Robertson reports his sources say many civilians in Baghdad feel that they are being caught in the crossfire. They say they are being hit by both coalition and Iraqi forces.

3:31 p.m., CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, embedded with the coalitions Devil Docs, reports that the medical convoy is slowly approaching Baghdad. The doctors are expecting to deal with thousands of casualties in the next few days.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: CNN's Miles O'Brien reporting on the most recent developments. Earlier today, I discussed the war, its striking successes and the dangers which still lie ahead with the vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace. He also had some choice words about Saddam Hussein. General Pace appeared on CNN's "LATE EDITION."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEN. PETER PACE, VICE CHMN. JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: There's no doubt that it is still possible that we will have some significant combat ahead of us, and I would never want anyone to think that that is not possible. On the other hand, I am very comfortable and very confident that the soldiers and Marines who we might call on to do that have been trained exceptionally well, and that they will be equally efficient in the city as they have been in the countryside. There are significant military force all around the city of Baghdad, but it is a huge perimeter.

So, I don't want the viewers to think that there's a soldier every 10 or 15 feet. We do control the highways in and out of the city and do have the capability to interject, to stop, to attack any Iraqi military forces that might try to either escape or to engage our forces. The force that has arrived on their doorstep is a significant, capable force that we prefer that the leaders of the Iraqi armed forces do the honorable thing, stop fighting for a regime that does not deserve your loyalty. Surrender your forces and give yourselves and your troops the opportunity to be a part of Iraq's future and not a part of Iraq's past.

Part of the mission is to do away with the Iraqi regime, to have that regime replaced by free government. Whether or not Saddam is killed or captured is not -- the specifics of that are not as important as the fact that his regime will be replaced. His people will feel free to stand up and determine what their own future is going to be. Don't know if he's alive or dead. Do know that the night that we attacked the location that we thought he was, that we had very, very good intelligence corroborated by several sources. Since that time, those same sources have not shown any indication that he's alive. So, if he is alive, he is proving himself to be one of the world's worst generals. And if he's dead, he's dead.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: General Peter Pace, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff appearing earlier today on CNN's late edition. We're monitoring dramatic developments in Baghdad right now, within the past few moments. Six more explosions heard in the southern outskirts of the Iraqi capital. The moment something else happens, we'll bring it to you. You'll see it here live first on CNN.

Also at the top of the next hour, the latest on the investigation into a deadly friendly fire incident in northern Iraq. But just ahead, the unexpected loss of a colleague and a friend in Iraq today. Remembering David bloom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Friends and colleagues remember journalist David bloom who died of natural causes, a blood clot while covering the war in Iraq, remember him as a great reporter, a great friend, a great father, a great husband. Those of us who knew the ten-year veteran of NBC News say while his passing is indeed tragic and oh, so sad, he died doing what he loved best. Here's Howard Kurtz of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOWARD KURTZ, "RELIABLE SOURCES": When I last talked to David Bloom in Iraq a few days ago, he told me with his usual burst of enthusiasm, we're here to tell the soldiers' stories. He was clearly having the time of his life riding in that tank reporting from sandstorms, in night vision goggles, his face covered with dust, hair whipping in the wind, narrating the 3rd Infantry Divisions progress toward Baghdad. It would prove to be his last assignment.

As a young reporter in Miami, Bloom charged up to a looter during Hurricane Andrew and asked a man making off with boxes whether he was embarrassed at what he was doing.

DAVID BLOOM: Are you trying to hide your face?

KURTZ: Bloom seemed impossible to embarrass. As a White House correspondent, he charged up to President Clinton to shout a question in a roped off area, then laughed it off when Clinton got even by stiffing him at the next press conference. Bloom knew he was sometimes regarded as a pretty boy, and he overcame that impression by working his tail off. Three years ago, he was drafted as the co-anchor of "Weekend Today." And while it seemed to me to be a waste of reporting talent, while he did the fluff and the cooking segments, he put his heart into it. I wasn't surprised, though, when he answered the bell, jumping at the chance to cover a war.

I know we in the news business make too much of journalism wartime when American soldiers take greater risks. "Washington Post" columnist Michael Kelly also got plenty of press when he died in a Humvee accident this week. But someone like Bloom reporting from the desert around the clock on little sleep becomes, in a sense, the face of the war, the narrator of the war, bringing the soldiers stories, good and bad, into our homes.

The last thing David Bloom said to me when I asked a question about embedded correspondents getting to close to the troops was that he could identify with the soldier who told him he just missed his kid's birthday. Bloom told me he had just missed the birthdays of his nine-year-old twins. Now, all of us in his extended television family will miss him. "RELIABLE SOURCES," I'm Howard Kurtz.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: And from everyone here at CNN, from the top management on down, our deepest condolences to David Bloom's wife, his three daughters and his entire family.

Please stay with CNN throughout the night for up-to-the-minute war coverage. A reminder you can catch another hour of "WOLF BLITZER REPORTS." That begins right now. But first, we have another edition of our top headlines. Here's CNN's Fredricka Whitfield.

(NEWSBREAK)

BLITZER: You're looking at live pictures of Baghdad, where there has been sporadic gunfire and bombing on the outskirts of the city all day long, including in the last few minutes. Six explosions heard in the southern part of the city.

Hello from Kuwait City. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting. U.S. forces say they have indeed encircled the Iraqi capital, controlling all roads in and out of Baghdad. The latest from there in just a moment.

In southern Iraq, British forces have moved into the city of Basra after having encircled it for two weeks. They've been able to take strategic positions, despite meeting some resistance in town and at the city's airport. Tim Ewart of Britain's ITN is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TIM EWART, ITN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The British tanks rolled out this morning, two weeks after laying siege to the city of one million people. From their positions on its outskirts, they rumbled through the city gates. Hundreds of tanks, armored vehicles and fighting men of the Desert Rats. From the ground, they took out enemy positions. And from the air, they flew in reinforcements.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had an IED, an improvised explosion device, thrown in over the wall, which took out quite a lot of the windows in this school building that we had occupied.

EWART: Most of the resistance came from small arms fire, from radical militia dressed in civilian clothes. There seemed to be no cohesive fighting force here and no sign of the feared Republican Guard. Soldiers of the Irish Guards were soon out of their worry of fighting vehicles and on the streets for the first time. The road behind them littered with the shells of burnt out Iraqi tanks.

This was meant to be a lightning raid. But now they're here to stay, and it does appear that some of the locals, at least, are happy to see them, knowing that help and the end of an oppressive regime is on its way.

By early afternoon, flanked by helicopter gunships, British Challenger tanks had shot their way close to the city's center. They're now fortifying their positions and clearing away the last pockets of resistance.

(on camera): Tonight the British control most of Basra, but not all of it. They think any significant opposition has been crushed, but they can't be sure. This remains a dangerous place for the troops to be.

Tim Ewart, ITV News, Basra.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: At the same time, the first coalition plane has landed at the newly named Baghdad International Airport, two days after the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry took control of the sprawling facility. The first flight was a C-130, Hercules transport plane. Two more flights were expected to follow. Iraq's information minister, Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf, has been denying that the airport is in coalition hands. Although it may not completely be secure, the airport is clearly under coalition control and U.S. troops are making some surprising discoveries as they explore the giant complex, including several dozen missiles as well as a VIP lounge used by Iraqi officials.

And on the streets of Baghdad itself, there is some semblance of normality, not much but some. The daily calls to prayer continue, and people were on the streets today doing a bit of shopping. But that changed with nightfall; the Iraq government has imposed an overnight curfew.

U.S. Army forces are entrenched just southwest of Baghdad. And today they launched another reconnaissance mission directly into the capital city. CNN's Walter Rodgers is with the 3-7th Cavalry.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RODGERS: U.S. Army sources have told CNN that the Iraq capital of Baghdad is now, quote, "completely encircled." He went on to tell us that the highways into and out of the city, both to the northeast and southwest, northwest, southeast are controlled by the United States Marines and the United States Army. And one soldier said quote, "nothing goes into that city or out of that city if they want to live." Now, that same source also told us there was another armed reconnaissance into Baghdad earlier by the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, again armed reconnaissance, looking for Iraqi pockets of resistance. It made a foray into the city, did not stay and his since come out.

Again, the 7th Cavalry, the unit with which I am embedded, continually comes under sporadic fire. CNN has been told that local civilians have approached the Army and explained to the Army that the Fedayeen, the most militant of Saddam Hussein's troops, take refuge in Iraqi schools during the day, and then they leave the sanctuary of those schools, come out at night, fire anti-tank missiles, machine guns and sniper fire at the U.S. 7th Cavalry in the darkness. Again, this is a battle particularly in the western suburbs, that continues to know no real boundaries nor frontlines.

Walter Rodgers, CNN, with 7th Cavalry, on the western outskirts of Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: For more now on this historic battle for Baghdad, let's go to CNN's Nic Robertson. He's monitoring developments just over the border from Iraq in Ruwaished (ph), Jordan. What's your latest assessment? What's unfolding on the streets of Baghdad right now, Nic?

ROBERTSON: Streets very quiet. That curfew pretty much in place. The roads in and out of the city sealed by Iraqi forces on the inside, coalition forces on the outside. What we're hearing from our sources who have been into the west of Baghdad, which is predominantly becoming a very militarized area now, they're seeing a lot of Republican Guard fighters, a lot of Fedayeen fighters and a lot of Baath Party activists all armed.

What is surprising the people we're talking to is the numbers of people that are armed and on those streets in the west of Baghdad. And they're saying they're very surprised when they talk to these people, because these people say that they will continue to fight, continue to hold out. That's their intention.

When they talk to civilians, it's a completely different picture. The civilians, they say at this time are becoming increasingly afraid, increasingly concerned, increasingly worried. Indeed, the civilians are saying they just don't care anymore. They want the conflict to be over. They just want to get back to peace. The civilians, they say, are beginning to feel that they're getting caught in the crossfire. Certainly the images coming from the hospitals in Baghdad that are getting increasing numbers of wounded and dead beginning to support that picture. The civilians are saying that it's both -- they're getting caught up somehow in both coalition forces fire and both Iraqi forces fire, that they are becoming the unintended targets, because they are just where the fighting is.

Now, our sources do say that about 70 or 80 percent of the civilians have moved out of the line of fire, out of those residential areas that are close to both the coalition forces and close to Iraqi forces. But perhaps the best indication of how the battle is going so far, a message from President Saddam Hussein today to Iraqi fighters, saying that if they had lost contact with their units, then they should remake contact with other elements of the army and fight in an organized way with those other elements.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful from Saddam Hussein to all of the fighters of the Iraqi armed forces, peace be upon you. When it is hard or difficult for any member to join their own respective unit, they can join -- they can link up with any other unit and they will be counted as such until further notice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: And perhaps this is the first indication that there is a breakdown in the structure, if you will, of the Iraqi military at this time -- Wolf. BLITZER: The whole Arab world is obviously watching this oh so carefully. These daily briefings we get from the Iraqi minister of information, Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf, are they credible in the Arab world? Are people in the Arab world really believing what he's saying?

ROBERTSON: Well, Wolf, it's not even clear if it's credible in Baghdad at this time, never mind the Arab world. I think the picture that is emerging for the Arab world is the same picture that we're seeing, that is that coalition forces definitely are at Baghdad International Airport, that they are coming under fire. But they are not, as the minister of information is telling everyone, being killed off and being driven out. And I think that is the message that is being seen in the Arab world.

Obviously many people in the Arab world extremely sympathetic to the Iraqi population, the civilians who live in Baghdad, and that's perhaps the element of the situation in Baghdad, that they're focusing on at this time. But I don't think there is any doubt really for most people, apart from the most die-hard fighters, if you will, the people who are backing the regime and have done for years, I don't think there is any doubts of them that the coalition is there on the outskirts of Baghdad, in control and not planning to leave any time soon -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Nic Robertson, helping us better understand what's going on inside Iraq right now. Thanks, Nic, very much.

And joining me now to talk a little bit more about these late- breaking developments in the war in Iraq is CNN military analyst, retired U.S. Army Brigadier General David Grange. He's joining us in Oak Brook, Illinois. General Grange, how difficult is it going to be to capture Baghdad?

BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, it depends on when the assault starts, Wolf. You know, I was just looking at some of the footage that was shown in the discussions with Nic Robertson, and if you look at some of the Iraqi soldiers that were doing the drill, getting into fighting position and getting out, if you notice carefully, they had an AK-47 or whatever weapon they had; they had no other ammunition. They had no military web gear to hold ammunition. It's almost like it's obviously a propaganda piece. They're forced to do that. So a lot of I think the armed resistance that you may see is not going to be armed resistance except for the Fedayeen, the special Republican Guards and the Iraqi special forces, those types, in the city. But if they keep the pressure on, the coalition force keeps the pressure on, it may not be as difficult. And again, it's one of those things, why rush in if the conditions aren't right yet?

BLITZER: So do you think that the model that the British used over the past two weeks in basically encircling Basra, the second largest city of Iraq, more than a million residents there, that might be the same kind of model the U.S. will use, having encircled Baghdad right now, 4.5, five million people who live there? GRANGE: Maybe so, because a lot of the people are just waiting to see what's going to happen. And then I think that a lot of the Iraqi people will cooperate with the coalition forces. Right now, of course, if you cooperate, you die by the hard-core elements in Saddam's regime. And I think the British example in Basra is a good one. If you have positional advantage -- in other words, you call the shots on time -- why rush it? Why not attack when the time, the supplies, the conditions with the people, because the people have to be a part of this thing, are proper for certain victory? There really is no rush.

BLITZER: If the U.S. Army or the Marines were to send in M1A1 battle tanks or these Bradley armored personnel carriers into Baghdad itself, do the Iraqis have anti-tank missiles, if you will, the kind of weaponry that can destroy a tank or an APC?

GRANGE: There are some anti-tank weapons that, yes, can destroy, can at least disable U.S. and British tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. But the conditions have to be right. Quite often, it takes multiple shots like from above and buildings above and narrow streets and things like that. But the coalition forces know that, and they will employ their armor with dismounted infantry and other combined (UNINTELLIGIBLE), like artillery, mortars and attack gunships in concert as they move throughout the city. And so, yes, it's dangerous, but they can operate. It's just that the ranges are short, it's very face-to-face type combat, and some of the coalition armor is degraded in their capability.

BLITZER: And certainly a lot of civilians in Baghdad, and the U.S. anxiously trying to avoid innocent Iraqi deaths. General Grange, thanks very much. We'll talk, obviously, later as well. General David Grange, retired U.S. Army brigadier general.

It looked like the scene from hell. A friendly fire attack leaves 18 dead, 45 wounded.

Plus, civilians in the crossfire. Urban combat forces, Marines, U.S. Marines. It forces them to go down a delicate tightrope.

And fallen friend. NBC loses a veteran journalist. We all lose a good friend, a great colleague. But first, these images from the frontlines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: You're looking at earlier pictures of Baghdad, a remarkable, remarkable scene, the sounds of gunfire, the sounds of bombs and the sounds of prayer all ring out. Welcome back to our continuing coverage. U.S. Central Command says an investigation is now under way into an apparent friendly fire incident in northern Iraq that killed 17 Kurdish fighters working with U.S. Special Forces along with a civilian translator. Julian Manyon of Britain's ITN has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIAN MANYON, ITN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is another friendly fire disaster. This morning, an American bomb destroyed a convoy carrying high officials of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, which have been fighting alongside the Americans on the northern front. At least 17 Kurdish commanders and their guards were killed, along with an interpreter working for the BBC. More than 40 were injured. The military chief of the Kurdish KDP, the brother of their leader, Massud Barzani, was gravely hurt.

(on camera): Trying to organize a northern front with just a few hundred U.S. Special Forces troops and the poorly armed Kurdish Peshmerga guerrillas was always going to be a high-risk exercise. The idea was to open the way with heavy sustained American bombing of Iraqi positions. But today, it all went disastrously wrong.

(voice-over): Even as we filmed the wreckage, U.S. jets were still dropping their bombs nearby. Giant explosions erupted down the road.

Earlier, we had joined another convoy of U.S. Special Forces troops and Kurdish fighters as they tried to move south through country abandoned by the Iraqi army. At first, all was calm. American troops controlled the operation from a rooftop. Then, as the Kurds advanced again, the Iraqis opened up.

(on camera): Now we're hearing the boom of Iraqi guns as they fire towards our positions. All morning, the Kurds have been trying to advance, and that was the shell going off.

(voice-over): The Iraqi gunners rapidly found our range, and we took refuge in an abandoned farm house.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down. Get down!

MANYON: We finally managed to get out by car.

Here in the north, Iraqi tanks and guns are still firing, and the American effort is looking a little ragged.

Julian Manyon, ITV News, on the northern front.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And a grizzly find in southern Iraq as well. Soldiers stumble upon the remains of as many as 400 people. We'll have a full report.

And as U.S. forces push into Baghdad, I'll talk to the grandson of General George Patton about lessons learned from World War II. First, these images from the battlefield.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: You're looking at more images from the battle for Basra, the second largest city in Iraq. British Royal Marines have moved into the city, but the U.S. Central Command reports there are still pockets of stiff resistance. Forensic teams are on the scene of a gruesome discovery. Yesterday, British Marines near Basra found a warehouse full of remains which experts now believe date back to the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

CNN's Richard Blystone has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD BLYSTONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It had been billed as a helicopter trip, a rarity. The lure: news reports about possible evidence of atrocities by the Baghdad regime. The military warned reporters they'd have to stay back from a "crime investigation."

The merciless crushing of a southern Iraqi uprising 12 years ago is well-known, but visual proof now of the regime's brutality would bolster the U.S. and British government's case for removing it. The buses were the first indication this might not be the big one.

Finally, southwest of the battle for Basra, the scene: an artillery complex now occupied by British troops, what might have been a prison. These words mean, My life is suffering, I have nothing left. And piles and piles of documents, records of these dead, 408 of them, mostly Iraqi, the rest Iranian.

There is a U.S. exploitation team here. It looks for evidence of Baghdad wrongdoing, like weapons of mass destruction.

COL. RICHARD MCPHEE, EXPLOITATION TEAM: Exploitation is more than just WMD. It's -- in a case just like here, why we have this team we brought out, in that we were here to see if there were any abuses conducted.

BLYSTONE: The forensic investigation, we're told, is going on. The remains themselves ask a question. If this was a murder camp, would the killers dig up the bodies, put them in bags, and keep careful records of them?

C.W.O. DAN WALTERS: The indications are is that this was a makeshift morgue. This facility was used in the process of repatriating soldiers from Iran and Iraq back to their families.

BLYSTONE: The remains, we're told, date from the 1980 to '88 Iran-Iraq war which killed hundreds of thousands on both sides.

Before this war, the two countries had been periodically exchanging prisoners and remains. These will, in time, be processed and, with honor, returned to their families. Meanwhile, this day, a sad substitute for a gun salute.

Richard Blystone, CNN, near Basra, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Now a brief look at some other scenes from the battle front today. While Baghdad remains the focus of attention, coalition forces are still very busy in the south. Abu Dhabi TV showed heavy fighting in Karbala in south central Iraq. We have no word on casualties. And farther south in Umm Qasr, there is food, but not yet enough water. Crowds of civilians surrounded coalition forces as they handed out bottles. United Nations officials say water has been in short supply since before the war.

In northern Iraq, with the help of coalition air strikes, another town has fallen to Iraqi Kurds, the largest one yet.

CNN's Ben Wedeman has the story from there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There is a new sheriff in this town north of Mosul. The Iraqi army left after overnight air strikes and a battle with Kurdish forces. Now the Kurds stroll triumphantly through the dusty, rubble-strewn streets of Shaikhan, a mixed town of Arabs, Kurds, Christians, and Yazides (ph), adherents of an ancient religion indigenous to northern Iraq.

Savoring the glow of victory, a Kurdish fighter tinkers with an antiaircraft gun freshly captured from the Iraqi army. Shaikhan took a heavy pounding from coalition aircraft. Huge craters dot the landscape. One bomb fell in this residential area, killing at least one civilian and destroying several homes.

(on camera): This is the biggest town yet to fall to the Kurds. But despite the retreat of the Iraqi army, the fear of Saddam Hussein stays on.

(voice-over): Townspeople flee Shaikhan, worried the Iraqi army might counterattack. And after nearly two and a half decades under Saddam Hussein, the concept that the Iraqi leader could become history is hard to grasp.

"In 1991, the Iraqis were slaughtered because you Americans told us to rise up," this man tells me. "We just don't trust you." What if Saddam were to actually go this time, I ask him. "It would be a miracle from God," he responds.

Not everyone is skeptical. One local leader seemed pleased to see CNN camerawoman Mary Rogers (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to Shaikhan. Thank you. Thank you for you and for all American man and British men, and all men help Kurdish people to freedom of Iraq.

WEDEMAN: Freedom for some means prison for others. These Iraqi soldiers had changed into civilian dress hoping to avoid arrest. Before being driven away, a small act of kindness from their captors.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Shaikhan, northern Iraq. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: U.S. troops circling Baghdad, the noose around Saddam Hussein's regime getting tighter and tighter. Find out the latest.

Also, urban combat, civilians in the cross fire. The delicate balance of security and humanity.

And gone, but not forgotten. An untimely death, very untimely. Journalists mourn the loss of a good friend and colleague. But first, these images from the front lines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

BLITZER: Thanks very much, Fredricka. I want to go immediately to CNN's Thomas Nybo. He is in northern Iraq. We have him on the phone. There appears to be a significant artillery battle underway right now. Thomas, if you can hear me, tell us what is going on, where you are, and set the scene for us.

THOMAS NYBO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in northern Iraq, I am in the vicinity of Erbil. I just returned from a night attack with the 173rd Airborne. Essentially what happened was they had Special Forces guys on the ground. They had word of about -- as many as 500 Iraqi soldiers dug into fighting positions. And so, they got within about 16 kilometers. They had two Howitzer cannons, and they unleashed a fury of about 50 rounds fired down, rained down upon the Iraqi soldiers. The initial word is that the attack was successful. It could take 24 hours to get a full battle assessment. Now, the reason that this is important, there had been aerial bombardments before, but the Iraqis supposedly could see the planes coming. The 173rd wanted to catch them off guard. They had no way of knowing what was coming. The ammunition just rained down from the sky, 50 rounds fired here in northern Iraq.

BLITZER: Thomas, what kind of artillery does the U.S. have, what kind of artillery pieces do they have mobile that can move into a battle like that?

NYBO: Essentially, I was part of a convoy -- there were about 12 vehicles in the convoy, Humvees, and they were towing two Howitzers. They were firing 105 millimeter shells. It was very quick. We moved in. They set up very quickly. All of the firing took place within about one hour.

They fired 50 rounds of 105 millimeter artillery. As soon as they were finished, they packed up and got out of there as quickly as they could.

BLITZER: Thomas Nybo with the latest from northern Iraq, not far from the strategically important town of Erbil. A huge artillery blast, U.S. Army personnel attacking Iraqi troops with artillery, Howitzers, a strong report from Thomas Nybo. Thanks very much, Tom, for that. In the southeast suburbs of Baghdad, meanwhile, U.S. Marines have a difficult task -- indeed, a very difficult task trying to root out pockets of Iraqi resistance in a residential area. CNN's Martin Savage is with the 1st Battalion of the 7th Marines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: As they have for the past three days, the Marines continue to drive into the southeastern suburbs of Baghdad. And as they do, they have been encountering pockets of resistance. This is sporadic fighting that does not occur all the time, but does flare up from place to place, and they have been moving into built-up areas, and that is complicating things for the movement of the convoys.

Other units have pushed ahead, but now the 1st Battalion 7th Marines in this specific area we are at, has been tasked with the job of cleanup, trying to find where the resistance is coming from. Who is it? The search and destroy missions as they call it. The difficulty, of course, is they are now mixed in with the civilian population. Opposing forces are using that to their advantage. For the Marines, they have to be very careful now, have to be careful that they select their targets and make sure that the targets they aim at are, in fact, hostiles while the innocent civilians are not caught in the way. It is now house-to-house searches some time.

A very poignant scene at one point, the cameraman, Scott McWinnie found as these Marines moved in on a house. Now, we do have translators, but not all the units have translators. They came across this one family. It's through voice and through hand gestures that they try to get them to come out of the house, and they do. But it's clear, you can tell, that the family is terrified in the presence of these Marines.

Now, the Marines also, as you may notice in this video, are keeping their weapons well away. They are not pointing them at the women and children and the men of this family, and they are trying to assure them that it's for their own safety. The Marines have been receiving fire from this specific area. They are trying to simply search in and around the home. And once that is completed, the family was allowed to return back to their house.

Meanwhile, though, in the backyards and the back alleys and the side streets, it's a different story. At times, infantry units are fired upon. They call in artillery, which is used to take out some of the heavier fortified positions of Iraqi opposition.

It is hard, difficult, dangerous work. Within the forefront of their minds, always protecting Iraqi civilians.

Martin Savidge, CNN, southeast of Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: President Bush will discuss the post-war plan for Iraq with the British prime minister, Tony Blair, tomorrow in Northern Ireland. CNN's Chris Burns is live at the White House for us, and he has more -- Chris.

BURNS: Wolf, it is a matter of balance. How do you try to avoid the image of being an occupying force, and how do you steer Iraq towards some kind of an effective government.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BURNS (voice-over): Back from his Camp David retreat, President Bush overnights at the White House before heading to Belfast. The hastily organized trip comes after rapid battlefield gains, increasing the urgency of deciding who should run a post-Saddam Iraq.

PAUL WOLFOWITZ, DEPUTY DEFENSE SECRETARY: If I could paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, Of the Iraqis, by the Iraqis, for the Iraqis. Not to make them a colonial administration or a U.N. administration, or run in any way by foreigners. But it is going to be a partnership of the coalition countries. The U.N. has an important role to play in that.

BURNS: Wolfowitz expects it to take more than six months to establish a government after the war. But with which Iraqis? How many exiles? How many from within Iraq? How much of a U.N. role? The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee face off.

WARNER: ... president, through his secretary of state, said that the United Nations should be partners. I add to that phrase, Yes, they should be partners, but the managing partners. In other words, those with the ultimate responsibility for the interim period should be representatives from the coalition forces.

BURNS: Many Democrats, the State Department, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are pushing for more of a U.N. role.

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: It is critically important for all kinds of reasons that this not be an American occupation.

BURNS: Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair will try to reconcile those opposing views. They are also expected to discuss how to jump start the peace process in Northern Ireland, as well as the Middle East. The British prime minister wants to speed up a road map to peace between Israelis and Palestinians to try to mend relations with the Arab world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNS: And President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice has made an unannounced trip to Moscow to try to mend relations with one of the biggest opponents of the Iraq war, also to seek more support in this very risky, costly job of state building after Saddam Hussein -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Chris Burns at the White House. Thanks, Chris, very much. Advances on the ground are meaningless unless there is a way to get supplies to the forward, front-line troops. In one case that job is falling to elements of the 82nd Airborne Division. Karl Penhaul is embedded with these troops, and talked to their commander about the job they're doing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEN. CHARLES SWANNACH, COMMANDER, 82ND AIRBORNE: 3rd Infantry Division, part of 5th Corps, has attacked very, very rapidly up into the outskirts of Baghdad, and we have been responsible to come in behind them and mop up any resistance. So we're maintaining the ground lines of communication so that fuel trucks, ammo trucks, rations, water can all go forward to the forward elements.

Urban warfare is very difficult. Probable more difficult in terms of bringing to bear all the combat power a unit might have because of the combined spaces that you have to go and fight, to bring in your artillery so you don't create collateral damage, to go ahead and bring in air power to go ahead and accomplish the target, and then get the paratroopers that we have in this division close to go ahead and do the close battle combat drill, and clear buildings and clear streets. I see the battle in Baghdad to be very similar in terms of the confined spaces where you go ahead and apply combat power. It is a very difficult fight, but coalition forces train very, very much at this, and it is right in our bread and butter-type drills that we do.

Conventional forces will go ahead and occupy positions. However, when they are confronted with overwhelming combat power that we have, normally we can break their defenses very, very quickly. Their paramilitary forces, I'm a little bit surprised at the fanatical, dedicated commitment to killing Americans. The asymmetric threat, or the paramilitary threat, suicide, kamikaze-type bombers is something that our troopers are not all that well versed in, but they can make the right decisions.

Shock and awe at the, possibly, Air Force level is different from the Shock and Awe associated with a paratrooper trying to take -- cross that bridge into Samawa (ph), and seize the foothold on the far side. Every level we have got in our military, I think, we have awesome combat power. That's a very difficult issue, and how we prosecute the fight to minimize collateral damage. I think we are doing a pretty good job at that. Identifying whether or not civilians are actual combatants or not is very difficult, and that's what our soldiers have to be attuned to.

(UNINTELLIGIBLE) during the Burma campaign said "use a sledgehammer to crush a walnut," and I try to translate that same philosophy to our paratroopers here in the division and our leaders, and I try to tell them, this is not a football game where we have got 11 on one side and 11 on the other side. That's not how we fight this fight. We use overwhelming combat power to destroy the enemy and accomplish our mission.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: The 82nd Airborne Division speaking with our own Karl Penhaul. A key element in this war. As always, we are keeping our eye on the skies over Baghdad. Right now, we are watching for coalition forces on the ground, as well as they push into the capital city. Joining me next to talk about strategy for Baghdad, and parallels between this war and World War II is the grandson of General George Patton. And later, U.S. troops may not be able to get e-mail in Iraq, but they are getting letters. We'll read the mail with the U.S. Marines in just a few minutes. First, these photos from the Associated Press.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

BLITZER: CNN's Miles O'Brien with that update. There are lessons to be learned from every war. My next guest wrote about some of them in the op-ed page of the "New York Times" only yesterday, drawing parallels between World War II and the current campaign in Iraq. Robert Patton is the grandson of General George Patton. He joins me live now from New York. Thanks very much, Robert, for joining us. What do you think -- how do you think your grandfather would have fought this war any differently than General Tommy Franks?

ROBERT PATTON, GEN. PATTON'S GRANDSON: Well, I'll tell you, as different as they are outwardly, General Franks, of course, being rather reluctant to get in front of the microphone, and General Patton always looking to make good copy, it does seem that their war plans are very similar. Patton was an early exemplar of combined arms -- air power, tanks, infantry working in concert. And obviously in even greater measure we've seen General Franks combining ground force, advanced intelligence, special operations, Naval assets, air power and of course logistics, and ultimately humanitarian aid. This is a massive choreography that Patton, I don't think, even could have imagined.

BLITZER: Do you think your grandfather would have approved of General Franks' strategy?

PATTON: You know, I think it's clear that he would have very much tipped his hat to the general's audacity, as again as reluctant as General Franks seems to want to be about getting out in front of the cameras, his plan is audacious. This reconnaissance in force yesterday, of that mechanized infantry brigade passing through Baghdad was utterly daring and utterly brazen, and I think Patton would only have tipped his hat to that.

BLITZER: If you can hear me, Robert, we have just lost communications here for a moment briefly. I'm going to take a quick commercial break, we're going to try to re-establish our communications. We'll continue this interview in just a moment. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: You are watching images from a battle in northern Iraq. Kurdish forces shelling Iraqi positions with the help of U.S. warplanes. Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the war in Iraq. We were talking with Robert Patton, the grandson of General George Patton. Sorry for the technical problem, Mr. Patton, but let's talk a little bit about this war. If your grandfather were fighting it right now with embedded journalists, would he be able to do the kind of war that he did during World War II?

PATTON: I think it would have been a challenge for him. He had a kind of a love-hate relationship with the press. He did like to get reported upon, but I think he also didn't want the press to kind of say bad things about him, or probably get in the way on the battlefield. I think, again, all of our sensibilities have changed over the last decades, and we understand that those reporters in the field are a part of the citizenry and probably aren't that different from the men that they are accompanying at the front. But sure, Patton would have thought that this might be more trouble than it is worth.

BLITZER: What about the whole issue of the taking of Baghdad right now? If your grandfather could give General Franks some advice, what advice would he give him?

PATTON: He would tell him to do what Patton himself did not do when he came across the French fortified city of Metz at the end of his famous run across France in 1944. Patton at that time got off plan, got away from his strengths of maneuver, concentrated fire power, surprise, and got involved in a war of attrition in taking this fortified town. It was a mutual crucifixion, as he put it, between himself and the Nazi defenders, and I think he would applaud, as do I frankly, Wolf, the continuation of Franks' style, General Franks' style of maneuver, audacity, opportunism, these things that we have seen as exemplified in yesterday's brigade sweep through Baghdad.

BLITZER: Robert Patton, the grandson of George Patton. Thanks very much for your insight. Very, very interesting. I know you have written extensively on your grandfather and his battle plans. Appreciate it very much.

We have much more news coming up. Much more coverage, including some striking images of war. We have been hearing how important it is to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. It's a little easier with their children, as any soldier carrying a bag of candy can attest. Abu Dhabi TV captured this scene near Basra. Also near that city, British forces were cheered as they moved in from positions on the outskirts. Keep in mind, most of these people are Shiite Muslims who have been persecuted in many cases by Saddam Hussein regime.

Magazines, letters and mom's homemade cookies. U.S. soldiers are getting a taste at home even though they are thousands of miles away from the ones they love. CNN's Jason Bellini tells us how mail call has kept hope alive in the Iraqi desert.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the best of times and the worst of times for the mail to arrive. The best because the Marines could benefit from a morale boost. The worst because the cookies, candy, magazines and shaving supplies will only weigh down their packs further, just as the next mission, likely involving long, hard humps awaits them. Mail call is about talking with one another about home, about finding a few minutes alone. About making sure no one feels left out.

(on camera): It's nice. Everybody shares. That's cool.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Everybody gets something, you know? (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

BELLINI (voice-over): The Marines of Gulf company already know what the week ahead will likely bring. The danger, the adrenaline, and the confusion of door to door combat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: September 11, my -- I lost two of my relatives in the bomb, and my sister was out wandering around the city that day. And I couldn't get in touch with my sister for like a week. So I really freaked out about that.

BELLINI: Today he opens an envelope from his mom, Rosemary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Joseph, letters might not be so frequent, but always remember we are very proud of what you are doing for our country. Love, mom." That's -- I needed this.

BELLINI (on camera): Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I haven't gotten letters -- I haven't gotten a letter from my mom since I have been out here, and this -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE) tonight, I feel a lot better right now. Glad to know that she still loves me and that she supports everything we are doing out here.

BELLINI (voice-over): He says he will keep his mom's note in his pocket while he and the rest of Gulf company, to use a phrase often written in Marines' letters home, do what we've got to do.

Jason Bellini, CNN, embedded with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: A dedicated journalist, a dear colleague and a good friend. We'll take a look back at the life and times of David Bloom of NBC News when we come back. But first, these images.

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BLITZER: You are watching a religious service conducted by U.S. troops this Sunday morning in central Iraq. Welcome back to our coverage.

There is another casualty to this war, this time one very, very unexpected. NBC correspondent David Bloom, a great correspondent, a good colleague, and an excellent friend of all of ours has died from a blood clot in his lung while traveling with the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry near Baghdad. More now about David Bloom from CNN's Jason Carroll. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the last three years, he has been the friendly, familiar face on NBC's "Weekend Today." Sunday morning, his colleagues, his friends began with one of the most difficult stories they've ever had to tell.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, NBC ANCHOR: Good morning. Sad news today from the front lines of Iraq. NBC's David Bloom, a husband and father, adventurous spirit and our colleague, died overnight, of course, covering the story in Iraq that he loved to cover so much. It's just -- it leaves you speechless, really.

CARROLL: Bloom died early Sunday of a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot in the lungs.

BLOOM: If you talk, you've got to yell to me, because it's really hard to hear out here.

CARROLL: He died doing what he loved, reporting on the big story, no matter where it was.

BLOOM: These are not, obviously, ideal living or working conditions.

CARROLL: While in Iraq, Bloom met his deadlines from the front lines. He was embedded with the 3rd Infantry.

BLOOM: What the sheriff's department calls the first real break in this case...

CARROLL: Bloom joined NBC News 10 years ago, he came from WTVJ in Miami. He was an award-winning reporter at that station.

BLOOM: Are you trying to hide your face? Are you embarrassed that you're doing this?

CARROLL: And while at NBC, he quickly rose through the ranks, becoming to the network's go-to guy.

TIM RUSSERT: If there was a hurricane, flood, a coup in Haiti, wherever there was something breaking he wanted to be there.

CARROLL: The O.J. Simpson trial, presidential impeachment hearings, the serial sniper -- Bloom did it all, and did it well.

As White House correspondent, he showed why he was so respected. He was a journalist who cared.

BLOOM: Under the cover of the bombings, or despite the bombings, the Serbs are rushing to complete their ethnic cleansing. Is there at least no sense of urgency about trying to stop that now?

CARROLL: Bloom wasn't all business. It was his boyish charm that endeared him to so many at NBC.

Humor, commitment and devotion to family. Bloom is survived by his wife and three young daughters. He would have been 40 next month.

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BLITZER: And our deepest condolences to his wife and three daughters, indeed, all of David Bloom's family and friends. We will miss him a great deal. A good colleague, a good friend. Spent several years working with him closely when we both covered the Clinton White House.

And please stay with CNN throughout the night for up to the minute coverage in the war in Iraq. Paula Zahn and I will be back for two hours of special coverage right after this news alert.

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