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Marines Prepare to Destroy Bridge

Aired April 07, 2003 - 11:00   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We are about to witness something here with Marty Savidge on the videophone with the Marines. Marty, if you can hear me, Bill Hemmer, Kuwait City. What's about to happen there? All right, obviously, Martin cannot hear us. But as soon as he can...
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, I'm sorry. Can you hear me now?

HEMMER: Absolutely. Go for it. Tell us what's happening?

SAVIDGE: All right, Bill. Let me tell you what is going on here. You heard about the engagement that the 3rd Battalion 4th Marines were involved in over the last 24 hours in this particular juncture of a canal crossing. And we -- it was in this same spot, in fact, just down the way by the bridge. You may see what looks like an LAV, which is exactly what it is, land attack vehicle. In that same position this morning was an armored personnel carrier of the 3rd Battalion 4th Marines. They were just about to cross the bridge when they were struck by we are now told either artillery or mortar fire. Two Marines were killed in that APC. It has since been moved away.

There was a tremendous fire fight that took place inside of this village at this key crossing all of yesterday and all of today. The village has finally been secured, and now what they have done is that the Marine engineering unit has built a temporary bridge and the bridge you're looking at here in the picture is the old Iraqi bridge. It was damaged or at least partially destroyed by retreating Iraqi troops. And it cannot be used. It's not safe to be used. So what the Marines have done is built a temporary bridge down the canal from it, in which they will be able to press on into southeast sections of Baghdad.

What we are waiting on here was that they are reportedly getting ready to blow up the Iraqi bridge so that -- because it's dangerous, a risk because of the damage and bring it down. That's what we're waiting on here. Not a perfect clock, but this has been the scene of intense fighting for about the last 24, 48 hours. Now in control and a key juncture of not the Tigris, but a canal, actually. You will cross the Tigris several times from this direction to get into Baghdad. Bill?

HEMMER: Stop me when I'm speaking too much here. As we await this, do you know of how many explosives were put on this bridge and others in the area?

SAVIDGE: Well, we have been told there had been some preparations made on the part of the Iraqis when they were retreating. They have not blown all the bridges. They were not capable of blowing all the bridges at the speed of which the attack by the U.S. Marines were made. There are others being used farther up and down this canal. It appears that at least they were partially successful on getting rid of this one. We're being told there's some vehicles down there near the base of the bridge. These are U.S. Military vehicles that are probably going to cross the temporary structure. I don't believe they're going to blow that bridge until those vehicles are out of the way. So it could be a little bit of time.

HEMMER: Marty, we'll try and buy some time while we have you here. I don't want to give away locations. I know we have rules here that we have to abide by. I'm going to assume you're about 200, 300 yards away. Is that a fair assessment?

SAVIDGE: Yep, that's about the distance we are from it. They're not going to blow the entire bridge. They're going to blow the central span, and that way make sure no civilians living in this area continue to use the bridge. It may be of questionable strength or soundness. So they will get rid of this bridge and then there is a new span that we can sort of slowly pan down and show you some of the work that is being done by the bridge crew.

This is the typical pontoon bridge that can be assembled. The Marines, when they travel forward, they travel with everything they think they could possibly need, including bridge making material. And they were anticipating this same scenario they faced. They sent up a temporary bridge. They set up this bridge. It can carry quite heavy loads, including M1 and A1 tanks and military columns can pass through it. In fact a military colony is now just starting to cross. This is how they overcome the obstacles.

The bridge making supply units are constantly traveling with the battalion. If a bridge is blown right in front of them, it is not much of a problem. They can quickly get another bridge up and operating and get across any waterways, canals or rivers that may be an obstacle. If the Iraqis think that by blowing a bridge, damaging a bridge that they have hindered the progress of the Marines, they are wrong. They haven't. We're waiting for this column to get out of the way and we'll wait and see if the bridge will go. Bill?

HEMMER: Marty, listen. Hang with us while you can. Looks like a Humvee that was going over that bridge. Perhaps the first vehicle going over. We're going to bring in General Wesley Clark in little to talk about some of the engineer engineering we're seeing. Not just the explosion of this bridge we're about to experience but also, general, the construction of this bridge that was not there, perhaps, an hour, two hours ago. You know about this going back to Bosnia, the efforts trying to do that during that conflict.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Morning, Bill. One of the things we really did prepare coalition forces for was river crossings. And this was the principle distinction along with urban combat in this campaign that the United States Army and the Marines recognized as opposed to the Gulf War. And so, really starting a year ago, they began rehearsing river crossings. The Marines and the Army both have pontoon bridging capabilities and many other assets as necessary to cross these bridges and they're ready to do it. Unlike the case that you're referring to on the river in December of 1995 when it was wintertime and there was a full flood and the river was moving at really dangerous speeds, these streams are difficult, but what would make them difficult principally is not the water velocity, it's the opposite bank. And in this case, when there's no defense assembling one of these river crossing kits is relatively straightforward and physical labor, sure, but something that's practiced and trained and rehearsed all the time.

HEMMER: Marty, I don't know if you're still with us. Another point to be made here, as we look at this, is that a Bradley? I'm not sure. General, I thought it quite interesting two months ago out in the desert in Kuwait when the Army was getting ready and the Marines were getting ready, they would hold competitions, maybe on Saturday afternoons, to see who could construct a bridge like this the quickest. Your thoughts on that, about how the efficiency has to be a key.

CLARK: You're exactly right. Not only are your soldiers or Marines who are waiting to cross the river exposed in a case like this, but so are the engineers who are in the water assembling the bridges. This is an old tradition of military training of the Army and engineers are practiced and they rehearse this, they compete with it. This is standard training technique, to compete and see who can get those bridges in most rapidly.

HEMMER: General, stand by. Marty, not sure what it was an Amtrak (ph) or LAV. I think you have a much better viewpoint from there. Go ahead.

SAVIDGE: That is an Amtrak (ph) that was moving across there. That's an Amtrak (ph), which is an amphibious assault vehicle. It's like an armored personnel carrier. They can usually hold 18 to 25 Marines in the back. It is one of the primary fighting vehicles that the Marines are using. You're seeing these Hummers and Jeeps that the military Marines use to go across. What they want to do is get this convoy out of the way so they can then take care of the bridge here. As the general was pointing out, it's quite true. Marine engineers obviously had to work on this bridge at the same time that this village was still having some intense fire. So this isn't like something that you do after the fighting has died down. Keeping the forward momentum, keeping the Marines pushing into Baghdad, that's all very important. So even as the fighting was going on, even as the artillery's coming down and mortar rounds are going off, these engineers have to stay focused on their job, which is building this bridge.

It's a monument of engineering that is also a testament to their courage because they may have to rely on the other Marines providing the fighting power to keep them protected. Once this bridge is established, then you've got a continuous flow. They'll keep driving into the suburbs of Baghdad and eventually come out to Baghdad itself. Now starting to approach there. You'll see the LAVs, light assault vehicles and more of the high-speed vehicles that's used by the Marines. They're capable of handling anything at this point. Little difficult approach there, they're open for business and taking plenty of customers.

CLARK: Bill, I might just join in here to what Marty's saying, that one of the key tasks on building one of these bridges is the approaches and the exits from the bridge. And what you can see there is, as this light armored vehicle is going across, it's going to negotiate a drop off on the other side. So when you construct a bridge like this, you also have a unit that's responsible for maintaining it. It can't be just left and neglected because the wear and tear of the vehicles on the dirt approaches and exits to the bridge will quickly make it impassable. So there will be bull dozers or other engineer vehicles out there to continue to upgrade the access to the bridge.

HEMMER: Excellent point, general. Marty, back to you, if I could. You mentioned the casualties the Marines took earlier today. There was a report that indicated it may have been a of friendly fire. Not sure if you've heard more on that.

SAVIDGE: We have. We've heard from top command for the Marine division, which is responsible for all of the Marine activity that you've been seeing in this region. They tell us directly there is no question that it was Iraqi mortar and artillery fire that took out the armored personnel carrier. And if there had been any other questioning about friendly fire, that was not the case. They have confirmed in fact it was Iraqi fire that took it out. There was a lot of artillery that was being exchanged this morning in this region.

Every fire fight that took place around this village, and you can understand why. Iraqis know this is a key crossing. The other thing is that the Iraqis on all of their key crossings would be zeroed in with mortar fire. This is one of the few places you know where U.S. advance military units would be crossing, therefore you have it in the crosshairs ahead of time and you open fire the moment you see anything. That appears to have been the circumstance. We also understand in the fire fight within this village over the past 24, 48 hours that there were other Marine casualties that were suffered by the 3rd Battalion 4th Marines.

Despite that heavy fighting and fighting you might consider that setback as far as loss of life, they have continued driving on and pushing into the suburbs of Baghdad. They are obviously a force that has now grown accustomed to fighting and continuing to move on. That is always the tempo of the Marines in this juncture. Marines have been fighting all the way up from the east side, the east side of Iraq, and now the east side of Baghdad, going through a lot of densely populated areas. So they've gained experience of urban warfare on this particular operation. Bill?

HEMMER: All right Marty thanks. We're going to squeeze back this picture and wait here. Marty, if you get a signal, let us know and we'll get you back quickly. General Wesley Clark, stand by down there in Little Rock. I have a number of questions for you on this Monday morning. While we await this, though, want to talk about the northern front. It continues to be really a hot bed of activity. Difficult to ascertain exactly what's happening in all these towns. In Irbil, Ben Wedeman is standing by to bring us up to date. It is now nightfall there. What's happening?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Bill. The focus of the war in the north today was around the Iraqi controlled city of Mosul, which is really the commercial hub of the northern part of the country. There, throughout the morning, there were huge explosions recorded by Al-Jazeera the Arabic satellite news channel. We were about 25 miles to the east at the time throughout the morning it was like there were small earthquake earthquakes going on in the area. You could really feel and hear these deep, deep thuds coming from the direction of Mosul, which was being pounded by coalition aircraft. We could see throughout the morning B-52 bombers heading in the direction of that city.

Now, according to Al-Jazeera one of the targets that was hit in or around Mosul was a munitions dump, which might explain some of those huge explosions which we're seeing on Al-Jazeera. Now, other than that, it was a fairly calm day on most of the front lines between the Kurdish and the Iraqi forces. It was a very hazy day today, which makes it very difficult for the American spotters -- those are the members of the U.S. Armed Forces whose job it is to provide the coordinates for these coalition aircraft that are flying over the area to come in for their air strikes. When it's hazy it's very difficult for them to get a bead on targets on the Iraqi side. However, the Iraqis, for their part, didn't find that to be a problem. Where we were just as I said 25 miles to the east of Mosul, there was some incoming artillery fire from the Iraqi side. So they are clearly still able to respond to everything that comes their way. Bill?

HEMMER: All right, Ben. Thanks for the update there.

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 7, 2003 - 11:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We are about to witness something here with Marty Savidge on the videophone with the Marines. Marty, if you can hear me, Bill Hemmer, Kuwait City. What's about to happen there? All right, obviously, Martin cannot hear us. But as soon as he can...
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, I'm sorry. Can you hear me now?

HEMMER: Absolutely. Go for it. Tell us what's happening?

SAVIDGE: All right, Bill. Let me tell you what is going on here. You heard about the engagement that the 3rd Battalion 4th Marines were involved in over the last 24 hours in this particular juncture of a canal crossing. And we -- it was in this same spot, in fact, just down the way by the bridge. You may see what looks like an LAV, which is exactly what it is, land attack vehicle. In that same position this morning was an armored personnel carrier of the 3rd Battalion 4th Marines. They were just about to cross the bridge when they were struck by we are now told either artillery or mortar fire. Two Marines were killed in that APC. It has since been moved away.

There was a tremendous fire fight that took place inside of this village at this key crossing all of yesterday and all of today. The village has finally been secured, and now what they have done is that the Marine engineering unit has built a temporary bridge and the bridge you're looking at here in the picture is the old Iraqi bridge. It was damaged or at least partially destroyed by retreating Iraqi troops. And it cannot be used. It's not safe to be used. So what the Marines have done is built a temporary bridge down the canal from it, in which they will be able to press on into southeast sections of Baghdad.

What we are waiting on here was that they are reportedly getting ready to blow up the Iraqi bridge so that -- because it's dangerous, a risk because of the damage and bring it down. That's what we're waiting on here. Not a perfect clock, but this has been the scene of intense fighting for about the last 24, 48 hours. Now in control and a key juncture of not the Tigris, but a canal, actually. You will cross the Tigris several times from this direction to get into Baghdad. Bill?

HEMMER: Stop me when I'm speaking too much here. As we await this, do you know of how many explosives were put on this bridge and others in the area?

SAVIDGE: Well, we have been told there had been some preparations made on the part of the Iraqis when they were retreating. They have not blown all the bridges. They were not capable of blowing all the bridges at the speed of which the attack by the U.S. Marines were made. There are others being used farther up and down this canal. It appears that at least they were partially successful on getting rid of this one. We're being told there's some vehicles down there near the base of the bridge. These are U.S. Military vehicles that are probably going to cross the temporary structure. I don't believe they're going to blow that bridge until those vehicles are out of the way. So it could be a little bit of time.

HEMMER: Marty, we'll try and buy some time while we have you here. I don't want to give away locations. I know we have rules here that we have to abide by. I'm going to assume you're about 200, 300 yards away. Is that a fair assessment?

SAVIDGE: Yep, that's about the distance we are from it. They're not going to blow the entire bridge. They're going to blow the central span, and that way make sure no civilians living in this area continue to use the bridge. It may be of questionable strength or soundness. So they will get rid of this bridge and then there is a new span that we can sort of slowly pan down and show you some of the work that is being done by the bridge crew.

This is the typical pontoon bridge that can be assembled. The Marines, when they travel forward, they travel with everything they think they could possibly need, including bridge making material. And they were anticipating this same scenario they faced. They sent up a temporary bridge. They set up this bridge. It can carry quite heavy loads, including M1 and A1 tanks and military columns can pass through it. In fact a military colony is now just starting to cross. This is how they overcome the obstacles.

The bridge making supply units are constantly traveling with the battalion. If a bridge is blown right in front of them, it is not much of a problem. They can quickly get another bridge up and operating and get across any waterways, canals or rivers that may be an obstacle. If the Iraqis think that by blowing a bridge, damaging a bridge that they have hindered the progress of the Marines, they are wrong. They haven't. We're waiting for this column to get out of the way and we'll wait and see if the bridge will go. Bill?

HEMMER: Marty, listen. Hang with us while you can. Looks like a Humvee that was going over that bridge. Perhaps the first vehicle going over. We're going to bring in General Wesley Clark in little to talk about some of the engineer engineering we're seeing. Not just the explosion of this bridge we're about to experience but also, general, the construction of this bridge that was not there, perhaps, an hour, two hours ago. You know about this going back to Bosnia, the efforts trying to do that during that conflict.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Morning, Bill. One of the things we really did prepare coalition forces for was river crossings. And this was the principle distinction along with urban combat in this campaign that the United States Army and the Marines recognized as opposed to the Gulf War. And so, really starting a year ago, they began rehearsing river crossings. The Marines and the Army both have pontoon bridging capabilities and many other assets as necessary to cross these bridges and they're ready to do it. Unlike the case that you're referring to on the river in December of 1995 when it was wintertime and there was a full flood and the river was moving at really dangerous speeds, these streams are difficult, but what would make them difficult principally is not the water velocity, it's the opposite bank. And in this case, when there's no defense assembling one of these river crossing kits is relatively straightforward and physical labor, sure, but something that's practiced and trained and rehearsed all the time.

HEMMER: Marty, I don't know if you're still with us. Another point to be made here, as we look at this, is that a Bradley? I'm not sure. General, I thought it quite interesting two months ago out in the desert in Kuwait when the Army was getting ready and the Marines were getting ready, they would hold competitions, maybe on Saturday afternoons, to see who could construct a bridge like this the quickest. Your thoughts on that, about how the efficiency has to be a key.

CLARK: You're exactly right. Not only are your soldiers or Marines who are waiting to cross the river exposed in a case like this, but so are the engineers who are in the water assembling the bridges. This is an old tradition of military training of the Army and engineers are practiced and they rehearse this, they compete with it. This is standard training technique, to compete and see who can get those bridges in most rapidly.

HEMMER: General, stand by. Marty, not sure what it was an Amtrak (ph) or LAV. I think you have a much better viewpoint from there. Go ahead.

SAVIDGE: That is an Amtrak (ph) that was moving across there. That's an Amtrak (ph), which is an amphibious assault vehicle. It's like an armored personnel carrier. They can usually hold 18 to 25 Marines in the back. It is one of the primary fighting vehicles that the Marines are using. You're seeing these Hummers and Jeeps that the military Marines use to go across. What they want to do is get this convoy out of the way so they can then take care of the bridge here. As the general was pointing out, it's quite true. Marine engineers obviously had to work on this bridge at the same time that this village was still having some intense fire. So this isn't like something that you do after the fighting has died down. Keeping the forward momentum, keeping the Marines pushing into Baghdad, that's all very important. So even as the fighting was going on, even as the artillery's coming down and mortar rounds are going off, these engineers have to stay focused on their job, which is building this bridge.

It's a monument of engineering that is also a testament to their courage because they may have to rely on the other Marines providing the fighting power to keep them protected. Once this bridge is established, then you've got a continuous flow. They'll keep driving into the suburbs of Baghdad and eventually come out to Baghdad itself. Now starting to approach there. You'll see the LAVs, light assault vehicles and more of the high-speed vehicles that's used by the Marines. They're capable of handling anything at this point. Little difficult approach there, they're open for business and taking plenty of customers.

CLARK: Bill, I might just join in here to what Marty's saying, that one of the key tasks on building one of these bridges is the approaches and the exits from the bridge. And what you can see there is, as this light armored vehicle is going across, it's going to negotiate a drop off on the other side. So when you construct a bridge like this, you also have a unit that's responsible for maintaining it. It can't be just left and neglected because the wear and tear of the vehicles on the dirt approaches and exits to the bridge will quickly make it impassable. So there will be bull dozers or other engineer vehicles out there to continue to upgrade the access to the bridge.

HEMMER: Excellent point, general. Marty, back to you, if I could. You mentioned the casualties the Marines took earlier today. There was a report that indicated it may have been a of friendly fire. Not sure if you've heard more on that.

SAVIDGE: We have. We've heard from top command for the Marine division, which is responsible for all of the Marine activity that you've been seeing in this region. They tell us directly there is no question that it was Iraqi mortar and artillery fire that took out the armored personnel carrier. And if there had been any other questioning about friendly fire, that was not the case. They have confirmed in fact it was Iraqi fire that took it out. There was a lot of artillery that was being exchanged this morning in this region.

Every fire fight that took place around this village, and you can understand why. Iraqis know this is a key crossing. The other thing is that the Iraqis on all of their key crossings would be zeroed in with mortar fire. This is one of the few places you know where U.S. advance military units would be crossing, therefore you have it in the crosshairs ahead of time and you open fire the moment you see anything. That appears to have been the circumstance. We also understand in the fire fight within this village over the past 24, 48 hours that there were other Marine casualties that were suffered by the 3rd Battalion 4th Marines.

Despite that heavy fighting and fighting you might consider that setback as far as loss of life, they have continued driving on and pushing into the suburbs of Baghdad. They are obviously a force that has now grown accustomed to fighting and continuing to move on. That is always the tempo of the Marines in this juncture. Marines have been fighting all the way up from the east side, the east side of Iraq, and now the east side of Baghdad, going through a lot of densely populated areas. So they've gained experience of urban warfare on this particular operation. Bill?

HEMMER: All right Marty thanks. We're going to squeeze back this picture and wait here. Marty, if you get a signal, let us know and we'll get you back quickly. General Wesley Clark, stand by down there in Little Rock. I have a number of questions for you on this Monday morning. While we await this, though, want to talk about the northern front. It continues to be really a hot bed of activity. Difficult to ascertain exactly what's happening in all these towns. In Irbil, Ben Wedeman is standing by to bring us up to date. It is now nightfall there. What's happening?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Bill. The focus of the war in the north today was around the Iraqi controlled city of Mosul, which is really the commercial hub of the northern part of the country. There, throughout the morning, there were huge explosions recorded by Al-Jazeera the Arabic satellite news channel. We were about 25 miles to the east at the time throughout the morning it was like there were small earthquake earthquakes going on in the area. You could really feel and hear these deep, deep thuds coming from the direction of Mosul, which was being pounded by coalition aircraft. We could see throughout the morning B-52 bombers heading in the direction of that city.

Now, according to Al-Jazeera one of the targets that was hit in or around Mosul was a munitions dump, which might explain some of those huge explosions which we're seeing on Al-Jazeera. Now, other than that, it was a fairly calm day on most of the front lines between the Kurdish and the Iraqi forces. It was a very hazy day today, which makes it very difficult for the American spotters -- those are the members of the U.S. Armed Forces whose job it is to provide the coordinates for these coalition aircraft that are flying over the area to come in for their air strikes. When it's hazy it's very difficult for them to get a bead on targets on the Iraqi side. However, the Iraqis, for their part, didn't find that to be a problem. Where we were just as I said 25 miles to the east of Mosul, there was some incoming artillery fire from the Iraqi side. So they are clearly still able to respond to everything that comes their way. Bill?

HEMMER: All right, Ben. Thanks for the update there.

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