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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports
Saddam May Not Be Able To Use Chemical or Biological Weapons; Journalists killed in missile attack on Palestine Hotel
Aired April 08, 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.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Strike at Saddam. U.S. crews go for the bullseye.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the first I've ever been -- ever been on a crew that got the priority target.
BLITZER: Is the Iraqi leader dead?
By ground and air, Baghdad takes a beating.
In the countryside, a three-hour firefight. CNN cameras capture the U.S. Army in intense combat.
And backlash. Civilian casualties mount.
Caught in the line of fire? More journalists.
All this on Day 20 of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
ANNOUNCER: CNN live this house: WOLF BLITZER REPORTS from Kuwait City. With correspondents from around the world, WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: You're looking at live pictures of Baghdad. For the first time in this war, the Iraqis have shot down a United States warplane.
Hello from Kuwait City. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting live tonight.
If you're just joining us, we're awaiting word of President Saddam Hussein's fate. I want to show you some video. It's the aftermath of a major U.S. air assault. What you're looking at used to be a building in Baghdad. Now it's a 30-foot crater of debris. U.S. officials say they believe Saddam Hussein and his two sons were all inside meeting when four bombs destroyed this building.
The main obstacle this hour is getting to the bombing site. It's still apparently in Iraqi hands.
That building is in the Monsour neighborhood, where Saddam Hussein or a look alike shook hands with citizens only the other day. Many Iraqi government officials also live in this area.
We have three correspondents covering the story this hour. CNN's Barbara Starr takes you inside that bombing mission.
CNN's David Ensor covers the scramble to learn about Saddam Hussein's fete -- fate.
But first -- and Nic Robertson. He's joining us as well, live from Jordan along the border with Iraq.
First, to CNN's Heidi Collins in the CNN Newsroom.
(NEWSBREAK)
BLITZER: The explosions were sudden and massive, completely obliterating a building in an exclusive Baghdad neighborhood. The target: Saddam Hussein and his two sons. Today, extraordinary new details about the mission.
We begin with CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr -- Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, when the crew of the B-1 bomber was first sent on the mission, they didn't know who they were going after, but they soon figured it out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STARR (voice-over): The four-man crew of the B-1 bomber sent to kill Saddam Hussein and his sons was over western Iraq refueling when the word came.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got the word that it was a priority leadership target, immediately, you know, you get an adrenaline rush.
The crew fell back on their training. Lieutenant Colonel Fred Swan, the weapons officer, onboard talked to reporters on telephone from the front.
LT. COL. FRED SWANN, U.S. AIR FORCE: We had to react quickly. to it. At the time for me, what I was thinking, was, well, you know, This could be could be the big one. Let's make sure we get it right.
STARR: Twelve minutes later they are over Baghdad, beginning to understand this may not be a routine mission.
There wasn't much time to plan after the intelligence community told the military there were top Iraqi leaders in a Baghdad residential district.
MAJ. GEN. STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL, U.S. ARMY: In this case the 45- minute time between when we received potential intelligence of actually putting ordnance on the target is extraordinary.
STARR: As the B-1 moved closer, the crew was watching for trouble. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Moving towards Baghdad from the west to the east, I think it came into my mind quickly where the air defenses around Baghdad, which -- they're still active.
STARR: The B-1 dropped four bombs in a special configuration designed to hit an underground facility and minimize damage in the surrounding civilian neighborhood. Two 2,000-pound bunker busters went first, followed by two, 2,000-pound bombs with a time-delay fuse, all designed to insure maximum explosion underground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A everything went as advertised. The weapons came off. We knew we'd hit the -- hit the target.
STARR: The pictures do now show considerable damage, of course.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)e
STARR: And, Wolf, of course, Pentagon officials say they believe they may have gotten who they were going after, but they are not yet, of course, able to confirm that.
And just to bring everyone up-to-date on another story, indeed very disturbing news coming from the Pentagon. Officials confirming that Marines moving through the al-Rasheed military prison in southeastern Baghdad earlier today found pieces of seven uniforms believed to belong to American POWs being held by the Iraqis.
Now the Marines went to the al-Rasheed military prison because they had some intelligence that the American POWs might be there. And of course, they were gone by the time the Marines got there. But they found parts of bloody American uniforms, boots and they tell us two of those uniforms had American name tags on them -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Very sad. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thanks. I know you'll update us on that as you get more information over there at the Pentagon.
Were Saddam Hussein and his sons at the site targeted by that air strike? Could anyone have survived such a devastating attack?
Let's go live to our national security correspondent, David Ensor -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well Wolf, U.S. officials say that the intelligence they had, that they based the strike on, was good and they believed they had to move quickly.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR (voice-over): The bombs hit just 45 minutes after U.S. intelligence told military commanders that senior Iraqi leaders, possibly including Saddam Hussein and one or more of his two sons, were at the location in a Baghdad neighborhood. U.S. officials say they still do not know whether they killed the Iraqi leader.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, I -- I don't know whether he survived. The only thing I know is he's losing power.
ENSOR: Officials say it may be some time before the U.S. can be sure whether Saddam Hussein is alive. They are tracking Iraqi communications to see whether anyone refers to his status.
Meantime, U.S. officials say, efforts to track down Saddam Hussein will continue.
KENNETH POLLACK, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: It's a very hard target. Saddam is paranoid. He is very good about his security and my guess is that U.S. forces are trying to take advantage of every possible lead out there.
ENSOR: The Iraqi regime has an extensive network of deep underground hardened bunkers under Baghdad. Some of them were built in the 80s under contract by Swiss, German and Yugoslav engineers. Others, more recently, by Iraqis.
U.S. officials say they are not sure whether the buildings that were hit have bunkers under them. However, if it turn outside there is a bunker beneath the site, experts say while the 2,000-pound bunker buster bombs are highly effective, the target information must be very precise.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR: One expert said if the bunker buster bomb misses the room where the targeted individuals are by just 15 feet, a foot thick reinforced concrete wall can protect them from any kind of strike -- Wolf.
BLITZER: That's an amazing statistic. David Ensor, thanks very much for that report.
And CNN's senior United Nations correspondent Richard Roth caught up with Iraq's U.N. ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri, today and asked him about the fate of Saddam Hussein.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD ROTH, CNN UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Do you have any information from Baghdad? Do you have any communication, though, to confirm about his whereabouts?
MOHAMMED ALDOURI, IRAQI U.N. AMB.: No, no, I have no. There is no communication.
ROTH: Do you think he's alive?
ALDOURI: Well, I think yes.
ROTH: What about the idea that the U.S. targeted him this way?
ALDOURI: Well, the U.S. targeted him as usual, yes. They tried to get him, but I think he knows very well that he is targeted by Americans. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Resistance may be crumbling in Baghdad, but someone is still calling the shots. The fighting does indeed go on and so does the bombing. As coalition forces target the Iraqi regime, civilian casualties are mounting and journalists have been caught in the firefights as well.
CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is tracking all of these developments from Ruwaished. That's in Jordan near the Iraqi border.
Nic, give us the latest.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, just about 15 minutes ago I was on the phone with a source from Baghdad and he was describing what happened in the late afternoon there and real indication of American coalition power over the center of Baghdad. He said from his location two aircraft -- coalition aircraft -- he couldn't tell what sort of aircraft, fighter aircraft, he believed, came screeching really low over the city.
He said compared to some of the tall buildings in the city that are maybe 20 floors high, he said perhaps twice as high as those buildings -- came screeching over the city, very low, very close, swung around, banked around over the city, clearly sending a visible message to the Iraqi people the coalition in control of the airspace over Baghdad, sending a message to the Iraqi leadership too that they are unable to stop the coalition's free movement over and above the city.
What we heard from another source earlier -- a little earlier in the day about the disposition on the ground of coalition forces and Iraqi forces, he described what he saw in one neighborhood, the Kadasia (ph) neighborhood, that is between the airport where the coalition now has a big base, southwest of the city and the center of the city. He said the coalition vehicles, tanks, armored personnel carriers are on the main highway there. But if you step back off the highway, go into the neighborhoods a little bit, he said you still see a lot of Iraqi militia forces, Republican Guard, Fedayeen fighters, Ba'ath Party volunteers. He said many of them there all heavily armed with machine guns, AK-47s with Rocket Propelled, shoulder-launched Rocket Propelled Grenades.
But he said not clear how organized they are, whether they're working as one unit or individual groups. However, Iraq's minister of information insists that Iraq is making progress at defeating the coalition and says its forces are massing again to take on and defeat the coalition.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMED SAEED AL-SAHAF, IRAQI MINISTER OF INFORMATION (through translator): It's the same desperate attempt to weaken our resistance. But our forces, especially the commandos preparing to destroy them. We burned some of the vehicles (ph) in al-Rasheed (ph) camp and now they are isolated in the city.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Well caught up in the fighting earlier on a group of journalists still in a house on the bank of the Tigris making phone calls to get the International Committee for the Red Cross to come rescue them.
Also getting caught up in the fighting today, many people in Baghdad. Many civilians are turning up wounded in the hospitals or city, the city's really beginning to be stretched to capacity. Not clear how many of people caught up in the fighting are military and how many are civilians, but increasing numbers really beginning to flood in and threaten the hospitals in Baghdad, threaten their ability to cope with it all -- Wolf.
BLITZER: CNN's Nic Robertson monitoring the story for us as he always does. Thanks, Nic, very much.
Meanwhile, U.S. ground forces are moving on several targets inside Baghdad including the Ministry of Planning where they engaged in what is being described as an intense firefight with Iraqi forces. CNN's Martin Savidge with the U.S. Marines has more on today's action.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the sun sets on another day for Marine units in Baghdad, here's a thumbnail sketch for how to it broke down for those Marine units today.
Advance elements of the Marines were able to grab the Rasheed Air Base. This is an air base that was once owned by the Iraqis, obviously. Now in control of coalition forces, located on the east side of the city. You had the international airport that was already taken by the Army on the west side of the city. Two air bases now in the hands of coalition forces. It's all part of the squeezing effort under way by two militaries as they move in.
The 1st Battalion 7th Marines officially crossed into Baghdad before the sun came up today and they were busy from the get go. They were under attack from sporadic gunfire from Iraqi opposition as they pushed their way forward. While they dealt with that, they also found a significant supply of Iraqi artillery, antiaircraft guns and ammunition. Marines, infantry, that is, on foot then went in and worked to quickly demolish all of that equipment as fast as they could using hand grenades, thermite (ph) grenades, either setting the ammunition afire or blowing it up directly. That set off a lot of secondary explosions and there was a lot of ammunition flying through the air.
They quickly moved on to the next objective, a huge warehouse and factory in an industrial complex in the southeast side of the city. And there had to move carefully and methodically while under fire, searching through the buildings. Two things they're looking for. One, Iraqi opposition. Second, sensitive sites that may have anything to do with Iraq's weapons industries, specifically, its weapons of mass destruction.
There was Iraqi opposition. It was put down using tank fire, mortar fire, artillery as well as infantry units moving in the area and around the area. Towards the end of getting that objective they found also a large supply of chemical suits, apparently once belonging to the Republican Guard. I'm talking about full chemical war fare type of suits, boots, gloves, the outfit, the mask, the canisters and atropine pens. Atropine is the antidote you would expose to nerve gas. A clear indication the Iraqi military here was prepared for chemical war fare. Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: CNN's Martin Savidge reporting from the front lines embedded with U.S. Marines.
Iraqis who have long opposed Saddam Hussein are now anxious to join the fight. U.S. Special Operations forces are assessing whether these Free Iraqi Fighters, as they're now being called, are up to the task. Our Mike Boettcher is with them. He's now joining us live from central Iraq.
Mike, tell us what's going on where you are.
MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, I am at a Special Forces base in central Iraq where a large number of what is called Free Iraqi Fighters, FIF, have gathered. They arrived at this base yesterday. Today they received something they have been looking forward to, they say, for a long time, weapons. U.S. Army trucks delivered assault rifles, they delivered Rocket Propelled Grenades, machine guns, also boots and uniforms.
Now U.S. special forces will talk to these FIF soldiers, these Iraqi opposition soldiers, about human rights and also about rules of engagement. And then after a period of time, and it won't be measured in weeks, it will be measured in days, they will make their way, these FIF soldiers make their way through various parts of Iraq where they will be escorted by Special Forces soldiers who will help them along the way.
According to the FIF, this is symbolically the most important thing going in the battlefield because, they say, this is a matter of Iraqis coming to their country to liberate their country. That is what they say -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Mike Boettcher with the Free Iraqi Forces in central Iraq. A new stage in this war unfolding right now. Thanks, Mike, very much.
Here's your chance to weigh in on the war in Iraq. "Our Web Question of the Day" is this, do you believe the United States can declare victory in Iraq without knowing the fate of Saddam Hussein? Please vote at cnn.com/wolf.
While you're there I'd like to hear from you. Send me your comments. I'll try to read some of them on the air at the end of each program. That's also where you can read my daily online column and I'm writing one every day from here in the Persian Gulf -- cnn.com/wolf.
Firefight on the front lines. We'll take you on the ground with the 101st Airborne as they battled it out on the streets of Hillah.
Also, caught in the fighting. Al-Jazeera bombed, a hotel hit and three journalists killed. The accusations are flying. I'll speak live with a top Al-Jazeera editor. We'll also take a closer look at what's going on.
And our top story, U.S. troops target Saddam Hussein. Has time finally run out on the man with nine lives? A closer look at the air strike on the Iraqi leader, but first these dramatic images from the Associated Press.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: A U.S. tank blasting away in downtown Baghdad earlier today. Welcome back to our continuing coverage. Here's an overall look at battle lines of a country ever more under the control of the U.S.-led coalition.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice-over): In and around Baghdad, organized military resistance from Iraqi forces virtually absent, but U.S. officials say fierce pockets of Iraqi fighters remain. Still very dangerous, engaging U.S.-led ground troops in furious street battles.
From the air, allied warplanes strike Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party headquarters and the Information Ministry.
Fifty miles south of the capital, in Hillah, CNN's Ryan Chilcote reports the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division locks horns with the Iraqis, believed to be members of Saddam's Fedayeen paramilitary. But in another city, about 90 miles north of Basra, CNN's Art Harris reports what a marine reconnaissance unit encountered.
ART HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) one in the town has felt such a breath of freedom that they had actually fired on their so-called oppressors as they were fleeing and they were just overjoyed to see the Marines. I have not seen this kind of reception since I have been in this country.
BLITZER: In Basra, British officials say there's sporadic resistance from Iraqis. But the British are trying to help a new civilian government take hold.
In the north, CNN's Ben Wedeman reports CNN special forces are trying to capture an important highway linking Mosul to the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Mosul, a main commercial city still under the control of Saddam Hussein's forces.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: Journalists caught in the fighting, Al-Jazeera bombed, a hotel fired on, three reporters dead. It was a tragic mistake or targeted shooting? I'll ask a top executive of Al-Jazeera. He'll speak with me live.
And battle for Baghdad. American forces move in on key landmarks, but has the real fight just begun?
I'll ask General Wesley Clark, a closer look, all of that still to come. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: You're looking at a live picture of Baghdad where it's still unclear if Saddam Hussein and his two sons are dead or alive. We're checking, we're attempting to figure that out, but the U.s. Government is working on that problem as well. They still don't know. The fighting, nevertheless, continues. To the south of Baghdad, members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division engaged in a three- hour firefight with what they believe are Saddam Fedayeen fighters.
CNN's Ryan Chilcote, is with the 101st Airborne in the town of Hillah.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Baghdad is not the only place where they're fighting in Iraq. Soldiers from the 101st Airborne 3rd Brigade also known as the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) moving into the central Iraqi city of Hillah today. Hillah well known for his its role in ancient Babylon. It is the home of one of the seven wonders of the world. The ruins of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. It is also home, at least according to the U.S. military, to the Fedayeen fighters and they saw evidence of that pretty immediately.
Some fierce resistance coming from Fedayeen fighters using strong arms and rocket propelled grenades. The fiercest resistance when the soldiers got to an agricultural complex on there way into the outskirts. There their convoy was attacked and there was close-range combat, for example some soldier some Iraqi soldiers who apparently were caught off guard by the 101st attack were hiding in a bush just adjacent to the road.
They were surrounded by the 101st soldiers and they came out one with his hands up in the air the second following just behind him though lobbying a grenade of U.S. soldiers, injuring three of them. Two of those soldiers -- those U.S. Soldiers, have already returned back to work, back to the front, if you will. The third, receiving some medical attention with nonlife-threatening injuries back in the rear.
The soldiers from the 101st then went into that agricultural complex, clearing it room by room. Before it was all over, they say they'd killed at least 10 Fedayeen fighters. Ryan Chilcote, CNN with the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade in Hillah, central Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Saddam Hussein is he dead or is he alive? U.S. Forces shower his hiding places with bombs, but did they manage to kill him? We'll take a closer look at how it all unfolded.
Plus, taking Baghdad, fierce pockets of resistance are still there.
Our military analyst retired U.S. Army general, Wesley Clark weighs in on where the Coalition goes from here. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back to CNN's up-to-the-minute coverage of the war in Iraq.
In a moment, target Saddam: U.S. forces strike hard at where he may have been hiding. A closer look at whether he could have escaped.
But first for the latest developments we go back to CNN's Heidi Collins at the CNN newsroom in Atlanta.
(NEWSBREAK)
BLITZER: Thanks very much, Heidi.
An exclusive section of Baghdad bombed by the United States Air Force, the devastation basically intentional, the target Saddam Hussein and his two sons. Could they have survived a day later?
Here's what we know about the leadership strike.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice-over): Carnage in Baghdad, in an upscale neighborhood a restaurant and series of apartments obliterated, several civilians reported killed.
First reports suggest maybe this is an allied bombing mistake, certainly the innocent casualties are. Then, word that this was an intended target inside a bigger target, Saddam Hussein and possibly one or both of his sons.
U.S. officials say they had good intelligence, some of it from informants that senior Iraqi officials including Saddam Hussein and at least one of his sons were there at the time. When will they know for sure? Possibly not for a long time or...
BRIG. GEN. VINCENT BROOKS, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: It is possible that we may never be able to determine who was present without some detailed forensic work.
BLITZER: Other factors which may make this latest chapter of the Saddam Hussein mystery unsolvable, the two 2,000-pound bombs that slammed into this complex may not have left much forensic evidence in this crater. Experts say there's an extensive complex of underground bunkers and connecting tunnels throughout Baghdad. Saddam Hussein, if inside, could have escaped just before the strike and U.S. officials may not have Saddam's DNA.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: CNN has been putting together some of the most compelling images of the last 24 hours of fighting in Baghdad. We're taking you to the front lines right now. Take a look and listen.
(VIDEO CLIP OF FIREFIGHT IN BAGHDAD)
BLITZER: And joining me now to talk about all these late- breaking developments from Washington our CNN Military Analyst, Retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander. A big picture, General Clark, first of all the battle for Baghdad, how much longer do you assess it will take?
GEN. WESLEY CLARK, U.S. ARMY (RET.), FMR. NATO SUPREME CMDR.: Wolf, it may take another few days because you have isolated pockets or maybe small pockets of resistance from place to place. There is some command and control over those groups.
How centrally directed it is, is impossible to say right now but they are well armed. They're still full of fight and so it's a matter of the U.S. forces maneuvering through the streets of Baghdad locating them and bringing firepower to bear against them.
BLITZER: If Saddam Hussein and his two sons, Uday and Qusay, are dead, killed yesterday in that U.S. air strike, what does that do to the Iraqi ability to resist?
CLARK: Well, one would hope that it would reduce the willingness of the Iraqi regime, whatever is left of it to continuing to fight. There's no indication that that has happened thus far but one would hope that it would break the Iraqi resistance.
BLITZER: What is the biggest problem that the U.S. soldiers, the Marines who are actually on the ground moving their way into Baghdad face right now?
CLARK: We're trying to avoid three things as we eliminate the Iraqi resistance and take over the capital.
A) We're trying to avoid receiving casualties ourselves because that's part of Saddam's strategy is to hurt us badly. He hasn't done that yet.
B) We're trying to avoid needlessly tearing up the city, its infrastructure or hurting civilians. Some of that's going on but as little as we can do.
And, three, we're trying to do this as expeditiously as possible. So, for the commanders on the ground it's a matter of juggling priorities. We have a huge advantage, two huge advantages over the Iraqis, one in terms of maneuverability. We can maneuver U.S. forces through that city and we are mobile. We can go by air. We can go on the ground.
And two, we have the combination of reconnaissance and firepower to be able to strike and destroy that which we can see and we can see a lot. So, what we don't have is we don't have a lot of infantry strength and we don't want to take a lot of casualties or take a lot of time in doing this. So, out of that mixing pot, the commanders have to pick the right tactical approaches.
BLITZER: General, in the pictures that I'm seeing, a lot of those soldiers and Marines aren't wearing their full NBC, nuclear, biological, chemical protective gear. Does that mean the threat of weapons of mass destruction, chemical or biological warfare effectively inside this huge city of some five million people has gone away?
CLARK: I think that has to be the assumption. It's very possible that our commanders have better information than simply operating on the basis of assumptions. But just looking at the environment, the breakdown in Iraqi defense system, and the fact that we're in there in that urban area, we're not a good target for the use of chemical weapons even if Saddam could throw them at us, and I think the guess would be he can't at this point.
BLITZER: One of the worst case scenarios, apparently, apparently not having developed. General Clark, as usual thank you very much.
And, we're monitoring all the late-breaking developments regarding the fate of Saddam Hussein and his two sons. As soon as something breaks on that front, of course we'll bring it to you here live.
Also, war as we show it on television, it's often sanitized. Up next, we'll show you something that can not be called that.
And, journalists falling in the battle for Baghdad, were they targeted; the controversy just ahead?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(AUDIO GAP)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: ...Hussein survived a U.S. air strike yesterday. Brigadier General Vincent Brooks also confirmed a U.S. A- 10 Warthog aircraft was shot down by an Iraqi missile today. The pilot ejected and was rescued.
9:12 a.m., CNN's Walter Rodgers traveling with the 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry, says a senior officer is telling him pockets of resistance remain in Baghdad but there is no longer any organized military resistance in the city.
12:31 p.m., CNN's Ryan Chilcote reports a firefight near Hillah, 50 miles south of Baghdad. The 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade battled the Fedayeen Saddam fighters. Three U.S. soldiers were injured when an Iraqi paramilitary threw a grenade at them.
1:40 p.m., Pentagon officials said U.S. military forces absolutely did not target the Al-Jazeera network and do not target journalists over all. A reporter and two cameramen were killed and several others injured at two Baghdad locations Tuesday. Major General Stanley McChrystal says U.S. forces were responding to significant fire.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: CNN's Miles O'Brien reporting.
Far from many of the headlines are the Iraqis injured and killed in the fighting. John Draper of Britain's ITN has the story of one boy who has become a symbol of their suffering. We want to warn you. There are some graphic pictures in his report. Some viewers will find them disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN DRAPER, ITN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the heart- rending reality of the innocents caught up in war, the story of 12- year-old Ali Ismail Abass (ph) has moved people across the world, yet he's just one of thousands maimed in the conflict.
Ali lost both arms and was badly burned when a missile struck his home in Baghdad. His family had been asleep in bed. His younger brother was killed, as was his father and his pregnant mother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a tragedy of the war. His house and his neighbors and the houses of his neighbors and relatives was attacked by a rocket and all the family of Ali was killed.
DRAPER: Ali's aunt is by his bedside wiping his tears, telling him his parents are in heaven.
The sight of youngsters like Ali and the other civilians injured as the fighting in Baghdad has intensified is causing much bitterness among Iraqis. It makes harder the American aim of persuading them that they're being liberated not conquered.
The Red Cross is delivering drugs and anesthetics but some hospitals have already run out. It's hard to imagine the pain and sheer misery this boy is going through. Ali says if he can't get artificial arms, he wants to die.
John Draper, ITV News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And we've been getting hundreds of calls, lots of e- mails, from people wanting to help this little boy. We understand the British charity, the Limbless Foundation, has set up a trust fund to have artificial limbs fitted. Their web address, limbless- association.org. As for the number of Iraqis injured and killed in this war, it's difficult to say with any degree of certainty. On the military side, the Iraqi government is not releasing any information. U.S. military officials put the number of Iraqi soldiers killed in the thousands.
On the civilian side, Abu Dhabi TV is reporting more than 1,200 people dead and more than 5,000 injured. The Pentagon says it's holding about 7,000 Iraqi prisoners of war.
We're continuing to wait this hour to learn if there will be more details about the fate of Saddam Hussein. As soon as any information comes our way, we'll of course bring it to you live.
Also, were the attacks in Baghdad that killed journalists today deliberate? At least one prominent network, an Arab television network says so, that story just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(VIDEO CLIP OF BAGHDAD FIGHTING)
BLITZER: A television camera being blown out of position today in downtown Baghdad, another reminder of how dangerously close journalists are to the fighting in this war. Indeed, three journalists are dead from U.S. military fire in Baghdad, two of them killed at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad.
Were they deliberate targets as Arab media are now alleging or were they lost in what's being called the fog of war? Here's CNN's Octavia Nasr.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OCTAVIA NASR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was around 5:00 a.m. when Al-Jazeera's reporter in Baghdad, Tariq Ayub (ph) went to the roof of the Arab TV channel's headquarters to file this live report.
"Things are eerily quiet" he said. Two hours later that very building housing Al-Jazeera came under fire from U.S. forces. Tariq Ayub was rushed to a hospital. He did not survive.
Two miles away across the Tigris River, the Palestine Hotel also came under fire from an American tank. The hotel is based for western and Arab journalists. Two cameramen, one from Reuters and one from Spanish television were killed. Others were wounded.
Al-Jazeera and the other Arab television networks portrayed the story in the same way that U.S. forces intentionally targeted the journalists to silence them. The Arab TV stations say there was no sniper fire coming from the Jezia (ph) Building. Major General Stanley McChrystal says there is an explanation for what happened.
MAJ. GEN. STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL, JOINT STAFF DEP. DIRECTOR: When they get into combat of the cities, which from the beginning we have specifically said would be dangerous and difficult. You put yourself in their position. They had the inherent right of self defense.
NASR: CNN's Walt Rodgers was not at the scene of the battle but he was nearby where troops were monitoring radio traffic from the scene. He asked them what they were hearing regarding the firing on the Palestine Hotel.
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And the Army's version of that event was they were taking sniper fire from "every single floor of the Palestine Hotel" and they were only returning fire.
NASR: Some British journalists who were in the hotel, however, say they did not hear any sniper fire coming from their building. What many journalists want is an investigation.
Octavia Nasr, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: The Committee to Protect Journalists is calling the deaths of the reporters in Baghdad a violation of the Geneva Conventions. It's calling for an immediate and thorough investigation.
A little while ago, I discussed the issue with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think it bears a really thorough investigation firstly about what happened and why they were hit, and secondly the Pentagon has been essentially all over the place. The military spokesmen have been all over the map on their response to this.
First it was because there was "sniper fire from the lobby," then from the roof, then from somewhere in the area. Then it was significant fire. There's a lot of differing explanations that are coming out. All the journalists that I've monitored throughout the day have reported that they heard absolutely no sniper fire or any other fire coming from there. They were on the roofs there.
And, I think essentially, essentially what we have here is we have to balance what happened. If there was sniper fire from there, is the response legitimately tank fire into a hotel that is known by everybody, by everybody to house international journalists?
Is in other words the risk to the forces coming from that hotel, if indeed there was sniper shots which journalists say they didn't hear is the legitimate response and are the orders of American forces to respond to sniper fire towards their tanks by firing a tank shell?
I think that's a legitimate question that has not yet been answered and what happened today poses and raises very significant issues and very significant questions.
BLITZER: A couple of follow-up questions. First of all, who would conduct this kind of independent investigation? You've been a reporter involved in a lot of sensitive, very dangerous kinds of operations. Who do you propose take a look at these incidents to see what exactly happened?
AMANPOUR: I think, a) the journalistic community; and, b) the military itself has to ask itself.
BLITZER: Like the Committee to Protect Journalists, one of those organizations?
AMANPOUR: Whoever. We've heard responses today from the International Federation of Journalists. I'm sure there are others out there who are talking about this, but this poses a very significant dilemma I believe, because we understand the risk.
We know that when we stay in those kinds of places that we're taking risks. We know that the journalists move from the Al Rasheid (ph) to the Palestine because there was chatter in the air that the Rasheid might be targeted, so they moved to somewhere they thought would be safer.
This is a known civilian base, a known hotel for hundreds of journalists. Is the response to maybe sniper fire, which has not yet been proven by the way, to respond by tank fire and then the other questions are, you know, the response we've heard from the Pentagon has been variously on different issues such as, well journalists, we warned journalists not to be in Baghad.
Only embedded journalists can have the protection of the forces. Well, is that an answer to what happened today? And I think we have to take what happened today, Al-Jazeera hit, Abu Dhabi hit, begging by the way for help in evacuating. The Palestine Hotel hit.
And we have to ask why that happened and are the rules of engagement in those instances legitimate? We understand from our reporters who are embedded that mosques are off limits, schools are off limits, hospitals are off limits if they detect certain fire from there. This goes to the heart of the issue of the civilian issue.
BLITZER: So, what are you - you heard Victoria Clarke, the Pentagon Press Spokeswoman, suggest earlier, she had 300 conversations with various news organizations saying look, a war is an inherently dangerous situation. We can't guarantee your safety.
If you stay at various hotels, you're taking your life into your own hands because the Iraqis themselves might use you in effect as human shields thinking that the U.S. military won't respond because you're there and she says that's simply not going to wash.
AMANPOUR: Number one, I would say that most of the journalists who are there have got a lot more experience in risky situations and war than some of the spokespeople who are giving out those comments.
Number two, in the first Gulf War the Al-Rasheid was off limits for hitting because journalists were in there. And, number three, even if there were Iraqi officials in there, were they firing and were they holding journalists as hostages or human shields? There's no evidence of that or not.
BLITZER: Well, there is a little bit of evidence to that. John Byrnes, who's an excellent reporter for "The New York Times," he did suggest that there were Iraqi security guys going into that hotel, staying there, and preventing those journalists who might want to leave from relocating to perhaps a different location. You read that in "The New York Times" today.
AMANPOUR: Yes, I did, but the question remains, the question remains the proportionate response and was there fire coming out of there and is the proportionate response to a civilian building, which is where all the journalists were, to fire at it with a tank? And, in my view, that's a major question that needs to be answered urgently.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: CNN's Christiane Amanpour speaking with me earlier in the day. We had hoped to bring you an interview this hour with a top editor from Al-Jazeer, Ibrahim Halal (ph).
Unfortunately, he couldn't do it, but Al-Jazeera Correspondent Omar al-Isawi (ph) will talk about the death of his colleague and the plight of journalists in the war zone on "LARRY KING LIVE" tonight. That's at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, 6:00 p.m. on the West Coast.
Do you believe the United States can declare victory in Iraq without knowing the fate of Saddam Hussein? You still have a chance to vote. The results of our web question of the day will be revealed in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: And now a look at some of the other striking images of this war. The 1st Battalion of the 2nd Marines was greeted by grateful and enthusiastic crowds as they roll into this town in eastern Iraq, but the continuing threat of suicide attacks and ambushes forced them to keep the welcoming committee at more than arm's length.
And, the bodies of 11 British servicemen killed in Iraq returned to English soil earlier today. The British Defense Ministry says 31 people from its armed forces have died in the war.
Here's how you're weighing in on our web question of the day. "Do you believe the United States can declare victory in Iraq without knowing the fate of Saddam Hussein?" Forty-four percent of you say yes, 56 percent of you say no. Remember, this is not a scientific poll.
Please stay with CNN throughout the night for up-to-the-minute war coverage. I'll be back tomorrow, 5:00 p.m.
I'll also be back in one hour for two hours of special coverage with Paula Zahn. Until then, thanks very much for watching.
Lou Dobbs standing by to pick up our live coverage - Lou. LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, thank you very much.
Still no word tonight on whether Saddam Hussein and his two sons were killed in last night's coalition air strike. A B-1 bomber flying over Baghdad dropped four bombs on a building where Hussein and his sons were reportedly meeting. The attack destroyed the building left a crater 30-feet deep. An adjacent restaurant was damaged in the attack.
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Weapons; Journalists killed in missile attack on Palestine Hotel>
Aired April 8, 2003 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Strike at Saddam. U.S. crews go for the bullseye.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the first I've ever been -- ever been on a crew that got the priority target.
BLITZER: Is the Iraqi leader dead?
By ground and air, Baghdad takes a beating.
In the countryside, a three-hour firefight. CNN cameras capture the U.S. Army in intense combat.
And backlash. Civilian casualties mount.
Caught in the line of fire? More journalists.
All this on Day 20 of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
ANNOUNCER: CNN live this house: WOLF BLITZER REPORTS from Kuwait City. With correspondents from around the world, WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: You're looking at live pictures of Baghdad. For the first time in this war, the Iraqis have shot down a United States warplane.
Hello from Kuwait City. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting live tonight.
If you're just joining us, we're awaiting word of President Saddam Hussein's fate. I want to show you some video. It's the aftermath of a major U.S. air assault. What you're looking at used to be a building in Baghdad. Now it's a 30-foot crater of debris. U.S. officials say they believe Saddam Hussein and his two sons were all inside meeting when four bombs destroyed this building.
The main obstacle this hour is getting to the bombing site. It's still apparently in Iraqi hands.
That building is in the Monsour neighborhood, where Saddam Hussein or a look alike shook hands with citizens only the other day. Many Iraqi government officials also live in this area.
We have three correspondents covering the story this hour. CNN's Barbara Starr takes you inside that bombing mission.
CNN's David Ensor covers the scramble to learn about Saddam Hussein's fete -- fate.
But first -- and Nic Robertson. He's joining us as well, live from Jordan along the border with Iraq.
First, to CNN's Heidi Collins in the CNN Newsroom.
(NEWSBREAK)
BLITZER: The explosions were sudden and massive, completely obliterating a building in an exclusive Baghdad neighborhood. The target: Saddam Hussein and his two sons. Today, extraordinary new details about the mission.
We begin with CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr -- Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, when the crew of the B-1 bomber was first sent on the mission, they didn't know who they were going after, but they soon figured it out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STARR (voice-over): The four-man crew of the B-1 bomber sent to kill Saddam Hussein and his sons was over western Iraq refueling when the word came.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got the word that it was a priority leadership target, immediately, you know, you get an adrenaline rush.
The crew fell back on their training. Lieutenant Colonel Fred Swan, the weapons officer, onboard talked to reporters on telephone from the front.
LT. COL. FRED SWANN, U.S. AIR FORCE: We had to react quickly. to it. At the time for me, what I was thinking, was, well, you know, This could be could be the big one. Let's make sure we get it right.
STARR: Twelve minutes later they are over Baghdad, beginning to understand this may not be a routine mission.
There wasn't much time to plan after the intelligence community told the military there were top Iraqi leaders in a Baghdad residential district.
MAJ. GEN. STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL, U.S. ARMY: In this case the 45- minute time between when we received potential intelligence of actually putting ordnance on the target is extraordinary.
STARR: As the B-1 moved closer, the crew was watching for trouble. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Moving towards Baghdad from the west to the east, I think it came into my mind quickly where the air defenses around Baghdad, which -- they're still active.
STARR: The B-1 dropped four bombs in a special configuration designed to hit an underground facility and minimize damage in the surrounding civilian neighborhood. Two 2,000-pound bunker busters went first, followed by two, 2,000-pound bombs with a time-delay fuse, all designed to insure maximum explosion underground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A everything went as advertised. The weapons came off. We knew we'd hit the -- hit the target.
STARR: The pictures do now show considerable damage, of course.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)e
STARR: And, Wolf, of course, Pentagon officials say they believe they may have gotten who they were going after, but they are not yet, of course, able to confirm that.
And just to bring everyone up-to-date on another story, indeed very disturbing news coming from the Pentagon. Officials confirming that Marines moving through the al-Rasheed military prison in southeastern Baghdad earlier today found pieces of seven uniforms believed to belong to American POWs being held by the Iraqis.
Now the Marines went to the al-Rasheed military prison because they had some intelligence that the American POWs might be there. And of course, they were gone by the time the Marines got there. But they found parts of bloody American uniforms, boots and they tell us two of those uniforms had American name tags on them -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Very sad. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thanks. I know you'll update us on that as you get more information over there at the Pentagon.
Were Saddam Hussein and his sons at the site targeted by that air strike? Could anyone have survived such a devastating attack?
Let's go live to our national security correspondent, David Ensor -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well Wolf, U.S. officials say that the intelligence they had, that they based the strike on, was good and they believed they had to move quickly.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR (voice-over): The bombs hit just 45 minutes after U.S. intelligence told military commanders that senior Iraqi leaders, possibly including Saddam Hussein and one or more of his two sons, were at the location in a Baghdad neighborhood. U.S. officials say they still do not know whether they killed the Iraqi leader.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, I -- I don't know whether he survived. The only thing I know is he's losing power.
ENSOR: Officials say it may be some time before the U.S. can be sure whether Saddam Hussein is alive. They are tracking Iraqi communications to see whether anyone refers to his status.
Meantime, U.S. officials say, efforts to track down Saddam Hussein will continue.
KENNETH POLLACK, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: It's a very hard target. Saddam is paranoid. He is very good about his security and my guess is that U.S. forces are trying to take advantage of every possible lead out there.
ENSOR: The Iraqi regime has an extensive network of deep underground hardened bunkers under Baghdad. Some of them were built in the 80s under contract by Swiss, German and Yugoslav engineers. Others, more recently, by Iraqis.
U.S. officials say they are not sure whether the buildings that were hit have bunkers under them. However, if it turn outside there is a bunker beneath the site, experts say while the 2,000-pound bunker buster bombs are highly effective, the target information must be very precise.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR: One expert said if the bunker buster bomb misses the room where the targeted individuals are by just 15 feet, a foot thick reinforced concrete wall can protect them from any kind of strike -- Wolf.
BLITZER: That's an amazing statistic. David Ensor, thanks very much for that report.
And CNN's senior United Nations correspondent Richard Roth caught up with Iraq's U.N. ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri, today and asked him about the fate of Saddam Hussein.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD ROTH, CNN UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Do you have any information from Baghdad? Do you have any communication, though, to confirm about his whereabouts?
MOHAMMED ALDOURI, IRAQI U.N. AMB.: No, no, I have no. There is no communication.
ROTH: Do you think he's alive?
ALDOURI: Well, I think yes.
ROTH: What about the idea that the U.S. targeted him this way?
ALDOURI: Well, the U.S. targeted him as usual, yes. They tried to get him, but I think he knows very well that he is targeted by Americans. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Resistance may be crumbling in Baghdad, but someone is still calling the shots. The fighting does indeed go on and so does the bombing. As coalition forces target the Iraqi regime, civilian casualties are mounting and journalists have been caught in the firefights as well.
CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is tracking all of these developments from Ruwaished. That's in Jordan near the Iraqi border.
Nic, give us the latest.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, just about 15 minutes ago I was on the phone with a source from Baghdad and he was describing what happened in the late afternoon there and real indication of American coalition power over the center of Baghdad. He said from his location two aircraft -- coalition aircraft -- he couldn't tell what sort of aircraft, fighter aircraft, he believed, came screeching really low over the city.
He said compared to some of the tall buildings in the city that are maybe 20 floors high, he said perhaps twice as high as those buildings -- came screeching over the city, very low, very close, swung around, banked around over the city, clearly sending a visible message to the Iraqi people the coalition in control of the airspace over Baghdad, sending a message to the Iraqi leadership too that they are unable to stop the coalition's free movement over and above the city.
What we heard from another source earlier -- a little earlier in the day about the disposition on the ground of coalition forces and Iraqi forces, he described what he saw in one neighborhood, the Kadasia (ph) neighborhood, that is between the airport where the coalition now has a big base, southwest of the city and the center of the city. He said the coalition vehicles, tanks, armored personnel carriers are on the main highway there. But if you step back off the highway, go into the neighborhoods a little bit, he said you still see a lot of Iraqi militia forces, Republican Guard, Fedayeen fighters, Ba'ath Party volunteers. He said many of them there all heavily armed with machine guns, AK-47s with Rocket Propelled, shoulder-launched Rocket Propelled Grenades.
But he said not clear how organized they are, whether they're working as one unit or individual groups. However, Iraq's minister of information insists that Iraq is making progress at defeating the coalition and says its forces are massing again to take on and defeat the coalition.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMED SAEED AL-SAHAF, IRAQI MINISTER OF INFORMATION (through translator): It's the same desperate attempt to weaken our resistance. But our forces, especially the commandos preparing to destroy them. We burned some of the vehicles (ph) in al-Rasheed (ph) camp and now they are isolated in the city.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Well caught up in the fighting earlier on a group of journalists still in a house on the bank of the Tigris making phone calls to get the International Committee for the Red Cross to come rescue them.
Also getting caught up in the fighting today, many people in Baghdad. Many civilians are turning up wounded in the hospitals or city, the city's really beginning to be stretched to capacity. Not clear how many of people caught up in the fighting are military and how many are civilians, but increasing numbers really beginning to flood in and threaten the hospitals in Baghdad, threaten their ability to cope with it all -- Wolf.
BLITZER: CNN's Nic Robertson monitoring the story for us as he always does. Thanks, Nic, very much.
Meanwhile, U.S. ground forces are moving on several targets inside Baghdad including the Ministry of Planning where they engaged in what is being described as an intense firefight with Iraqi forces. CNN's Martin Savidge with the U.S. Marines has more on today's action.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the sun sets on another day for Marine units in Baghdad, here's a thumbnail sketch for how to it broke down for those Marine units today.
Advance elements of the Marines were able to grab the Rasheed Air Base. This is an air base that was once owned by the Iraqis, obviously. Now in control of coalition forces, located on the east side of the city. You had the international airport that was already taken by the Army on the west side of the city. Two air bases now in the hands of coalition forces. It's all part of the squeezing effort under way by two militaries as they move in.
The 1st Battalion 7th Marines officially crossed into Baghdad before the sun came up today and they were busy from the get go. They were under attack from sporadic gunfire from Iraqi opposition as they pushed their way forward. While they dealt with that, they also found a significant supply of Iraqi artillery, antiaircraft guns and ammunition. Marines, infantry, that is, on foot then went in and worked to quickly demolish all of that equipment as fast as they could using hand grenades, thermite (ph) grenades, either setting the ammunition afire or blowing it up directly. That set off a lot of secondary explosions and there was a lot of ammunition flying through the air.
They quickly moved on to the next objective, a huge warehouse and factory in an industrial complex in the southeast side of the city. And there had to move carefully and methodically while under fire, searching through the buildings. Two things they're looking for. One, Iraqi opposition. Second, sensitive sites that may have anything to do with Iraq's weapons industries, specifically, its weapons of mass destruction.
There was Iraqi opposition. It was put down using tank fire, mortar fire, artillery as well as infantry units moving in the area and around the area. Towards the end of getting that objective they found also a large supply of chemical suits, apparently once belonging to the Republican Guard. I'm talking about full chemical war fare type of suits, boots, gloves, the outfit, the mask, the canisters and atropine pens. Atropine is the antidote you would expose to nerve gas. A clear indication the Iraqi military here was prepared for chemical war fare. Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: CNN's Martin Savidge reporting from the front lines embedded with U.S. Marines.
Iraqis who have long opposed Saddam Hussein are now anxious to join the fight. U.S. Special Operations forces are assessing whether these Free Iraqi Fighters, as they're now being called, are up to the task. Our Mike Boettcher is with them. He's now joining us live from central Iraq.
Mike, tell us what's going on where you are.
MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, I am at a Special Forces base in central Iraq where a large number of what is called Free Iraqi Fighters, FIF, have gathered. They arrived at this base yesterday. Today they received something they have been looking forward to, they say, for a long time, weapons. U.S. Army trucks delivered assault rifles, they delivered Rocket Propelled Grenades, machine guns, also boots and uniforms.
Now U.S. special forces will talk to these FIF soldiers, these Iraqi opposition soldiers, about human rights and also about rules of engagement. And then after a period of time, and it won't be measured in weeks, it will be measured in days, they will make their way, these FIF soldiers make their way through various parts of Iraq where they will be escorted by Special Forces soldiers who will help them along the way.
According to the FIF, this is symbolically the most important thing going in the battlefield because, they say, this is a matter of Iraqis coming to their country to liberate their country. That is what they say -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Mike Boettcher with the Free Iraqi Forces in central Iraq. A new stage in this war unfolding right now. Thanks, Mike, very much.
Here's your chance to weigh in on the war in Iraq. "Our Web Question of the Day" is this, do you believe the United States can declare victory in Iraq without knowing the fate of Saddam Hussein? Please vote at cnn.com/wolf.
While you're there I'd like to hear from you. Send me your comments. I'll try to read some of them on the air at the end of each program. That's also where you can read my daily online column and I'm writing one every day from here in the Persian Gulf -- cnn.com/wolf.
Firefight on the front lines. We'll take you on the ground with the 101st Airborne as they battled it out on the streets of Hillah.
Also, caught in the fighting. Al-Jazeera bombed, a hotel hit and three journalists killed. The accusations are flying. I'll speak live with a top Al-Jazeera editor. We'll also take a closer look at what's going on.
And our top story, U.S. troops target Saddam Hussein. Has time finally run out on the man with nine lives? A closer look at the air strike on the Iraqi leader, but first these dramatic images from the Associated Press.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: A U.S. tank blasting away in downtown Baghdad earlier today. Welcome back to our continuing coverage. Here's an overall look at battle lines of a country ever more under the control of the U.S.-led coalition.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice-over): In and around Baghdad, organized military resistance from Iraqi forces virtually absent, but U.S. officials say fierce pockets of Iraqi fighters remain. Still very dangerous, engaging U.S.-led ground troops in furious street battles.
From the air, allied warplanes strike Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party headquarters and the Information Ministry.
Fifty miles south of the capital, in Hillah, CNN's Ryan Chilcote reports the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division locks horns with the Iraqis, believed to be members of Saddam's Fedayeen paramilitary. But in another city, about 90 miles north of Basra, CNN's Art Harris reports what a marine reconnaissance unit encountered.
ART HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) one in the town has felt such a breath of freedom that they had actually fired on their so-called oppressors as they were fleeing and they were just overjoyed to see the Marines. I have not seen this kind of reception since I have been in this country.
BLITZER: In Basra, British officials say there's sporadic resistance from Iraqis. But the British are trying to help a new civilian government take hold.
In the north, CNN's Ben Wedeman reports CNN special forces are trying to capture an important highway linking Mosul to the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Mosul, a main commercial city still under the control of Saddam Hussein's forces.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: Journalists caught in the fighting, Al-Jazeera bombed, a hotel fired on, three reporters dead. It was a tragic mistake or targeted shooting? I'll ask a top executive of Al-Jazeera. He'll speak with me live.
And battle for Baghdad. American forces move in on key landmarks, but has the real fight just begun?
I'll ask General Wesley Clark, a closer look, all of that still to come. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: You're looking at a live picture of Baghdad where it's still unclear if Saddam Hussein and his two sons are dead or alive. We're checking, we're attempting to figure that out, but the U.s. Government is working on that problem as well. They still don't know. The fighting, nevertheless, continues. To the south of Baghdad, members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division engaged in a three- hour firefight with what they believe are Saddam Fedayeen fighters.
CNN's Ryan Chilcote, is with the 101st Airborne in the town of Hillah.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Baghdad is not the only place where they're fighting in Iraq. Soldiers from the 101st Airborne 3rd Brigade also known as the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) moving into the central Iraqi city of Hillah today. Hillah well known for his its role in ancient Babylon. It is the home of one of the seven wonders of the world. The ruins of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. It is also home, at least according to the U.S. military, to the Fedayeen fighters and they saw evidence of that pretty immediately.
Some fierce resistance coming from Fedayeen fighters using strong arms and rocket propelled grenades. The fiercest resistance when the soldiers got to an agricultural complex on there way into the outskirts. There their convoy was attacked and there was close-range combat, for example some soldier some Iraqi soldiers who apparently were caught off guard by the 101st attack were hiding in a bush just adjacent to the road.
They were surrounded by the 101st soldiers and they came out one with his hands up in the air the second following just behind him though lobbying a grenade of U.S. soldiers, injuring three of them. Two of those soldiers -- those U.S. Soldiers, have already returned back to work, back to the front, if you will. The third, receiving some medical attention with nonlife-threatening injuries back in the rear.
The soldiers from the 101st then went into that agricultural complex, clearing it room by room. Before it was all over, they say they'd killed at least 10 Fedayeen fighters. Ryan Chilcote, CNN with the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade in Hillah, central Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Saddam Hussein is he dead or is he alive? U.S. Forces shower his hiding places with bombs, but did they manage to kill him? We'll take a closer look at how it all unfolded.
Plus, taking Baghdad, fierce pockets of resistance are still there.
Our military analyst retired U.S. Army general, Wesley Clark weighs in on where the Coalition goes from here. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back to CNN's up-to-the-minute coverage of the war in Iraq.
In a moment, target Saddam: U.S. forces strike hard at where he may have been hiding. A closer look at whether he could have escaped.
But first for the latest developments we go back to CNN's Heidi Collins at the CNN newsroom in Atlanta.
(NEWSBREAK)
BLITZER: Thanks very much, Heidi.
An exclusive section of Baghdad bombed by the United States Air Force, the devastation basically intentional, the target Saddam Hussein and his two sons. Could they have survived a day later?
Here's what we know about the leadership strike.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice-over): Carnage in Baghdad, in an upscale neighborhood a restaurant and series of apartments obliterated, several civilians reported killed.
First reports suggest maybe this is an allied bombing mistake, certainly the innocent casualties are. Then, word that this was an intended target inside a bigger target, Saddam Hussein and possibly one or both of his sons.
U.S. officials say they had good intelligence, some of it from informants that senior Iraqi officials including Saddam Hussein and at least one of his sons were there at the time. When will they know for sure? Possibly not for a long time or...
BRIG. GEN. VINCENT BROOKS, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: It is possible that we may never be able to determine who was present without some detailed forensic work.
BLITZER: Other factors which may make this latest chapter of the Saddam Hussein mystery unsolvable, the two 2,000-pound bombs that slammed into this complex may not have left much forensic evidence in this crater. Experts say there's an extensive complex of underground bunkers and connecting tunnels throughout Baghdad. Saddam Hussein, if inside, could have escaped just before the strike and U.S. officials may not have Saddam's DNA.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: CNN has been putting together some of the most compelling images of the last 24 hours of fighting in Baghdad. We're taking you to the front lines right now. Take a look and listen.
(VIDEO CLIP OF FIREFIGHT IN BAGHDAD)
BLITZER: And joining me now to talk about all these late- breaking developments from Washington our CNN Military Analyst, Retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander. A big picture, General Clark, first of all the battle for Baghdad, how much longer do you assess it will take?
GEN. WESLEY CLARK, U.S. ARMY (RET.), FMR. NATO SUPREME CMDR.: Wolf, it may take another few days because you have isolated pockets or maybe small pockets of resistance from place to place. There is some command and control over those groups.
How centrally directed it is, is impossible to say right now but they are well armed. They're still full of fight and so it's a matter of the U.S. forces maneuvering through the streets of Baghdad locating them and bringing firepower to bear against them.
BLITZER: If Saddam Hussein and his two sons, Uday and Qusay, are dead, killed yesterday in that U.S. air strike, what does that do to the Iraqi ability to resist?
CLARK: Well, one would hope that it would reduce the willingness of the Iraqi regime, whatever is left of it to continuing to fight. There's no indication that that has happened thus far but one would hope that it would break the Iraqi resistance.
BLITZER: What is the biggest problem that the U.S. soldiers, the Marines who are actually on the ground moving their way into Baghdad face right now?
CLARK: We're trying to avoid three things as we eliminate the Iraqi resistance and take over the capital.
A) We're trying to avoid receiving casualties ourselves because that's part of Saddam's strategy is to hurt us badly. He hasn't done that yet.
B) We're trying to avoid needlessly tearing up the city, its infrastructure or hurting civilians. Some of that's going on but as little as we can do.
And, three, we're trying to do this as expeditiously as possible. So, for the commanders on the ground it's a matter of juggling priorities. We have a huge advantage, two huge advantages over the Iraqis, one in terms of maneuverability. We can maneuver U.S. forces through that city and we are mobile. We can go by air. We can go on the ground.
And two, we have the combination of reconnaissance and firepower to be able to strike and destroy that which we can see and we can see a lot. So, what we don't have is we don't have a lot of infantry strength and we don't want to take a lot of casualties or take a lot of time in doing this. So, out of that mixing pot, the commanders have to pick the right tactical approaches.
BLITZER: General, in the pictures that I'm seeing, a lot of those soldiers and Marines aren't wearing their full NBC, nuclear, biological, chemical protective gear. Does that mean the threat of weapons of mass destruction, chemical or biological warfare effectively inside this huge city of some five million people has gone away?
CLARK: I think that has to be the assumption. It's very possible that our commanders have better information than simply operating on the basis of assumptions. But just looking at the environment, the breakdown in Iraqi defense system, and the fact that we're in there in that urban area, we're not a good target for the use of chemical weapons even if Saddam could throw them at us, and I think the guess would be he can't at this point.
BLITZER: One of the worst case scenarios, apparently, apparently not having developed. General Clark, as usual thank you very much.
And, we're monitoring all the late-breaking developments regarding the fate of Saddam Hussein and his two sons. As soon as something breaks on that front, of course we'll bring it to you here live.
Also, war as we show it on television, it's often sanitized. Up next, we'll show you something that can not be called that.
And, journalists falling in the battle for Baghdad, were they targeted; the controversy just ahead?
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(AUDIO GAP)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: ...Hussein survived a U.S. air strike yesterday. Brigadier General Vincent Brooks also confirmed a U.S. A- 10 Warthog aircraft was shot down by an Iraqi missile today. The pilot ejected and was rescued.
9:12 a.m., CNN's Walter Rodgers traveling with the 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry, says a senior officer is telling him pockets of resistance remain in Baghdad but there is no longer any organized military resistance in the city.
12:31 p.m., CNN's Ryan Chilcote reports a firefight near Hillah, 50 miles south of Baghdad. The 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade battled the Fedayeen Saddam fighters. Three U.S. soldiers were injured when an Iraqi paramilitary threw a grenade at them.
1:40 p.m., Pentagon officials said U.S. military forces absolutely did not target the Al-Jazeera network and do not target journalists over all. A reporter and two cameramen were killed and several others injured at two Baghdad locations Tuesday. Major General Stanley McChrystal says U.S. forces were responding to significant fire.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: CNN's Miles O'Brien reporting.
Far from many of the headlines are the Iraqis injured and killed in the fighting. John Draper of Britain's ITN has the story of one boy who has become a symbol of their suffering. We want to warn you. There are some graphic pictures in his report. Some viewers will find them disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN DRAPER, ITN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the heart- rending reality of the innocents caught up in war, the story of 12- year-old Ali Ismail Abass (ph) has moved people across the world, yet he's just one of thousands maimed in the conflict.
Ali lost both arms and was badly burned when a missile struck his home in Baghdad. His family had been asleep in bed. His younger brother was killed, as was his father and his pregnant mother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a tragedy of the war. His house and his neighbors and the houses of his neighbors and relatives was attacked by a rocket and all the family of Ali was killed.
DRAPER: Ali's aunt is by his bedside wiping his tears, telling him his parents are in heaven.
The sight of youngsters like Ali and the other civilians injured as the fighting in Baghdad has intensified is causing much bitterness among Iraqis. It makes harder the American aim of persuading them that they're being liberated not conquered.
The Red Cross is delivering drugs and anesthetics but some hospitals have already run out. It's hard to imagine the pain and sheer misery this boy is going through. Ali says if he can't get artificial arms, he wants to die.
John Draper, ITV News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And we've been getting hundreds of calls, lots of e- mails, from people wanting to help this little boy. We understand the British charity, the Limbless Foundation, has set up a trust fund to have artificial limbs fitted. Their web address, limbless- association.org. As for the number of Iraqis injured and killed in this war, it's difficult to say with any degree of certainty. On the military side, the Iraqi government is not releasing any information. U.S. military officials put the number of Iraqi soldiers killed in the thousands.
On the civilian side, Abu Dhabi TV is reporting more than 1,200 people dead and more than 5,000 injured. The Pentagon says it's holding about 7,000 Iraqi prisoners of war.
We're continuing to wait this hour to learn if there will be more details about the fate of Saddam Hussein. As soon as any information comes our way, we'll of course bring it to you live.
Also, were the attacks in Baghdad that killed journalists today deliberate? At least one prominent network, an Arab television network says so, that story just ahead.
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(VIDEO CLIP OF BAGHDAD FIGHTING)
BLITZER: A television camera being blown out of position today in downtown Baghdad, another reminder of how dangerously close journalists are to the fighting in this war. Indeed, three journalists are dead from U.S. military fire in Baghdad, two of them killed at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad.
Were they deliberate targets as Arab media are now alleging or were they lost in what's being called the fog of war? Here's CNN's Octavia Nasr.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OCTAVIA NASR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was around 5:00 a.m. when Al-Jazeera's reporter in Baghdad, Tariq Ayub (ph) went to the roof of the Arab TV channel's headquarters to file this live report.
"Things are eerily quiet" he said. Two hours later that very building housing Al-Jazeera came under fire from U.S. forces. Tariq Ayub was rushed to a hospital. He did not survive.
Two miles away across the Tigris River, the Palestine Hotel also came under fire from an American tank. The hotel is based for western and Arab journalists. Two cameramen, one from Reuters and one from Spanish television were killed. Others were wounded.
Al-Jazeera and the other Arab television networks portrayed the story in the same way that U.S. forces intentionally targeted the journalists to silence them. The Arab TV stations say there was no sniper fire coming from the Jezia (ph) Building. Major General Stanley McChrystal says there is an explanation for what happened.
MAJ. GEN. STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL, JOINT STAFF DEP. DIRECTOR: When they get into combat of the cities, which from the beginning we have specifically said would be dangerous and difficult. You put yourself in their position. They had the inherent right of self defense.
NASR: CNN's Walt Rodgers was not at the scene of the battle but he was nearby where troops were monitoring radio traffic from the scene. He asked them what they were hearing regarding the firing on the Palestine Hotel.
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And the Army's version of that event was they were taking sniper fire from "every single floor of the Palestine Hotel" and they were only returning fire.
NASR: Some British journalists who were in the hotel, however, say they did not hear any sniper fire coming from their building. What many journalists want is an investigation.
Octavia Nasr, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: The Committee to Protect Journalists is calling the deaths of the reporters in Baghdad a violation of the Geneva Conventions. It's calling for an immediate and thorough investigation.
A little while ago, I discussed the issue with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think it bears a really thorough investigation firstly about what happened and why they were hit, and secondly the Pentagon has been essentially all over the place. The military spokesmen have been all over the map on their response to this.
First it was because there was "sniper fire from the lobby," then from the roof, then from somewhere in the area. Then it was significant fire. There's a lot of differing explanations that are coming out. All the journalists that I've monitored throughout the day have reported that they heard absolutely no sniper fire or any other fire coming from there. They were on the roofs there.
And, I think essentially, essentially what we have here is we have to balance what happened. If there was sniper fire from there, is the response legitimately tank fire into a hotel that is known by everybody, by everybody to house international journalists?
Is in other words the risk to the forces coming from that hotel, if indeed there was sniper shots which journalists say they didn't hear is the legitimate response and are the orders of American forces to respond to sniper fire towards their tanks by firing a tank shell?
I think that's a legitimate question that has not yet been answered and what happened today poses and raises very significant issues and very significant questions.
BLITZER: A couple of follow-up questions. First of all, who would conduct this kind of independent investigation? You've been a reporter involved in a lot of sensitive, very dangerous kinds of operations. Who do you propose take a look at these incidents to see what exactly happened?
AMANPOUR: I think, a) the journalistic community; and, b) the military itself has to ask itself.
BLITZER: Like the Committee to Protect Journalists, one of those organizations?
AMANPOUR: Whoever. We've heard responses today from the International Federation of Journalists. I'm sure there are others out there who are talking about this, but this poses a very significant dilemma I believe, because we understand the risk.
We know that when we stay in those kinds of places that we're taking risks. We know that the journalists move from the Al Rasheid (ph) to the Palestine because there was chatter in the air that the Rasheid might be targeted, so they moved to somewhere they thought would be safer.
This is a known civilian base, a known hotel for hundreds of journalists. Is the response to maybe sniper fire, which has not yet been proven by the way, to respond by tank fire and then the other questions are, you know, the response we've heard from the Pentagon has been variously on different issues such as, well journalists, we warned journalists not to be in Baghad.
Only embedded journalists can have the protection of the forces. Well, is that an answer to what happened today? And I think we have to take what happened today, Al-Jazeera hit, Abu Dhabi hit, begging by the way for help in evacuating. The Palestine Hotel hit.
And we have to ask why that happened and are the rules of engagement in those instances legitimate? We understand from our reporters who are embedded that mosques are off limits, schools are off limits, hospitals are off limits if they detect certain fire from there. This goes to the heart of the issue of the civilian issue.
BLITZER: So, what are you - you heard Victoria Clarke, the Pentagon Press Spokeswoman, suggest earlier, she had 300 conversations with various news organizations saying look, a war is an inherently dangerous situation. We can't guarantee your safety.
If you stay at various hotels, you're taking your life into your own hands because the Iraqis themselves might use you in effect as human shields thinking that the U.S. military won't respond because you're there and she says that's simply not going to wash.
AMANPOUR: Number one, I would say that most of the journalists who are there have got a lot more experience in risky situations and war than some of the spokespeople who are giving out those comments.
Number two, in the first Gulf War the Al-Rasheid was off limits for hitting because journalists were in there. And, number three, even if there were Iraqi officials in there, were they firing and were they holding journalists as hostages or human shields? There's no evidence of that or not.
BLITZER: Well, there is a little bit of evidence to that. John Byrnes, who's an excellent reporter for "The New York Times," he did suggest that there were Iraqi security guys going into that hotel, staying there, and preventing those journalists who might want to leave from relocating to perhaps a different location. You read that in "The New York Times" today.
AMANPOUR: Yes, I did, but the question remains, the question remains the proportionate response and was there fire coming out of there and is the proportionate response to a civilian building, which is where all the journalists were, to fire at it with a tank? And, in my view, that's a major question that needs to be answered urgently.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: CNN's Christiane Amanpour speaking with me earlier in the day. We had hoped to bring you an interview this hour with a top editor from Al-Jazeer, Ibrahim Halal (ph).
Unfortunately, he couldn't do it, but Al-Jazeera Correspondent Omar al-Isawi (ph) will talk about the death of his colleague and the plight of journalists in the war zone on "LARRY KING LIVE" tonight. That's at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, 6:00 p.m. on the West Coast.
Do you believe the United States can declare victory in Iraq without knowing the fate of Saddam Hussein? You still have a chance to vote. The results of our web question of the day will be revealed in just a moment.
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BLITZER: And now a look at some of the other striking images of this war. The 1st Battalion of the 2nd Marines was greeted by grateful and enthusiastic crowds as they roll into this town in eastern Iraq, but the continuing threat of suicide attacks and ambushes forced them to keep the welcoming committee at more than arm's length.
And, the bodies of 11 British servicemen killed in Iraq returned to English soil earlier today. The British Defense Ministry says 31 people from its armed forces have died in the war.
Here's how you're weighing in on our web question of the day. "Do you believe the United States can declare victory in Iraq without knowing the fate of Saddam Hussein?" Forty-four percent of you say yes, 56 percent of you say no. Remember, this is not a scientific poll.
Please stay with CNN throughout the night for up-to-the-minute war coverage. I'll be back tomorrow, 5:00 p.m.
I'll also be back in one hour for two hours of special coverage with Paula Zahn. Until then, thanks very much for watching.
Lou Dobbs standing by to pick up our live coverage - Lou. LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, thank you very much.
Still no word tonight on whether Saddam Hussein and his two sons were killed in last night's coalition air strike. A B-1 bomber flying over Baghdad dropped four bombs on a building where Hussein and his sons were reportedly meeting. The attack destroyed the building left a crater 30-feet deep. An adjacent restaurant was damaged in the attack.
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Weapons; Journalists killed in missile attack on Palestine Hotel>
