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American Morning

Crisis in the Middle East: Safe, Sound & Together

Aired July 24, 2006 - 09:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. You're watching a special split edition of AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Soledad O'Brien in New York today.
Hey, Miles. MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, Soledad.

It's Miles O'Brien live from Haifa, Israel, where we've had a couple of air-raid sirens go off today. So far no reports of any significant damage, as on the order of about a half dozen missiles or rockets were fired in this general direction.

While that continues, the Israeli incursion or invasion, however you want to describe it pushes farther into Southern Lebanon, where we have reports of heated activity, a lot of serious fighting as Israeli Defense Forces on the ground try to go after a Hezbollah stronghold, characterized by many as a Hezbollah capital or strong hold in Southern Lebanon. Reports of casualties from there. Reports of fierce fighting.

Meanwhile, on the diplomatic front, the U.S. secretary of state is in the region. She was, at least publicly, on her itinerary, was supposed to arrive here in Jerusalem first, supposed to meet with the prime minister of Israel. Instead, unbeknownst to most reporters, just a tightly held group on the plane, from Shannon Airport in Ireland went to Cyprus, then by helicopter into Beirut. She is currently meeting with the Lebanese prime minister in Beirut. Something that was on itinerary, but was not released publicly for security concerns.

CNN's John King is in Jerusalem here to cover the travels of the secretary of state -- John.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, that stop in Beirut certainly adds some drama to the high-profile diplomatic trip. But one of the things that often is talked about in diplomacy is the expectation games. And U.S. officials are making clear, if you expect a cease-fire to come from this visit to the reign, then you are wrong, and you will go away disappointed. Secretary Rice asking the Lebanese officials, what can the United States officials do to help with the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon right now? And beginning to start the conversations about how to improve security in Southern Lebanon, meaning how to put perhaps some sort of an international force in there to force Hezbollah back.

The United States, of course, would like to completely disarm Hezbollah, but acknowledges that's more of a long-term goal. In the short term, they would hope to push Hezbollah back from the southern border, so that you don't have those rockets coming in on where you are, in Haifa.

But they say that is perhaps a week, two weeks away from any sort of an agreement on how that would take place, any resolution that might go to the United Nations Security Council adopting a cease-fire and adopting and creating such an international force. So first the conversations in Beirut. Then she will come here, Secretary Rice will, for a dinner tonight with the Israeli foreign minister, talks with the prime minister and other officials here tomorrow.

Again, many around the world saying the United States should use its unique relationship with Israel to demand an immediate cease-fire. The White House and secretary of state's traveling party says she will not do that...

(AUDIO GAP)

KING: ... is responding, trying to dismantle and destroy Hezbollah. And then, Miles, perhaps the most significant meetings will take place in Rome when you will have the secretary with Lebanese officials, with moderate Arab nations, with Europeans as well, trying to come up with what a cease-fire, what an international force might look like. But there are way more questions than there are answers. At this point, Miles, the violence expected to go on for at least another week, perhaps more.

M. O'BRIEN: Lots of questions, lots of talking at least, but still of course lots of fighting. John King in Jerusalem, thank you very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Really bombings have already injured hundreds in Lebanon, and the numbers grow each and every day. Getting medical treatment obviously is growing increasingly difficult, as well.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta visited two hospitals in Beirut. He's in Larnaca, Cyprus with more this morning. Hey, Sanjay, good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Really remarkable stuff, if you think about what's actually going on in Beirut. We are actually going to be going to Israel tonight as well, to get a sense of the hospital situation over there.

But in Beirut, two hospitals. One of the hospitals I visited was completely underground. They actually moved all their patients underground, because obviously it was just safer, not only for the patients, but for the staff as well. I talked to a couple of patients who had been victims of air strikes. One of the guys actually described to me, a civilian, what it actually felt like. His body was propelled about 30 feet through the air. He got shrapnel in his hands and feet. Some of the shrapnel penetrated his abdomen, as well.

Perhaps the most striking thing to me, Soledad, was how much hospitals and ambulances end up being in the target zones, whether intentionally or not. I visited one hospital, for example, it was actually heart wrenching if you think about it. There was a nursery, and there was these seven bassinets. There was just maybe a few hundred meters away from a bridge that had been targeted. The hospital obviously severely damaged, as well. All this glass, the sort of foundation for the building, destroyed. The nursery destroyed as well, where these seven babies were. That's what's happening out here in so some ways. You can get a sense, looking at some of the images of the glass in the patient rooms, hospitals, ambulances, part of the target zone, as well. It makes it very difficult to take care of patients injured by the airstrikes, as well as patients that were already in the hospital -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: The hospital situation over there in Beirut. Thanks, Sanjay.

Diplomatic efforts under way to resolve the Middle East crisis, even as Hezbollah fires more rockets into Israel and Israeli troops push father farther into Southern Lebanon. Let's get right to retried Brigadier General David Grange. He's a CNN military analyst. He served in Lebanon in the 1980s. He's in our Chicago bureau today.

Nice to see you, sir, as always. Thanks for talking with us.

First and foremost, this threat by the Lebanese military that they would counter any Israeli threat on their soil. We know that Israeli troops are now in Lebanon. So from what we can tell, there have been no reports of the Lebanese troops standing up. Does this mean this is all just talk?

BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I think so. And I believe that the leadership of the Lebanese government what they can say, because they don't really control the country or all the people, is that they would, you know, defend their sovereign territory. But they really can't do much with the Lebanese army. And it's a shame, because once this is sorted out, the international community needs to do something with the Lebanese army to get them on their feet and help solve the problem.

S. O'BRIEN: You know, we also hear about these two towns in Southern Lebanon, one which the Israeli seems to clearly control. The other, they are sort of fighting, fierce fighting is how it is being described. Consistently, though, Israeli officials tell us we are not invading Lebanon. Well the troops are there, and they are taking over cities, or at least trying to take over the second city. Explain that to me.

GRANGE: Well, that's really a play of words. And it's just sort of like our words of occupation of Iraq. You know, by some other words opinion, you know, an incursion into Lebanon, an invasion of Lebanon. Usually invasion are large bodies of forces, and you go there for some time and stay. Incursions you go there and do strikes. You stay for a short period of time and come out. But it's pretty much a play on words.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, that's what it sounded like to me. Hezbollah has said we welcome a ground war. Describe for me and explain for me exactly what Hezbollah's force is like? Is it a guerrilla force, like the guerrilla force we see in Iraq? Is it an organized force? Are they military with uniforms and leadership? How does it work?

GRANGE: Well, actually they have leadership. They have uniforms, and are more organized than the forces that are -- insurgents in Iraq. They have had a long-time to train up from where they were in the early days of suicide bombers and focused on terrorist acts. Their rocket missile forces are quite robust. But they fight in small groups, squads of 10 men to 20, 30 people, because that's how they can survive. They can hide into the countryside, the brushy hillsides. They can hide in the cities. They can blend in with the civilians, put their military weapons under apartment buildings and things like this.

And so they fight in small groups, but they have advanced technology compared to many insurgents that you may some other places in the world.

S. O'BRIEN: So then when Hezbollah says, we welcome a ground war, does that means they could make some kind of a difference in that fight if it indeed came to a real ground war?

GRANGE: Only in taking lives of Israeli forces, and causing harm to many of their own people because of the way they use people as cover in camouflage.

So yes, they would welcome a ground fight, because they can't win in the air; they can't wane at sea. They need to fight on the ground in small groups, up in your face, using the terrain to their advantage.

S. O'BRIEN: The U.S. is now expediting delivery of those smart bombs. Describe for me how that would make a difference in the fight since we already have seen the aerial attack that, to some degree, doesn't seem to be making a huge difference against the Hezbollah targets.

GRANGE: Not making a lot of difference. And 15,000 feet in the air delivering a weapon does not do much to guerrillas. But they are isolating the Hezbollah by taking out bridges, by the airfield, the blockade of the coast, the roads in and out of Syria. Their isolating the Hezbollah, and they have to do that to separate it from the people, to separate them from other outside influences. And then systematically, they'll take down the different elements as they find them with ground forces. But the smart bombs allows the Israelis to be more selective in their targeting and reduce collateral damage.

S. O'BRIEN: CNN military analyst, Retired Brigadier General David Grange. Nice to see you as always, sir.

GRANGE: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks.

(NEWSBREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT) CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up, a very happy ending to a terrifying ordeal. A U.S. family joins us live to talk about an emotional reunion after their frightening escape from Lebanon. That's just ahead on this special edition of "AMERICAN MORNING."

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S. O'BRIEN: The last 2,000 Americans who want to evacuate Lebanon will be taken to safety today, we are told. It took more than a week to get the evacuations started. And last week Miles talked to a mom who was stuck in New Jersey while her small children were on a pretty perilous journey out of Lebanon.

Here is Dalal Haidar.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DALAL HAIDAR, MOTHER OF EVACUEES: With the children screaming and crying and pleading for your help, pleading for you to pick them up. And you can't do anything. It's just one of the most unbearable, terrifying feelings that any mother could ever experience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, it sounded absolutely brutal. Well, the family made it home over the weekend. Now Dalal and her 7-year-old daughter and her 11-year-old son and the children's father, Fadi Haidar, are all together. They're with us in the studio. Eleven-year-old Mohamed, 7-year-old Noor. Nice to see you all safe and sound.

You sounded so horribly desperate in that phone call. What was it like when you finally saw them in person, fine and back?

D. HAIDAR: I couldn't believe it, honestly. I really couldn't believe that it was them. They were home finally. Extremely overjoyed. I'm still a little bit scared and just overwhelmed, just completely overwhelmed.

S. O'BRIEN: Fadi, your description of the road out is just treacherous. I mean, you're driving with two small children, trying to find any way out. How close did the bombs come to you? What kinds of things did you see in your trek out of the country?

FADI HAIDAR, EVACUATED FROM LEBANON: It was very scary. I have actually my kids plus my brother's kids, also. There's three kids. We were a total of seven, trying to evacuate from Tibia (ph), which is very close to the border. And after we waited for a while, you know, to be able to get picked up from there, and they couldn't do it, then I have to make very hard decision to put my kids in the car.

And it was, you know, a life and death decision for me to put my kids in the car. And you always see that they targeted civilians. You see a lot of cars being hit on the road. I mean, it was very, very bad. You see house flattened, leveled down. We saw a lot of scary stuff. And we have to drive all over Lebanon to be able to get to Beirut where it's safer than where we were in Tibia (ph). S. O'BRIEN: I read that you were -- there's a prayer that you say when you're about to die.

F. HAIDAR: Yes, you just take witness to God. And right before they left on that trip, we had the children on the phone and give witness to God, that they believe in god. They all did it right before they took the trip. We all did it.

S. O'BRIEN: Mohamed and Noor, what did it sound like when the bombs would fall? Can you tell me about that?

NOOR HAIDAR, EVACUATED FROM LEBANON: It was really scary, because when the bombs were going up, you didn't even know because you can see them -- like they were going up. You didn't know if it was going to land on the house or go farther. It looked like it was coming down, but then it went farther down. And the sound sounds like something just like, died. And it's really, like, shaky. Because the night, it was shaking when the bombs were there.

S. O'BRIEN: Sounds really scary.

N. HAIDAR: It was really scary.

S. O'BRIEN: How about for you, Mohamed? What did it sound like it? What it feel like? Could you feel it? I mean, did everything shake when that happened?

MOHAMED HAIDAR, EVACUATED FROM LEBANON: Yes, like you could feel the ground shake and everything. And like, literally, like the air you can feel like vibrate. Like -- you get like - see things. Like, once behind, you could see, like, the dirt, the ground and everything, go up.

S. O'BRIEN: This was your first trip. I know you were going to see your grandparents for the very first time. How scared were you about all this? You had a long trip out. Noor, maybe you can answer. I know Mohamed's got a little coughing thing on. How scared were you when your dad we got to get in the car, we're going to make a long drive?

N. HAIDAR: I'm like...

S. O'BRIEN: We're going to run, basically.

N. HAIDAR: I'm like, saying to myself, no, I know he's going to bring us home. I didn't know if the bomb was going to get us or we're just going to like get safe home to the plane.

S. O'BRIEN: That's terrifying when you hear -- this is coming from a 7-year-old.

D. HAIDAR: You have no idea.

S. O'BRIEN: You must be terrified about your family who's still there. D. HAIDAR: That's another issue. It's like thank God we have our children home. But there are people there still stranded in southern Lebanon, including his family, that can't reach Beirut. Or certain, like, area that's a little bit more safer than where they are.

His father actually refused to leave. He just said he's just so tired of the constant running that he's not willing to leave anymore or take any more chances. A lot of people are scared to take drive. Fadi was telling me the same day, after they left, within five to six hours, they started to actually bomb that area heavily.

S. O'BRIEN: The Israeli government says they're not targeting civilians.

F. HAIDAR: Well, it's not true, because When we were driving there we saw three cars was burned on the side. And you could see actually -- even worse than that, they tell people to evacuate this area, and then when while people get in the car and they're trying to leave, the planes target them and airstrike will hit the car, and I see that a lot. I see a lot of burnt cars on the road, and they're all civilians. None of them are militants. I didn't even see militants at all. We were driving for like eight hours. I didn't see any militants between houses anywhere.

But when they tried to tell people to evacuate and they get in the car and they try to evacuate, and then they airstrike just hit them and they just kill everybody. That happen actually for 20 people were trying to go to the U.N. center to hide in their building, because the U.N. usually protected, and the U.N. refused to let them in, because they can't help civilians. On the way back, missile hit the car and killed nine kids and 11 adults in one strike.

S. O'BRIEN: I can sense relief on your part that your family is home, but also...

D. HAIDIAR: Yes. I feel extremely Saddened for the people that are left behind. We have his sister that watched my children. She was sort of the mother away from home that was watching. She begged and pleaded with me to please beg anyone and everyone to please plead for a cease-fire for some kind of help to help the people that are stranded that have nothing to do with anything. All they want to do is see another day with their children.

On the drive over there, his sister-in-law couldn't even talk. As the cars were being bombed, the Red Cross couldn't get to them. There were people lying on the streets. There was dogs, cats, eating at the dead corpses that were on the ground. She couldn't get that image out. She was screaming and crying. She didn't even get to see her parents. She didn't know whether they were alive, if they weren't alive, what's going on. She was absolutely devastated. She's going through severe emotional distress. We try to call her and reach out to her to see if there's anything we can do. She can't even talk. She can't deal with the things that she saw.

But she said to please beg anyone and everyone that could possibly help. There are so many people that are being innocently killed that really all they want is to be able to raise their children and just see another day. I'm sure on both sides both people are just devastated by what's going on.

S. O'BRIEN: Dalal, and Fadi and Mohamed and Noor Haidar, thank you for coming in to share your story with us.

D. HAIDAR: Thank you so much for having us. Thanks so much.

S. O'BRIEN: I hope you all get some rest and then get a little time to think about some of the things you've seen. It's been a tough (INAUDIBLE).

D. HAIDAR: Can I just say one thing, please.

Throughout all of this, we had Senator Menendez, Senator Lautenberg, Senator (INAUDIBLE), they all worked with us so, so hard to help us get our children evacuated from the area they were. They worked with us since 6:00 a.m.

S. O'BRIEN: They've now been duly thanked.

D. HAIDAR: They were there 24/7 to us, honest to god. I felt like they were family. They truly tried desperately to help us all they can. And we are extremely grateful for everything they've done for us.

S. O'BRIEN: Consider them thanked now. Thank you for talking with us. We certainly appreciate it.

N. HAIDAR: I want to say one more thing.

We're out of time, but I'm going to talk to you as soon as we get to break, OK?

N. HAIDAR: OK.

S. O'BRIEN: A short break. We're back in just a moment.

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S. O'BRIEN: A short break. We're back in just a moment. Stay with us.

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M. O'BRIEN: Back now live from Haifa, Israel. We've heard the air-raid siren blare here three times today. About a half a dozen rockets or Katyusha missiles falling in this direction. All of them falling harmlessly, causing no damage or injuries to report at all.

In the meantime, just north of the border, that Israeli incursion continues with heavy fighting reported around a Hezbollah stronghold. Reports of casualties. And in the midst of all this an Israeli helicopter down, apparently not the result of a shootdown. Lots to follow on that front and lots to follow in the diplomatic front as we enter day three -- or, excuse me, day 13 of this Middle East crisis -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN; All right, Miles, thanks. Stay safe while you travel throughout the region.

That's it for us here on AMERICAN MORNING.

Daryn Kagan is going pick up our coverage at the CNN Center, take you through the next couple of hours on "CNN LIVE TODAY."

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