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Iraqi's Ambushing Supply Convoy May Have Executed Seven Soldiers

Aired March 26, 2003 - 13:39   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.


JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Today, we're getting more disturbing reports about Sunday's deadly Iraqi ambush on an Army supply convoy near Nasariyah. The Pentagon is looking into unconfirmed reports that Iraqi forces executed as many as seven soldiers as they tried to surrender. At least five soldiers, we know, were taken as POWS. Four of the soldiers in that ambush are now listed as missing in action. Those soldiers are all from the 507th Maintenance Company at Fort Bliss, Texas and that's where we find our Ed Lavandera. It doesn't get any easier for the families in that area.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, it's already been an incredibly difficult four days. The military officials here at Fort Bliss, Texas in El Paso haven't been able to comment on the specifics of -- especially the report you just mentioned, but any other specifics as to what happened Sunday when the 507th Maintenance Company was near the town of Nasariyah, there was a fierce battle going on, it is said they were believed to have taken a wrong turn and were ambushed. Five of those soldiers are considered prisoners of war at this time.

There are also two other prisoners of war. As all this information has been so hard to get out of the military, as the military investigators try to figure out what is going on with the situation. It's very difficult on these family members. Many of them stress to us what they want to see is the Red Cross to be able to get in and analyze the situation, independent authority, to determine just what kind of conditions they're in. We've heard the loudest outcry come from the father of soldier Officer Shoshana Johnson, one of the confirmed prisoners of war. Her family lives in the El Paso area and her father told me just a few days ago it is crucial for the Red Cross to get in there and assess the situation.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

CLAUDE JOHNSON, FATHER OF POW SHOSHANA JOHNSON: The instant they find out they had prisoners, they should have been talking to the people in the Red Cross and ensuring that somebody got out there. We can't turn the clock back. What is done is done. Now it is time to get the people from the Red Cross, or whatever organization is available, to go in and make a true assessment and then we can work from there.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Mr. Johnson is saying it is crucial to be able to get that initial analysis, just to be able to determine what kind of conditions all these soldiers were in so if anything were to happen while they were in captivity, that the Iraqi government could be held responsible for any of that. The military officials here at the base, over the first couple of days when this first happened there were a several press briefings that were scheduled.

Those were canceled, and they haven't been able to speak publicly about what happened. They say they're waiting for permission to do so from the Pentagon. A lot of that is because there isn't a lot of clear information to be able to speak out publicly. One other thing officials here are nervous about is the fact that many of these family members are doing interviews with the news media.

They say they're worried that could be used as psychological warfare, in the words of one official at this base, against these soldiers that are in captivity. They say they're convinced the Iraqis are watching what their family members are saying on TV and urging the family members to be very cautious in their words because that could endanger the lives of their loved ones in captivity -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: Sounds like the families, Ed, are responding to that.

LAVANDERA: From everything -- the families are spread out over the country. But from everything that we have been able to gather a lot of them taking that message to heart. A lot from the beginning had a full understanding of that. The families we spoke with shared a lot about what their loved ones do and how they'd be able to handle that situation. But I don't think they -- I think they're very cautious in their language and understood that is a possibility, that they needed to watch out for.

WOODRUFF: Ed Lavandera with us from Ft. Bliss, Texas, which is just close to El Paso, and we should say that just a few minutes ago I spoke with an official with the International Red Cross who said he does expect to visit with the U.S. prisoners of war in the next day or two. He doesn't have the exact timing yet -- Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much, Judy.

A couple notes. First, we're standing by at the top of the hour, we're expecting a Pentagon briefing. There have been two briefings a day from the U.S. Military, a morning briefing from the central command in Doha, Qatar, and in the afternoon from the Pentagon we will have live coverage. That's coming up at the top of the hour, 2:00 p.m. Eastern. A lot of questions that the Pentagon reporters want answers to.

We'll see if they get the answers from the Pentagon briefers. We have to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll update our viewers on a developing story. Our Walter Rodgers reporting a column estimated to include some 1, 000 vehicle, perhaps from the Iraqi Republican Guard, moving to engage U.S. Troops. Not far outside of Baghdad. We'll have an update. Walter Rodgers information when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: We following a developing story, breaking news, CNN's Walter Rodgers reporting not long ago that a column of perhaps 1,000 armored vehicles attached to the elite Iraqi Republican Guard moving rapidly to engage U.S. Troops just near Najaf, not far from Baghdad in central Iraq. We're following this story. I want our viewers to hear precisely what Walter Rodgers reported. He's attached to the 7th Cavalry an embedded journalist. This is what he reported only a little while ago here on CNN.

WALTER RODGERS, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORREPSONDENT: A major column of Iraqi elite troops are moving south from Baghdad in the general direction of An Najaf. There are said to be a thousand vehicles in that convoy. Because of the dust storms, it's difficult to get an exact fix on the types of armored vehicles, which are moving southward out of Baghdad. But a while ago, they were very close to the 7th Cavalry's position.

There's a bit of a scramble at the 7th Cavalry tactical operations post. However, in the meantime, the Army has managed to bring up substantial reinforcements, although the cavalry was a little thin earlier in the afternoon when this information was first gleaned, still, it is a situation to be concerned about. Air strikes were called in a short while ago. It is not known at this point whether the Iraqis would attack the U.S. units here in a sandstorm and at night. That's a possibility and everyone is sitting on a very tight hair-trigger where we are.

I think this is serious. Because in some respects, those vehicles were pretty good, the old Soviet vehicle. We can't tell the precise configuration of the vehicles because of the sandstorm, which is blowing, which has reduced visibility to 75 meters. We're talking about, basically, overhead air surveillance peering down through the sand at the column.

It is a very substantial column and it moved very rapidly when it first came out of Baghdad, anywhere between 30 and 60 kilometers an hour. That's quite fast. Headed due south from Baghdad almost in a straight course, collision course, with the 7th Cavalry and the 3rd Infantry division. As for the quality of the troops we're told they are Republican Guard units, that's some of the best Saddam has.

Indeed, it is a serious threat to the area we're in. We believe we'll probably come under attack some time this evening. What we've discovered now is, additionally, Saddam Hussein's generals are throwing some of his better troops forward to stiffen the spine of his regular troops in cities like An Najaf, going down to Nasariyah, to Basra. So he is mixing his tactics this time, showing a fair amount of imagination in terms of his line of attack.

One very important thing we're seeing now is that the Iraqis are conducting a war of attrition against the United States military, which is pushing northward. That war of attrition being a kind of guerrilla warfare, where they send suicide buses into the side of a bradley fighting vehicle, trying to knock out a tank here, a fighting vehicle there, another tank here. The idea, trying to break the morale and reduce the fighting power of the United States before the U.S. Army and the Marines get close to his crack units outside Baghdad.

BLITZER: That was Walter Rodgers, our journalist embedded with the 7th Cavalry. Apparently a huge battle about to take place, if it's not taking place right now, reporting that an armored column, estimated to include some 1,000 Iraqi vehicles from the Republican Guard, moving rapidly to engage U.S. Forces and British forces near An Najaf, in central Iraq. We're following that story, obviously, a significant development. We expect to get some questions about it and perhaps some answers in the Pentagon briefing. That's coming up at the top of the hour in only a few minutes -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: Thank you, Wolf.

Yes, we're all going to be listening to see what, if anything, the Pentagon is going to be able to tell us. It is clearly a worrying development, at least as we've heard it described by our reporter, Walt Rodgers. There's been a lot of controversy since this war, this fighting, got underway about how appropriate it is for anti-war demonstrations to go on. We know there were a number of them over the weekend. There was yet another one today being a small one, relatively small one, outside -- close to the White House at the park right across Pennsylvania Avenue.

Small demonstration, but there were 21 demonstrators taken into custody, arrested, some charged with crossing a police line. Others charged with demonstrating without a permit. We're being told that 35 others are being given verbal warnings. We're told among those arrested, a Daniel Ellsberg of "Pentagon Papers" fame, a bishop in the Roman Catholic Arch Diosise of Detroit Bishop Tom Gumbleton (ph), a rabbi from Philadelphia Arthur Wasco (ph), a Methodist Bishop from Chicago Joseph Spraig (ph), and other prominent figures in the church, Christian, and Jewish faiths across this nation. So those who feel strongly against this war have not given up.

We've been telling you about that sandstorm that still holds south of Baghdad. Let's go to our Chad Myers at the CNN Weather Center in Atlanta. We're all concerned at this point about just how significant a development this is, a column of Iraqi troops moving south from Baghdad, they're operating in a sandstorm. What's the forecast?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEROLOGIST: The forecast is for the wind to go down to zero, absolutely calm for the next six days. But it does take awhile for the sand to actually calm down, this sand, or dust, really what it is. It's like the consistency of powdered sugar. It gets in the air and stays in the air, even though the wind will have gone down to zero, as it is right now at zero in Kuwait City.

Only 10 to 15 over Baghdad. Obviously, Baghdad stopped sending any weather observations a couple weeks ago. Cool weather, partly cloudy skies tomorrow. The problem is Judy, this dust is so very light, it stays up, it's almost airsolized. It is even airborne 24 hours after the wind has died down. So it gets better from here, but certainly, the visibility only gets better very slowly. Probably only 100 meters every hour or so. As the sand and dust begins to settle back down to the ground. WOODRUFF: Can you give us a sense of when you think, from overhead, whether it's air surveillance, or helicopters, when they might be able to see down to what's going down on the ground in that area?

MYERS: That has a lot to do with how thick the dust cloud is. This dust cloud almost 5,000 feet thick at some point. That cold front that came through yesterday kicked winds to almost 100 kilometers an hour, that's 65 mph. That pushed all that cloud and dust into the sky. It's going to take at least another 12 hours to get a decent ceiling, or the low part of the cloud cover, as it starts to settle back down. Where actually the strike fighters and the A 10's and all those other low cloud cover, or low support vehicles in flight can get in to see very much at all.

WOODRUFF: And we're sure our military planners are paying even much closer attention to the weather then we are here. But we thank you for the update Chad -- go ahead.

MYERS: This was not an unexpected storm. We knew about this storm and talked about this storm last Friday. We knew this thing was coming out of the Saharra, across the Mediterranean, and now it's finally moved across and east of Baghdad. I knew all the war planners knew about it as well.

WOODRUFF: We can assume the Iraqi war planners knew about it as well.

MYERS: Of course.

WOODRUFF: Chad Myers, again thank you very much. Again, we're watching that development we've been telling you about south of Baghdad, a column of Iraqi military, moving south out of Baghdad towards U.S. positions miles to the south. At one point, our Walt Rodgers describing as many as perhaps 1, 000 Iraqi vehicles in a column. Again, that's what he's hearing.

We're trying to get more information. It should come up at the Pentagon briefing at the top of the hour. We want to tell you what we're working on for the next hour in addition to the briefing at the Pentagon. One topic is getting aid inside Iraq. There are thousands of tons of food and supplies sitting off the coast of Iraq, all of it waiting to be taken into the country. We're going to speak with someone from UNICEF on this effort. That's coming up in the next hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: As coalition troops deal with pockets of Iraqi irregular forces, the opposition to the Iraqi government is offering its help and its fighters.

CNN's Brent Sadler reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Northern Iraq, a growing sense of frustration among Iraq's armed opposition groups. Their leaders meeting in the Kurdish stronghold of Salahuddin, the city 250 miles north of Baghdad. Praise for the stunning Coalition advances on the battlefield, but sharp criticism too. American-led planning, they claim, is failing to make the most of what they have to offer. And a message for President Bush.

JALAL TALABANI, PATRIOTIC UNION OF KURDISTAN: I hope that they will understand the importance of Iraqi opposition soon and have full cooperation to end the war as soon as possible.

SADLER: In other words, opposition groups including these Kurds are waiting a call to arms. Their leaders insisting it's a mistake for American and British troops to fight dying remnants of Iraq's regime alone.

AHMAD CHALAET, IRAQI NATIONAL CONGRESS LEADER: There are forces in the south there are people in the cities who are ready to move forward. The Americans make an appeal for people to stay at home. The job of dealing with Saddam's thugs who are now attacking American troops in the south is not for American forces. It is for the Iraqi people and for the forces led by the leadership of the opposition.

SADLER: And the first open sign the U.S. Central Command may be listening, a Marine Corps general has begun leading efforts to help coordinate activity.

HOSHAR ZABARI, KDP SPOKESMAN: I think you need to bring more pressure from all directions and that's why this front is needed. Because it goes to the heart of Saddam Hussein's regime.

SADLER: And could lead to the final collapse of his command and control.

(on camera): So, as coalition forces edge closer towards Baghdad, there's renewed urgency to post-war planning, for what Iraq's opposition groups call "the day after", the time when Saddam Hussein's regime ultimately falls.

Brent Sadler, CNN, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), northern Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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




Soldiers>


Aired March 26, 2003 - 13:39   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Today, we're getting more disturbing reports about Sunday's deadly Iraqi ambush on an Army supply convoy near Nasariyah. The Pentagon is looking into unconfirmed reports that Iraqi forces executed as many as seven soldiers as they tried to surrender. At least five soldiers, we know, were taken as POWS. Four of the soldiers in that ambush are now listed as missing in action. Those soldiers are all from the 507th Maintenance Company at Fort Bliss, Texas and that's where we find our Ed Lavandera. It doesn't get any easier for the families in that area.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, it's already been an incredibly difficult four days. The military officials here at Fort Bliss, Texas in El Paso haven't been able to comment on the specifics of -- especially the report you just mentioned, but any other specifics as to what happened Sunday when the 507th Maintenance Company was near the town of Nasariyah, there was a fierce battle going on, it is said they were believed to have taken a wrong turn and were ambushed. Five of those soldiers are considered prisoners of war at this time.

There are also two other prisoners of war. As all this information has been so hard to get out of the military, as the military investigators try to figure out what is going on with the situation. It's very difficult on these family members. Many of them stress to us what they want to see is the Red Cross to be able to get in and analyze the situation, independent authority, to determine just what kind of conditions they're in. We've heard the loudest outcry come from the father of soldier Officer Shoshana Johnson, one of the confirmed prisoners of war. Her family lives in the El Paso area and her father told me just a few days ago it is crucial for the Red Cross to get in there and assess the situation.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

CLAUDE JOHNSON, FATHER OF POW SHOSHANA JOHNSON: The instant they find out they had prisoners, they should have been talking to the people in the Red Cross and ensuring that somebody got out there. We can't turn the clock back. What is done is done. Now it is time to get the people from the Red Cross, or whatever organization is available, to go in and make a true assessment and then we can work from there.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Mr. Johnson is saying it is crucial to be able to get that initial analysis, just to be able to determine what kind of conditions all these soldiers were in so if anything were to happen while they were in captivity, that the Iraqi government could be held responsible for any of that. The military officials here at the base, over the first couple of days when this first happened there were a several press briefings that were scheduled.

Those were canceled, and they haven't been able to speak publicly about what happened. They say they're waiting for permission to do so from the Pentagon. A lot of that is because there isn't a lot of clear information to be able to speak out publicly. One other thing officials here are nervous about is the fact that many of these family members are doing interviews with the news media.

They say they're worried that could be used as psychological warfare, in the words of one official at this base, against these soldiers that are in captivity. They say they're convinced the Iraqis are watching what their family members are saying on TV and urging the family members to be very cautious in their words because that could endanger the lives of their loved ones in captivity -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: Sounds like the families, Ed, are responding to that.

LAVANDERA: From everything -- the families are spread out over the country. But from everything that we have been able to gather a lot of them taking that message to heart. A lot from the beginning had a full understanding of that. The families we spoke with shared a lot about what their loved ones do and how they'd be able to handle that situation. But I don't think they -- I think they're very cautious in their language and understood that is a possibility, that they needed to watch out for.

WOODRUFF: Ed Lavandera with us from Ft. Bliss, Texas, which is just close to El Paso, and we should say that just a few minutes ago I spoke with an official with the International Red Cross who said he does expect to visit with the U.S. prisoners of war in the next day or two. He doesn't have the exact timing yet -- Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much, Judy.

A couple notes. First, we're standing by at the top of the hour, we're expecting a Pentagon briefing. There have been two briefings a day from the U.S. Military, a morning briefing from the central command in Doha, Qatar, and in the afternoon from the Pentagon we will have live coverage. That's coming up at the top of the hour, 2:00 p.m. Eastern. A lot of questions that the Pentagon reporters want answers to.

We'll see if they get the answers from the Pentagon briefers. We have to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll update our viewers on a developing story. Our Walter Rodgers reporting a column estimated to include some 1, 000 vehicle, perhaps from the Iraqi Republican Guard, moving to engage U.S. Troops. Not far outside of Baghdad. We'll have an update. Walter Rodgers information when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: We following a developing story, breaking news, CNN's Walter Rodgers reporting not long ago that a column of perhaps 1,000 armored vehicles attached to the elite Iraqi Republican Guard moving rapidly to engage U.S. Troops just near Najaf, not far from Baghdad in central Iraq. We're following this story. I want our viewers to hear precisely what Walter Rodgers reported. He's attached to the 7th Cavalry an embedded journalist. This is what he reported only a little while ago here on CNN.

WALTER RODGERS, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORREPSONDENT: A major column of Iraqi elite troops are moving south from Baghdad in the general direction of An Najaf. There are said to be a thousand vehicles in that convoy. Because of the dust storms, it's difficult to get an exact fix on the types of armored vehicles, which are moving southward out of Baghdad. But a while ago, they were very close to the 7th Cavalry's position.

There's a bit of a scramble at the 7th Cavalry tactical operations post. However, in the meantime, the Army has managed to bring up substantial reinforcements, although the cavalry was a little thin earlier in the afternoon when this information was first gleaned, still, it is a situation to be concerned about. Air strikes were called in a short while ago. It is not known at this point whether the Iraqis would attack the U.S. units here in a sandstorm and at night. That's a possibility and everyone is sitting on a very tight hair-trigger where we are.

I think this is serious. Because in some respects, those vehicles were pretty good, the old Soviet vehicle. We can't tell the precise configuration of the vehicles because of the sandstorm, which is blowing, which has reduced visibility to 75 meters. We're talking about, basically, overhead air surveillance peering down through the sand at the column.

It is a very substantial column and it moved very rapidly when it first came out of Baghdad, anywhere between 30 and 60 kilometers an hour. That's quite fast. Headed due south from Baghdad almost in a straight course, collision course, with the 7th Cavalry and the 3rd Infantry division. As for the quality of the troops we're told they are Republican Guard units, that's some of the best Saddam has.

Indeed, it is a serious threat to the area we're in. We believe we'll probably come under attack some time this evening. What we've discovered now is, additionally, Saddam Hussein's generals are throwing some of his better troops forward to stiffen the spine of his regular troops in cities like An Najaf, going down to Nasariyah, to Basra. So he is mixing his tactics this time, showing a fair amount of imagination in terms of his line of attack.

One very important thing we're seeing now is that the Iraqis are conducting a war of attrition against the United States military, which is pushing northward. That war of attrition being a kind of guerrilla warfare, where they send suicide buses into the side of a bradley fighting vehicle, trying to knock out a tank here, a fighting vehicle there, another tank here. The idea, trying to break the morale and reduce the fighting power of the United States before the U.S. Army and the Marines get close to his crack units outside Baghdad.

BLITZER: That was Walter Rodgers, our journalist embedded with the 7th Cavalry. Apparently a huge battle about to take place, if it's not taking place right now, reporting that an armored column, estimated to include some 1,000 Iraqi vehicles from the Republican Guard, moving rapidly to engage U.S. Forces and British forces near An Najaf, in central Iraq. We're following that story, obviously, a significant development. We expect to get some questions about it and perhaps some answers in the Pentagon briefing. That's coming up at the top of the hour in only a few minutes -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: Thank you, Wolf.

Yes, we're all going to be listening to see what, if anything, the Pentagon is going to be able to tell us. It is clearly a worrying development, at least as we've heard it described by our reporter, Walt Rodgers. There's been a lot of controversy since this war, this fighting, got underway about how appropriate it is for anti-war demonstrations to go on. We know there were a number of them over the weekend. There was yet another one today being a small one, relatively small one, outside -- close to the White House at the park right across Pennsylvania Avenue.

Small demonstration, but there were 21 demonstrators taken into custody, arrested, some charged with crossing a police line. Others charged with demonstrating without a permit. We're being told that 35 others are being given verbal warnings. We're told among those arrested, a Daniel Ellsberg of "Pentagon Papers" fame, a bishop in the Roman Catholic Arch Diosise of Detroit Bishop Tom Gumbleton (ph), a rabbi from Philadelphia Arthur Wasco (ph), a Methodist Bishop from Chicago Joseph Spraig (ph), and other prominent figures in the church, Christian, and Jewish faiths across this nation. So those who feel strongly against this war have not given up.

We've been telling you about that sandstorm that still holds south of Baghdad. Let's go to our Chad Myers at the CNN Weather Center in Atlanta. We're all concerned at this point about just how significant a development this is, a column of Iraqi troops moving south from Baghdad, they're operating in a sandstorm. What's the forecast?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEROLOGIST: The forecast is for the wind to go down to zero, absolutely calm for the next six days. But it does take awhile for the sand to actually calm down, this sand, or dust, really what it is. It's like the consistency of powdered sugar. It gets in the air and stays in the air, even though the wind will have gone down to zero, as it is right now at zero in Kuwait City.

Only 10 to 15 over Baghdad. Obviously, Baghdad stopped sending any weather observations a couple weeks ago. Cool weather, partly cloudy skies tomorrow. The problem is Judy, this dust is so very light, it stays up, it's almost airsolized. It is even airborne 24 hours after the wind has died down. So it gets better from here, but certainly, the visibility only gets better very slowly. Probably only 100 meters every hour or so. As the sand and dust begins to settle back down to the ground. WOODRUFF: Can you give us a sense of when you think, from overhead, whether it's air surveillance, or helicopters, when they might be able to see down to what's going down on the ground in that area?

MYERS: That has a lot to do with how thick the dust cloud is. This dust cloud almost 5,000 feet thick at some point. That cold front that came through yesterday kicked winds to almost 100 kilometers an hour, that's 65 mph. That pushed all that cloud and dust into the sky. It's going to take at least another 12 hours to get a decent ceiling, or the low part of the cloud cover, as it starts to settle back down. Where actually the strike fighters and the A 10's and all those other low cloud cover, or low support vehicles in flight can get in to see very much at all.

WOODRUFF: And we're sure our military planners are paying even much closer attention to the weather then we are here. But we thank you for the update Chad -- go ahead.

MYERS: This was not an unexpected storm. We knew about this storm and talked about this storm last Friday. We knew this thing was coming out of the Saharra, across the Mediterranean, and now it's finally moved across and east of Baghdad. I knew all the war planners knew about it as well.

WOODRUFF: We can assume the Iraqi war planners knew about it as well.

MYERS: Of course.

WOODRUFF: Chad Myers, again thank you very much. Again, we're watching that development we've been telling you about south of Baghdad, a column of Iraqi military, moving south out of Baghdad towards U.S. positions miles to the south. At one point, our Walt Rodgers describing as many as perhaps 1, 000 Iraqi vehicles in a column. Again, that's what he's hearing.

We're trying to get more information. It should come up at the Pentagon briefing at the top of the hour. We want to tell you what we're working on for the next hour in addition to the briefing at the Pentagon. One topic is getting aid inside Iraq. There are thousands of tons of food and supplies sitting off the coast of Iraq, all of it waiting to be taken into the country. We're going to speak with someone from UNICEF on this effort. That's coming up in the next hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: As coalition troops deal with pockets of Iraqi irregular forces, the opposition to the Iraqi government is offering its help and its fighters.

CNN's Brent Sadler reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Northern Iraq, a growing sense of frustration among Iraq's armed opposition groups. Their leaders meeting in the Kurdish stronghold of Salahuddin, the city 250 miles north of Baghdad. Praise for the stunning Coalition advances on the battlefield, but sharp criticism too. American-led planning, they claim, is failing to make the most of what they have to offer. And a message for President Bush.

JALAL TALABANI, PATRIOTIC UNION OF KURDISTAN: I hope that they will understand the importance of Iraqi opposition soon and have full cooperation to end the war as soon as possible.

SADLER: In other words, opposition groups including these Kurds are waiting a call to arms. Their leaders insisting it's a mistake for American and British troops to fight dying remnants of Iraq's regime alone.

AHMAD CHALAET, IRAQI NATIONAL CONGRESS LEADER: There are forces in the south there are people in the cities who are ready to move forward. The Americans make an appeal for people to stay at home. The job of dealing with Saddam's thugs who are now attacking American troops in the south is not for American forces. It is for the Iraqi people and for the forces led by the leadership of the opposition.

SADLER: And the first open sign the U.S. Central Command may be listening, a Marine Corps general has begun leading efforts to help coordinate activity.

HOSHAR ZABARI, KDP SPOKESMAN: I think you need to bring more pressure from all directions and that's why this front is needed. Because it goes to the heart of Saddam Hussein's regime.

SADLER: And could lead to the final collapse of his command and control.

(on camera): So, as coalition forces edge closer towards Baghdad, there's renewed urgency to post-war planning, for what Iraq's opposition groups call "the day after", the time when Saddam Hussein's regime ultimately falls.

Brent Sadler, CNN, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), northern Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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




Soldiers>