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Fedayeen Trucks Blown up in Basra
Aired April 02, 2003 - 14:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: A U.S. military convoy had a chance encounter with Iraqi Fedayeen gunmen earlier today at a crossroads in Najaf. CNN's Ryan Chilcote, in the field with 101st Airborne, describes precisely what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The fight continues. And I'm sure you can see those huge black plumes of smoke behind me. Let me show you them a little bit letter.
What we understand that to be -- and this is according to initial reports -- is just a short while ago -- and this is within an hour -- several pickup trucks, blue pickup trucks even, we know, were moving through an intersection in the city at the same time a U.S. military convoy was. And they had a chance encounter.
The pickup trucks, apparently being driven by Fedayeen paramilitary fighters, opened fire on the U.S. military convoy with Russian assault rifles, AK-47s. The U.S. convoy stopped, it had a head count.
Once they were sure everybody was OK, they called in those Apache attack helicopters that I think that everybody saw on this program a little bit earlier. Those are the U.S. military's helicopters -- gun helicopters. And they opened fire on those pickup trucks, really, obviously, lighting them up.
And what then happened was they noticed before they opened fire on them that the back of the pickup trucks were covered in camouflage and wheat. Well, it turns out they were loaded up with some kind of explosive material, probably rockets, because they started going off and all kind of secondary explosions -- those explosions continued for about ten minutes.
And now you're seeing that black smoke. That's the result. It's literally covered this entire city. That is the result of those secondary explosions. Really, this fight going on right before our very eyes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Ryan Chilcote, he's embedded with the 101st Airborne Division. They call them the Screaming Eagles.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired April 2, 2003 - 14:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: A U.S. military convoy had a chance encounter with Iraqi Fedayeen gunmen earlier today at a crossroads in Najaf. CNN's Ryan Chilcote, in the field with 101st Airborne, describes precisely what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The fight continues. And I'm sure you can see those huge black plumes of smoke behind me. Let me show you them a little bit letter.
What we understand that to be -- and this is according to initial reports -- is just a short while ago -- and this is within an hour -- several pickup trucks, blue pickup trucks even, we know, were moving through an intersection in the city at the same time a U.S. military convoy was. And they had a chance encounter.
The pickup trucks, apparently being driven by Fedayeen paramilitary fighters, opened fire on the U.S. military convoy with Russian assault rifles, AK-47s. The U.S. convoy stopped, it had a head count.
Once they were sure everybody was OK, they called in those Apache attack helicopters that I think that everybody saw on this program a little bit earlier. Those are the U.S. military's helicopters -- gun helicopters. And they opened fire on those pickup trucks, really, obviously, lighting them up.
And what then happened was they noticed before they opened fire on them that the back of the pickup trucks were covered in camouflage and wheat. Well, it turns out they were loaded up with some kind of explosive material, probably rockets, because they started going off and all kind of secondary explosions -- those explosions continued for about ten minutes.
And now you're seeing that black smoke. That's the result. It's literally covered this entire city. That is the result of those secondary explosions. Really, this fight going on right before our very eyes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Ryan Chilcote, he's embedded with the 101st Airborne Division. They call them the Screaming Eagles.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
