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A Close Look at Baghdad International Airport
Aired April 04, 2003 - 14:26 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: Let's get some more analysis now, what this all means. We go to the CNN newsroom and CNN's Renay San Miguel -- Renay.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Wolf, we want to give folks, our viewers, an idea of what exactly, how big this renamed Baghdad International Airport is, and how many forces it's going to take to actually control it. And keep in mind, there's a difference between controlling and securing.
This is digital satellite imagery from earthviewer.com and digitalglobe.com. As we heard Pentagon spokesman Major General Stanley McChrystal say just about an hour ago, the U.S. has a substantial number of forces holding the airport.
But they are still facing sporadic resistance there. Reinforcements are indeed on the way. But as we have heard in our reporting over the last 10 to 15 minutes, something else might be reaching a boiling point with enemy forces around that territory.
There's been steady fighting all day long to maintain that control of the airport. Central Command is calling it the gateway to the future of Iraq. So give you some idea of the high priority it places on this.
CNN Walter Rodgers, as we have just heard from, said no coalition casualties in the battle for this airport. The runways still are pretty much intact. No bombings of the runways, because, as we've said, they want to use this as a forward staging area for any other kind of attacks on the city center of Baghdad.
More than 400 Iraqi deaths, though, have been reported so far.
Here's a graphic showing you exactly the 12-mile distance between downtown Baghdad and the international airport. But as CNN's military analyst Kelly McCann just pointed out to me, artillery shells, 155- millimeter launchers for those in Baghdad, have a range of 14 miles.
So you can expect them to be high on the list of coalition air strikes all during the day and all during the evening, to make sure that the forces holding the airport don't have to worry about that.
Finally, we have a graphic here showing you some of the troop movements in the so-called red zone from 20 to 30 miles out. We have heard from Brigadier General Vince Brooks of Central Command that weapons of mass destruction may have been pulled into the Baghdad area. He talks about coalition forces finding unidentified -- boxes of unidentified powder and liquid and other materials in an industrial facility near Baghdad.
So weapons of mass destruction at this point will always be uppermost in the minds of the forces, as you can see with the training that they've had with wearing the gas mask and then some of those now -- some of the MOPP protection suits, those chemical protection suits, are now being -- they're now gone to the chemical protection level two, as it were. There are four levels of this, with four meaning that weapons of mass destruction have indeed been used on the battlefield in some form or fashion.
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 4, 2003 - 14:26 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get some more analysis now, what this all means. We go to the CNN newsroom and CNN's Renay San Miguel -- Renay.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Wolf, we want to give folks, our viewers, an idea of what exactly, how big this renamed Baghdad International Airport is, and how many forces it's going to take to actually control it. And keep in mind, there's a difference between controlling and securing.
This is digital satellite imagery from earthviewer.com and digitalglobe.com. As we heard Pentagon spokesman Major General Stanley McChrystal say just about an hour ago, the U.S. has a substantial number of forces holding the airport.
But they are still facing sporadic resistance there. Reinforcements are indeed on the way. But as we have heard in our reporting over the last 10 to 15 minutes, something else might be reaching a boiling point with enemy forces around that territory.
There's been steady fighting all day long to maintain that control of the airport. Central Command is calling it the gateway to the future of Iraq. So give you some idea of the high priority it places on this.
CNN Walter Rodgers, as we have just heard from, said no coalition casualties in the battle for this airport. The runways still are pretty much intact. No bombings of the runways, because, as we've said, they want to use this as a forward staging area for any other kind of attacks on the city center of Baghdad.
More than 400 Iraqi deaths, though, have been reported so far.
Here's a graphic showing you exactly the 12-mile distance between downtown Baghdad and the international airport. But as CNN's military analyst Kelly McCann just pointed out to me, artillery shells, 155- millimeter launchers for those in Baghdad, have a range of 14 miles.
So you can expect them to be high on the list of coalition air strikes all during the day and all during the evening, to make sure that the forces holding the airport don't have to worry about that.
Finally, we have a graphic here showing you some of the troop movements in the so-called red zone from 20 to 30 miles out. We have heard from Brigadier General Vince Brooks of Central Command that weapons of mass destruction may have been pulled into the Baghdad area. He talks about coalition forces finding unidentified -- boxes of unidentified powder and liquid and other materials in an industrial facility near Baghdad.
So weapons of mass destruction at this point will always be uppermost in the minds of the forces, as you can see with the training that they've had with wearing the gas mask and then some of those now -- some of the MOPP protection suits, those chemical protection suits, are now being -- they're now gone to the chemical protection level two, as it were. There are four levels of this, with four meaning that weapons of mass destruction have indeed been used on the battlefield in some form or fashion.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
