Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

Military Analysis With Claudia Kennedy

Aired April 09, 2003 - 13:23   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: Amid all of this, the Central Command says much of Iraq is, indeed, now free. On this map we're showing you, we see that coalition forces advance from southern Iraq, near the Kuwaiti border, and into Basra and Nasiriya. And from there, they moved through Najaf, Karbala, and Kut, and now into Baghdad. It's taken 22 days of war for the coalition to get this far.
Iraqi officials have gone into hiding, at least many of them. Some Baghdad residents are celebrating. And indeed, some are looting. Posters and statues of Saddam Hussein are coming down. But Central Command warns the battle is not over.

CNN's Renay San Miguel is standing by in the CNN newsroom for a little bit more analysis with Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy -- Renay.

RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: And Wolf, indeed, half of the country may be in coalition hands, but there's a whole northern half of the country is still in play. General Kennedy and I are going to talk about that and we're going to start by showing you a map of some of them key cities that are still being contested in the northern part of the country. We're talking about Tikrit, Mosul, and Kirkuk, as well.

Now the northern part of the country was the last part to get coalition troops and equipment. What are your concerns as this fight begins up there?

LT. GEN. CLAUDIA KENNEDY, U.S. ARMY (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, this is a -- this force the 173rd Airborne Brigade has been there for some time and they're fully prepared for the fight.

Of course, the usual question would be asked, Where am I, where is my buddy, and where is the enemy? So that question has to be asked as they enter these cities.

SAN MIGUEL: OK.

We wanted to start with satellite imagery of Tikrit. This is Saddam Hussein's ancestral home. Actually we're seeing right now some -- the coalition controlled parts of Baghdad. And you can see -- here we are right now with -- starting in on Tikrit, the ancestral part -- the ancestral home of Saddam Hussein. Central Command's Vince Brooks says that they expect the fight here to be just as intense as it was in Nasiriya and Basra.

If you were wanting to gather intelligence before you go in with your forces here, what would you want to know?

KENNEDY: Well, I would want to know what other U.S. and coalition friendly forces there are, know where they are, know who they are, know the leadership there, know who we're going after, take a look for the remaining Iraqi leadership that may have fled to that area, those on the first or second team. And it's a very important fight. It's important to hold this, the coalition forces to hold this.

SAN MIGUEL: And what we're doing right now is circling some key palaces. As you can imagine, this is Saddam Hussein's hometown so he's going to load this up with palaces, which could also hold, you know -- who knows -- weapons of mass destruction and more troops and materiel.

Now from here, we will go up to Mosul and the importance and -- and some of the activity, as Ben Wedeman has been telling us all morning long, a lot of activity up there involving some strategic hills near the city.

KENNEDY: That's right.

Well, Mosul is the third largest city in Iraq, and it is very important to the commercial interests of Iraq. About 10 miles northeast of the city is the strategic hilltop that has been discussed. It has been captured by U.S. and Kurdish and coalition forces and will be very key to making sure that the people that want to leave the city before the fighting becomes more intense are able to. It also permits passage of U.S. forces into the city.

SAN MIGUEL: OK.

And then, of course, just south of that -- and there is a road from Mosul to the town of Kirkuk. And in between there, you've got some oil fields that -- if you don't get there soon, some of those could be -- could be detonated, as we saw with some of the ones down south.

KENNEDY: Exactly. I'd be surprised if there weren't some real challenges with regard to explosives having been set up there.

SAN MIGUEL: Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, U.S. Army, retired, thanks for your time. We appreciate it.

KENNEDY: Thank you.

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 9, 2003 - 13:23   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Amid all of this, the Central Command says much of Iraq is, indeed, now free. On this map we're showing you, we see that coalition forces advance from southern Iraq, near the Kuwaiti border, and into Basra and Nasiriya. And from there, they moved through Najaf, Karbala, and Kut, and now into Baghdad. It's taken 22 days of war for the coalition to get this far.
Iraqi officials have gone into hiding, at least many of them. Some Baghdad residents are celebrating. And indeed, some are looting. Posters and statues of Saddam Hussein are coming down. But Central Command warns the battle is not over.

CNN's Renay San Miguel is standing by in the CNN newsroom for a little bit more analysis with Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy -- Renay.

RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: And Wolf, indeed, half of the country may be in coalition hands, but there's a whole northern half of the country is still in play. General Kennedy and I are going to talk about that and we're going to start by showing you a map of some of them key cities that are still being contested in the northern part of the country. We're talking about Tikrit, Mosul, and Kirkuk, as well.

Now the northern part of the country was the last part to get coalition troops and equipment. What are your concerns as this fight begins up there?

LT. GEN. CLAUDIA KENNEDY, U.S. ARMY (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, this is a -- this force the 173rd Airborne Brigade has been there for some time and they're fully prepared for the fight.

Of course, the usual question would be asked, Where am I, where is my buddy, and where is the enemy? So that question has to be asked as they enter these cities.

SAN MIGUEL: OK.

We wanted to start with satellite imagery of Tikrit. This is Saddam Hussein's ancestral home. Actually we're seeing right now some -- the coalition controlled parts of Baghdad. And you can see -- here we are right now with -- starting in on Tikrit, the ancestral part -- the ancestral home of Saddam Hussein. Central Command's Vince Brooks says that they expect the fight here to be just as intense as it was in Nasiriya and Basra.

If you were wanting to gather intelligence before you go in with your forces here, what would you want to know?

KENNEDY: Well, I would want to know what other U.S. and coalition friendly forces there are, know where they are, know who they are, know the leadership there, know who we're going after, take a look for the remaining Iraqi leadership that may have fled to that area, those on the first or second team. And it's a very important fight. It's important to hold this, the coalition forces to hold this.

SAN MIGUEL: And what we're doing right now is circling some key palaces. As you can imagine, this is Saddam Hussein's hometown so he's going to load this up with palaces, which could also hold, you know -- who knows -- weapons of mass destruction and more troops and materiel.

Now from here, we will go up to Mosul and the importance and -- and some of the activity, as Ben Wedeman has been telling us all morning long, a lot of activity up there involving some strategic hills near the city.

KENNEDY: That's right.

Well, Mosul is the third largest city in Iraq, and it is very important to the commercial interests of Iraq. About 10 miles northeast of the city is the strategic hilltop that has been discussed. It has been captured by U.S. and Kurdish and coalition forces and will be very key to making sure that the people that want to leave the city before the fighting becomes more intense are able to. It also permits passage of U.S. forces into the city.

SAN MIGUEL: OK.

And then, of course, just south of that -- and there is a road from Mosul to the town of Kirkuk. And in between there, you've got some oil fields that -- if you don't get there soon, some of those could be -- could be detonated, as we saw with some of the ones down south.

KENNEDY: Exactly. I'd be surprised if there weren't some real challenges with regard to explosives having been set up there.

SAN MIGUEL: Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, U.S. Army, retired, thanks for your time. We appreciate it.

KENNEDY: Thank you.

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