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Marines to Patrol Baghdad Streets Through the Night

Aired April 09, 2003 - 14:41   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: We've got CNN's Martin Savidge with us now. He's at the University of Baghdad, embedded with the U.S. Marines.
Marty, you saw some significant gunfire where you were earlier in the day. We were all worried about you.

First of all, tell us where you are, what you're doing, what you're seeing right now.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now we are, as you say, on the campus of Baghdad University, Wolf, in sort of an outbuilding.

There is a strict light discipline that the Marines follow anytime at night, so we're not allowed to use any light out of doors, so we had to come inside here.

We don't know who the last occupiers of this room were. You can see that there are blankets and bedrolls and clothing laying all strewn across the floor. It appears whoever was here left in quite a hurry. Were these the same people that were part of the firefight firing on the U.S. Marines as they came by this university today remains unclear at this particular point.

In this neighborhood where we are, outside it is totally dark. You only see one or two lights. Otherwise, it is pretty much a blackout situation, and the streets are extremely quiet. Occasionally just after sunset there were some large explosions that illuminated the sky and you can hear thuds every now and then of other blasts going off.

But we have not heard gunfire. We have not heard people moving about. It is a very quiet, dark scene on the streets of Baghdad.

When we came in -- we are embedded with the 1st Battalion 7th Marines -- they drove in in a convoy fashion, entering into Baghdad from the southeast, driving into the heart of the city. As they approached, they were greeted by large amounts of Iraqi people on the streets, many of them standing at intersections, waving and cheering and smiling, holding up "V" for victory signs and the thumbs up sign.

Clearly they did appear to be extremely happy and the marines themselves, their reaction, one of relief and also joy, because they felt they truly had accomplished and liberated the people. It was the first time they had had a sense of this in the three weeks of the war that we have been traveling with them.

It was when we turned on to another street, right by Baghdad University, when things changed and changed dramatically. Photographer Scott McKinney (ph) was running with one of the advanced units in the CAT teams. This is a heavily-armed Humvee jeep. And they were about to cross over a bridge that would have connected the marines with the U.S. Army on the other side. They got halfway across and suddenly from down below, in the water, an Iraqi gunboat opened fire.

The CAT team immediately reversed and opened fire and attacked that Iraqi gunboat from on top of the bridge, suppressing that fire. Then suddenly they heard the fighting breaking out at Baghdad University, which is where we were at that time, and immediately they raced down there.

By that time, Scott McKinney (ph) had changed from jeep into one of the armored personnel carriers that actually rammed into a brick wall surrounding the University of Baghdad, punching a hole.

Meanwhile, there were RPG's, rocket-propelled grenades, being fired and heavy machinegun fire coming from the buildings on the university campus. The Marine Infantry pushed through the hole, the armored personnel carriers pushed through as well, and what followed as at least a half-hour of a full-on fight between the U.S. Marines on the ground and whoever the occupiers were inside of the building there.

The Marines also found, as they fired from their machinegun positions on the ground, a number of what are called technos. These are these sort of pickup trucks with heavy machineguns mounted in the back, or antiaircraft machine guns mounted in them as well. They took those out methodically one after the other. There was one techno that roared into the open. They quickly fired on that, killing those inside, and knocking it out of action.

So it was a very, very heavy fight, ending with the crescendo of apparently a huge arms cache stored somewhere on the university grounds that went up like the 4th of July and continued to explode and fire all around for a good 45 minutes.

The question now, was that truly the last battle of Baghdad or are there other pockets and other days that the marines face ahead? It still remains to be seen. They're still trying to determine who was in the buildings and how many casualties the Iraqis suffered at this hour -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Did the marines that you're covering -- did the marines suffer casualties in that battle at Baghdad University -- Marty.

SAVIDGE: No, they did not, and it's rather amazing, considering the tremendous amount of firepower that was being, likely both directions, actually. But, no, the U.S. Marines of the 1st Battalion 7th Marines did not suffer a single casualty -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And as you say, it's quiet right now, but you don't know if those who were fighting the marines have simply disappeared or were killed, and as a result it's quiet. Is that what you're suggesting -- Marty.

SAVIDGE: It's quiet for two reasons. I think it's quiet because after dark many people do become fearful. The joy of the celebration in the sunlight tends to fade away with the uncertainty that darkness brings.

Also there are marine patrols now, as there are U.S. Army patrols, out on the streets, and they will remain there throughout the dark hours, as they will during the daylight hours.

But now you have armored personnel carriers and you have these heavily weaponized jeeps that are out there patrolling, going through at least this sector that the marines are responsible for, and they were patrolling the streets to make sure it remains quiet, also trying to measure if they will run into any other kind of resistance -- Wolf.

BLITZER: When we were watching your dramatic reports earlier in the day, live here on CNN, Marty, they were in such contrast to the jubilation that was going on in the center part of the city where Iraqis were celebrating the demise of Saddam Hussein's regime, toppling that huge statue in that square there. It seemed like it was almost two different worlds.

What we saw at Baghdad University, was that really an isolated small part of the city as opposed to being more consistent with what's happening elsewhere, as far as you can tell? You're our eyes and ears in Baghdad right now.

SAVIDGE: It truly did seem to be just an isolated incident on the University of Baghdad campus. As we said, as we were approaching on all the other streets, we saw the same sort of celebration. We saw the smiles on people's faces as they waved at the marines as they went by.

It was only when we turned the corner -- and the thing that struck me about that street was that before we even ran into any problem, I noticed that there was no one on that particular street. It was almost as if those that lived in this particular neighborhood knew that there may be trouble ahead for the marines, because there was no one standing in front of their homes, no one lining those sidewalks, even though just a block away it had been jammed with people who were obviously very happy with what they were watching.

So, yes, it does appear to have been a very isolated incident in a specific part of town, and while this was going on, the marines were fully aware that just several blocks away, this huge celebration in the center of town, with the dragging down of Saddam Hussein's statue, was taking place. And yet the marines themselves were in the fight of their lives.

BLITZER: We have been hearing, Marty, that in the eastern part of Baghdad, which is heavily Shia, that there was huge celebrations, but -- and I know the marines are in the eastern part of the city, dominating security in that part of Baghdad. But what about in other parts of Baghdad, where there is a much larger Sunni population, which was thought to be much more supportive of Saddam Hussein's regime? What are you hearing about that?

SAVIDGE: Well, we have only heard that most of the opposition, as far as the Iraqi Army, paramilitary units, even police units, had vanished from the streets of Baghdad today. That I think you knew well, was there was this eerie calm of a city that knew it was on the brink but wasn't quite sure which was it was going to teeter.

By the afternoon, we began to see which was it went, and it was obviously in the clear signs of the celebration.

As for these other communities that were so solidly behind Saddam Hussein, they are silent tonight too, but those are areas that the patrols are clearly going to be focusing on, watching and waiting to see if any resistance emerges out of there.

Now we did hear in some parts of the city that there was indiscriminate shelling that was taking place on the part of Iraqi troops. As we drove through town, even as people were waving at you, you did hear the sound of explosions. It did sound like artillery or RPG's. You could not tell where it was coming from, and quite frankly the streets of Baghdad are littered with RPG rounds.

So who was firing and what they were firing at isn't clear, but we have had a report from the marines that Iraqi artillery units, some distance out of the city, were firing indiscriminately on its own population -- Wolf.

BLITZER: You know, Marty, it seemed as if -- and correct me if I'm wrong -- you've been on the outskirts of Baghdad now for a while. It seemed as if yesterday the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein was still very much in charge of Baghdad, giving orders, giving orders to civil servants, giving orders to the military, the Saddam Fedayeen, the Special Republican Guard who had control.

All of the sudden, it's as if this morning somebody switched a light, a plug, or something. They pushed a button and all of that semblance of Iraqi governmental control disappeared almost overnight, and no more vestiges, no more symbols of the Iraqi government seemed to be apparent in the Iraqi capitol right now.

Is that a fair assessment?

SAVIDGE: It was. I mean, it literally was like the flipping of a switch.

Last night, when I was talking to the marines, they were asking us, you know, when do you think this is going to be over and could it be over by Friday. And I said, well, I don't know. Ask me by the end of the day today.

So we really thought that there were perhaps many more days, even weeks, ahead, especially with this sporadic opposition that they had been facing all the way in to Baghdad. And then, as you say, this morning, you woke up, and even where we were, you could sense that something was different, and that there was something about the odd, I don't know if calm is the word, but the silence of this huge city. And then we began hearing reports from other journalists within the city that their minders, that the police were gone, and that the city itself appeared to be very much up for grabs.

So, you're right, it was a remarkable transition that took place perhaps in a matter of hours, maybe in a matter of five minutes -- somewhere, this city turned -- Wolf.

BLITZER: It's as if, almost, Marty, it's as if someone sent out an e-mail, a blast e-mail to all the civil servants, all the military, all the secret police, and just said it's over, you'd better just save your own neck and either fade away into the woodwork, into the population, or try to get out of the country, because it's over. I don't know if they're that sophisticated, that they could do that kind of a mass bulk e-mail to all of the government workers, if you will. But it's as if that happened.

It is that eerie feeling that I'm getting from eye witnesses like yourself, that all of the sudden within a few minutes somebody flipped a switch and everybody said, you know what, either Saddam Hussein is gone or he's dead or he's disappeared. You better fend for yourself right now.

I think you're getting that same feeling.

SAVIDGE: Right. And another interesting story we heard, the colonel of the unit who we are with, they went out and one of the areas that they are -- they are covering areas that belong to all the embassies here. There's also quite a well-to-do or wealthy area, and one of the homes they went to visit specifically today was -- or tonight -- was the home of Tariq Aziz, and they carefully went to that home, obviously wanting to see if he was still there or if they could capture him. He was not there.

However, what they noticed in the home, and they did notice that it was a very nice home, was the fact that a lot of the furnishings and the chairs and the expensive furniture had been covered with blankets or with sheets, an indication that he may have fled a couple of days before. They don't think it was too distant. They think it was fairly recent.

It was just odd that someone took the time to cover the furniture with sheets, as if they were planning one day to come back and live in the house again. And that doesn't seem too likely -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Are you seeing signs where you are, Marty, of looting going on? I know it's the middle of the night right now, but earlier in the day, at the University of Baghdad, for example, was there significant looting?

SAVIDGE: Clearly on the way into town, there were very evident signs of looting. Almost anything that wasn't nailed down, people seemed to be having in their hands.

You saw people rolling office chairs down the street and they had packed boxes of air conditioners and all kinds of machinery that I don't even know what they had -- television sets. It appeared that suddenly the people of Baghdad, at least those who didn't have too much, realized this was their opportunity to try to grab whatever they could, and no matter what street corner, no matter what direction you looked, you saw everyone carrying lots of things, from odd pieces of furniture to obviously decorations from inside of offices.

And the interesting thing was that many of them were looting government offices, which is clearly something no one would have done if they really thought that this regime was still in power or that Saddam Hussein was not in some way out of being the leader of this nation, because that would be an instant road to death for many of these civilians had they done that.

So that was one of the clearest signs we saw, and it was done everywhere.

BLITZER: Finally, Marty, I'm going to wrap this up, because I know you've got a lot of other things going on in your life right now. Have the marines, as far as you know, established corridors from the outskirts of Baghdad, the main roads into the center of the city, secure corridors, where they could basically move without fear of sniper fire or fear of enemy artillery or any other sort of hostile action?

SAVIDGE: Well, sniper fire, no -- no one can be fully protected from that. Artillery, no -- they probably can't fully protect themselves from that, because both -- well, the artillery can come from outside of their zone. The sniper fire can come from anywhere, obviously.

But do they have strong, open lines of travel and re-supply? They certainly do. Everywhere the marines go, they make sure that it is critical they keep the supply lines open.

So, yes, they have firm corridors which are being patrolled right now, in addition to fanning out into other areas, that they know they can move teams, they can move marines, they can moved armored personnel carriers to respond to any problem.

So, yes, they do have them established -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Marty Savidge has been doing incredible work for us over these three weeks of this war. Marty, thanks very much. Marty's at Baghdad University right now. We were speaking to him live. He is embedded with the U.S. Marines.

Marty, we'll be touching base with you obviously often. Be careful where you are, as we always say. Thank you very much -- Marty Savidge.

We have much more nonstop coverage. This is a historic day. You want to be watching CNN today. These events have been incredible. 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 - 14:41   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We've got CNN's Martin Savidge with us now. He's at the University of Baghdad, embedded with the U.S. Marines.
Marty, you saw some significant gunfire where you were earlier in the day. We were all worried about you.

First of all, tell us where you are, what you're doing, what you're seeing right now.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now we are, as you say, on the campus of Baghdad University, Wolf, in sort of an outbuilding.

There is a strict light discipline that the Marines follow anytime at night, so we're not allowed to use any light out of doors, so we had to come inside here.

We don't know who the last occupiers of this room were. You can see that there are blankets and bedrolls and clothing laying all strewn across the floor. It appears whoever was here left in quite a hurry. Were these the same people that were part of the firefight firing on the U.S. Marines as they came by this university today remains unclear at this particular point.

In this neighborhood where we are, outside it is totally dark. You only see one or two lights. Otherwise, it is pretty much a blackout situation, and the streets are extremely quiet. Occasionally just after sunset there were some large explosions that illuminated the sky and you can hear thuds every now and then of other blasts going off.

But we have not heard gunfire. We have not heard people moving about. It is a very quiet, dark scene on the streets of Baghdad.

When we came in -- we are embedded with the 1st Battalion 7th Marines -- they drove in in a convoy fashion, entering into Baghdad from the southeast, driving into the heart of the city. As they approached, they were greeted by large amounts of Iraqi people on the streets, many of them standing at intersections, waving and cheering and smiling, holding up "V" for victory signs and the thumbs up sign.

Clearly they did appear to be extremely happy and the marines themselves, their reaction, one of relief and also joy, because they felt they truly had accomplished and liberated the people. It was the first time they had had a sense of this in the three weeks of the war that we have been traveling with them.

It was when we turned on to another street, right by Baghdad University, when things changed and changed dramatically. Photographer Scott McKinney (ph) was running with one of the advanced units in the CAT teams. This is a heavily-armed Humvee jeep. And they were about to cross over a bridge that would have connected the marines with the U.S. Army on the other side. They got halfway across and suddenly from down below, in the water, an Iraqi gunboat opened fire.

The CAT team immediately reversed and opened fire and attacked that Iraqi gunboat from on top of the bridge, suppressing that fire. Then suddenly they heard the fighting breaking out at Baghdad University, which is where we were at that time, and immediately they raced down there.

By that time, Scott McKinney (ph) had changed from jeep into one of the armored personnel carriers that actually rammed into a brick wall surrounding the University of Baghdad, punching a hole.

Meanwhile, there were RPG's, rocket-propelled grenades, being fired and heavy machinegun fire coming from the buildings on the university campus. The Marine Infantry pushed through the hole, the armored personnel carriers pushed through as well, and what followed as at least a half-hour of a full-on fight between the U.S. Marines on the ground and whoever the occupiers were inside of the building there.

The Marines also found, as they fired from their machinegun positions on the ground, a number of what are called technos. These are these sort of pickup trucks with heavy machineguns mounted in the back, or antiaircraft machine guns mounted in them as well. They took those out methodically one after the other. There was one techno that roared into the open. They quickly fired on that, killing those inside, and knocking it out of action.

So it was a very, very heavy fight, ending with the crescendo of apparently a huge arms cache stored somewhere on the university grounds that went up like the 4th of July and continued to explode and fire all around for a good 45 minutes.

The question now, was that truly the last battle of Baghdad or are there other pockets and other days that the marines face ahead? It still remains to be seen. They're still trying to determine who was in the buildings and how many casualties the Iraqis suffered at this hour -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Did the marines that you're covering -- did the marines suffer casualties in that battle at Baghdad University -- Marty.

SAVIDGE: No, they did not, and it's rather amazing, considering the tremendous amount of firepower that was being, likely both directions, actually. But, no, the U.S. Marines of the 1st Battalion 7th Marines did not suffer a single casualty -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And as you say, it's quiet right now, but you don't know if those who were fighting the marines have simply disappeared or were killed, and as a result it's quiet. Is that what you're suggesting -- Marty.

SAVIDGE: It's quiet for two reasons. I think it's quiet because after dark many people do become fearful. The joy of the celebration in the sunlight tends to fade away with the uncertainty that darkness brings.

Also there are marine patrols now, as there are U.S. Army patrols, out on the streets, and they will remain there throughout the dark hours, as they will during the daylight hours.

But now you have armored personnel carriers and you have these heavily weaponized jeeps that are out there patrolling, going through at least this sector that the marines are responsible for, and they were patrolling the streets to make sure it remains quiet, also trying to measure if they will run into any other kind of resistance -- Wolf.

BLITZER: When we were watching your dramatic reports earlier in the day, live here on CNN, Marty, they were in such contrast to the jubilation that was going on in the center part of the city where Iraqis were celebrating the demise of Saddam Hussein's regime, toppling that huge statue in that square there. It seemed like it was almost two different worlds.

What we saw at Baghdad University, was that really an isolated small part of the city as opposed to being more consistent with what's happening elsewhere, as far as you can tell? You're our eyes and ears in Baghdad right now.

SAVIDGE: It truly did seem to be just an isolated incident on the University of Baghdad campus. As we said, as we were approaching on all the other streets, we saw the same sort of celebration. We saw the smiles on people's faces as they waved at the marines as they went by.

It was only when we turned the corner -- and the thing that struck me about that street was that before we even ran into any problem, I noticed that there was no one on that particular street. It was almost as if those that lived in this particular neighborhood knew that there may be trouble ahead for the marines, because there was no one standing in front of their homes, no one lining those sidewalks, even though just a block away it had been jammed with people who were obviously very happy with what they were watching.

So, yes, it does appear to have been a very isolated incident in a specific part of town, and while this was going on, the marines were fully aware that just several blocks away, this huge celebration in the center of town, with the dragging down of Saddam Hussein's statue, was taking place. And yet the marines themselves were in the fight of their lives.

BLITZER: We have been hearing, Marty, that in the eastern part of Baghdad, which is heavily Shia, that there was huge celebrations, but -- and I know the marines are in the eastern part of the city, dominating security in that part of Baghdad. But what about in other parts of Baghdad, where there is a much larger Sunni population, which was thought to be much more supportive of Saddam Hussein's regime? What are you hearing about that?

SAVIDGE: Well, we have only heard that most of the opposition, as far as the Iraqi Army, paramilitary units, even police units, had vanished from the streets of Baghdad today. That I think you knew well, was there was this eerie calm of a city that knew it was on the brink but wasn't quite sure which was it was going to teeter.

By the afternoon, we began to see which was it went, and it was obviously in the clear signs of the celebration.

As for these other communities that were so solidly behind Saddam Hussein, they are silent tonight too, but those are areas that the patrols are clearly going to be focusing on, watching and waiting to see if any resistance emerges out of there.

Now we did hear in some parts of the city that there was indiscriminate shelling that was taking place on the part of Iraqi troops. As we drove through town, even as people were waving at you, you did hear the sound of explosions. It did sound like artillery or RPG's. You could not tell where it was coming from, and quite frankly the streets of Baghdad are littered with RPG rounds.

So who was firing and what they were firing at isn't clear, but we have had a report from the marines that Iraqi artillery units, some distance out of the city, were firing indiscriminately on its own population -- Wolf.

BLITZER: You know, Marty, it seemed as if -- and correct me if I'm wrong -- you've been on the outskirts of Baghdad now for a while. It seemed as if yesterday the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein was still very much in charge of Baghdad, giving orders, giving orders to civil servants, giving orders to the military, the Saddam Fedayeen, the Special Republican Guard who had control.

All of the sudden, it's as if this morning somebody switched a light, a plug, or something. They pushed a button and all of that semblance of Iraqi governmental control disappeared almost overnight, and no more vestiges, no more symbols of the Iraqi government seemed to be apparent in the Iraqi capitol right now.

Is that a fair assessment?

SAVIDGE: It was. I mean, it literally was like the flipping of a switch.

Last night, when I was talking to the marines, they were asking us, you know, when do you think this is going to be over and could it be over by Friday. And I said, well, I don't know. Ask me by the end of the day today.

So we really thought that there were perhaps many more days, even weeks, ahead, especially with this sporadic opposition that they had been facing all the way in to Baghdad. And then, as you say, this morning, you woke up, and even where we were, you could sense that something was different, and that there was something about the odd, I don't know if calm is the word, but the silence of this huge city. And then we began hearing reports from other journalists within the city that their minders, that the police were gone, and that the city itself appeared to be very much up for grabs.

So, you're right, it was a remarkable transition that took place perhaps in a matter of hours, maybe in a matter of five minutes -- somewhere, this city turned -- Wolf.

BLITZER: It's as if, almost, Marty, it's as if someone sent out an e-mail, a blast e-mail to all the civil servants, all the military, all the secret police, and just said it's over, you'd better just save your own neck and either fade away into the woodwork, into the population, or try to get out of the country, because it's over. I don't know if they're that sophisticated, that they could do that kind of a mass bulk e-mail to all of the government workers, if you will. But it's as if that happened.

It is that eerie feeling that I'm getting from eye witnesses like yourself, that all of the sudden within a few minutes somebody flipped a switch and everybody said, you know what, either Saddam Hussein is gone or he's dead or he's disappeared. You better fend for yourself right now.

I think you're getting that same feeling.

SAVIDGE: Right. And another interesting story we heard, the colonel of the unit who we are with, they went out and one of the areas that they are -- they are covering areas that belong to all the embassies here. There's also quite a well-to-do or wealthy area, and one of the homes they went to visit specifically today was -- or tonight -- was the home of Tariq Aziz, and they carefully went to that home, obviously wanting to see if he was still there or if they could capture him. He was not there.

However, what they noticed in the home, and they did notice that it was a very nice home, was the fact that a lot of the furnishings and the chairs and the expensive furniture had been covered with blankets or with sheets, an indication that he may have fled a couple of days before. They don't think it was too distant. They think it was fairly recent.

It was just odd that someone took the time to cover the furniture with sheets, as if they were planning one day to come back and live in the house again. And that doesn't seem too likely -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Are you seeing signs where you are, Marty, of looting going on? I know it's the middle of the night right now, but earlier in the day, at the University of Baghdad, for example, was there significant looting?

SAVIDGE: Clearly on the way into town, there were very evident signs of looting. Almost anything that wasn't nailed down, people seemed to be having in their hands.

You saw people rolling office chairs down the street and they had packed boxes of air conditioners and all kinds of machinery that I don't even know what they had -- television sets. It appeared that suddenly the people of Baghdad, at least those who didn't have too much, realized this was their opportunity to try to grab whatever they could, and no matter what street corner, no matter what direction you looked, you saw everyone carrying lots of things, from odd pieces of furniture to obviously decorations from inside of offices.

And the interesting thing was that many of them were looting government offices, which is clearly something no one would have done if they really thought that this regime was still in power or that Saddam Hussein was not in some way out of being the leader of this nation, because that would be an instant road to death for many of these civilians had they done that.

So that was one of the clearest signs we saw, and it was done everywhere.

BLITZER: Finally, Marty, I'm going to wrap this up, because I know you've got a lot of other things going on in your life right now. Have the marines, as far as you know, established corridors from the outskirts of Baghdad, the main roads into the center of the city, secure corridors, where they could basically move without fear of sniper fire or fear of enemy artillery or any other sort of hostile action?

SAVIDGE: Well, sniper fire, no -- no one can be fully protected from that. Artillery, no -- they probably can't fully protect themselves from that, because both -- well, the artillery can come from outside of their zone. The sniper fire can come from anywhere, obviously.

But do they have strong, open lines of travel and re-supply? They certainly do. Everywhere the marines go, they make sure that it is critical they keep the supply lines open.

So, yes, they have firm corridors which are being patrolled right now, in addition to fanning out into other areas, that they know they can move teams, they can move marines, they can moved armored personnel carriers to respond to any problem.

So, yes, they do have them established -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Marty Savidge has been doing incredible work for us over these three weeks of this war. Marty, thanks very much. Marty's at Baghdad University right now. We were speaking to him live. He is embedded with the U.S. Marines.

Marty, we'll be touching base with you obviously often. Be careful where you are, as we always say. Thank you very much -- Marty Savidge.

We have much more nonstop coverage. This is a historic day. You want to be watching CNN today. These events have been incredible. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com