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Steve Nettleton Reports with 173rd Airborne
Aired April 11, 2003 - 13:15 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 turn now to one of our embedded reporters. Steve Nettleton is with the 173rd Airborne, securing huge oil fields in northern Iraq. He's joining us now live via videophone with the latest.
Steve, tell us what's the latest?
STEVE NETTLEON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the 173rd has of course secured a pumping station here in Kirkuk. Right now, the first thing that's changing is that they're going out on patrols in the city of Kirkuk. There's been sporadic looting here as well, lots of gunfire in the air. Throughout the day, you could hear AK-47 gunfire, pistol shots. A few times, you heard ricochets coming fairly close to you when you're driving down the street.
They've begun these patrols to at least provide a presence, some sense of a U.S. force in the area. On the outskirts of Kirkuk, the U.S., the 173rd Airborne has secured the oil pumping station that are considered vital to the economy of Iraq. Oil stations that they were concerned could have been destroyed or sabotaged. If the Kurds had moved in to take control, it might have concerned Turkey and caused Turkey to go across the border. So U.S. forces have moved in, secured the oil pumping stations. They have secured various fields in the area, and they are preparing to run more patrols through the days ahead. This had originally been intended to be a military offensive, a military operation, yesterday, Thursday. They had lined up all the tanks, the Bradley Fighting Vehicles. The 417 Airborne Brigade began a convoy down to this area, expecting to engage as many as two or three Iraqi divisions.
When they got here, the Kurds were in control, and the only thing they found of the Iraqis remaining were turnoff uniforms and empty APCs -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Steve, I just to make sure that I didn't misspeak. There are no oil fires up in the northern part of Iraq, near Kirkuk. This is an area that has about a third of the oil wealth. What you're saying is all the oil fields have been secured around Kirkuk, and the earlier fears that the Iraqis themselves might torch the oil fields, they simply did not develop. Is that right?
NETTLETON: That seems to be the case. There is one oil head that appears to be on fire. I'm not sure if that was deliberate sabotage or not. Otherwise, most of the oil areas seem to be intact. The U.S. troops aren't actually occupying the entire oil field. They've mostly concentrated on the pumping station and the pipeline control facility. They appear to be intact. However, there's no one there to work the equipment, no way to know for sure if you turn it on if the pumps are going to work tomorrow. However, there doesn't appear to be widespread sabotage of the oil facilities here near Kirkuk -- Wolf.
BLITZER: What a dramatic development that, in and of itself, is, especially to anyone who remembers the first gulf war a dozen years ago. Here in Kuwait at the end of that war, the Iraqis simply began blowing up Kuwaiti oil fields, causing enormous environmental damage, economic damage. There was great fear the oil fields in the southern part of Iraq and in the northern part would be destroyed. That simply was not allowed to happen, one of the success stories of this war.
Steve Nettleton, our man on the scene for us with the 173rd Airborne doing some important reporting for us.
Thanks, Steve, very much.
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 11, 2003 - 13:15 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 turn now to one of our embedded reporters. Steve Nettleton is with the 173rd Airborne, securing huge oil fields in northern Iraq. He's joining us now live via videophone with the latest.
Steve, tell us what's the latest?
STEVE NETTLEON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the 173rd has of course secured a pumping station here in Kirkuk. Right now, the first thing that's changing is that they're going out on patrols in the city of Kirkuk. There's been sporadic looting here as well, lots of gunfire in the air. Throughout the day, you could hear AK-47 gunfire, pistol shots. A few times, you heard ricochets coming fairly close to you when you're driving down the street.
They've begun these patrols to at least provide a presence, some sense of a U.S. force in the area. On the outskirts of Kirkuk, the U.S., the 173rd Airborne has secured the oil pumping station that are considered vital to the economy of Iraq. Oil stations that they were concerned could have been destroyed or sabotaged. If the Kurds had moved in to take control, it might have concerned Turkey and caused Turkey to go across the border. So U.S. forces have moved in, secured the oil pumping stations. They have secured various fields in the area, and they are preparing to run more patrols through the days ahead. This had originally been intended to be a military offensive, a military operation, yesterday, Thursday. They had lined up all the tanks, the Bradley Fighting Vehicles. The 417 Airborne Brigade began a convoy down to this area, expecting to engage as many as two or three Iraqi divisions.
When they got here, the Kurds were in control, and the only thing they found of the Iraqis remaining were turnoff uniforms and empty APCs -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Steve, I just to make sure that I didn't misspeak. There are no oil fires up in the northern part of Iraq, near Kirkuk. This is an area that has about a third of the oil wealth. What you're saying is all the oil fields have been secured around Kirkuk, and the earlier fears that the Iraqis themselves might torch the oil fields, they simply did not develop. Is that right?
NETTLETON: That seems to be the case. There is one oil head that appears to be on fire. I'm not sure if that was deliberate sabotage or not. Otherwise, most of the oil areas seem to be intact. The U.S. troops aren't actually occupying the entire oil field. They've mostly concentrated on the pumping station and the pipeline control facility. They appear to be intact. However, there's no one there to work the equipment, no way to know for sure if you turn it on if the pumps are going to work tomorrow. However, there doesn't appear to be widespread sabotage of the oil facilities here near Kirkuk -- Wolf.
BLITZER: What a dramatic development that, in and of itself, is, especially to anyone who remembers the first gulf war a dozen years ago. Here in Kuwait at the end of that war, the Iraqis simply began blowing up Kuwaiti oil fields, causing enormous environmental damage, economic damage. There was great fear the oil fields in the southern part of Iraq and in the northern part would be destroyed. That simply was not allowed to happen, one of the success stories of this war.
Steve Nettleton, our man on the scene for us with the 173rd Airborne doing some important reporting for us.
Thanks, Steve, very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
