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Live From...
101st Airborne Now Inside Baghdad
Aired April 11, 2003 - 13:55 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 immediately go to CNN's embedded correspondent with the 101st Airborne, CNN's Ryan Chilcote.
I take it, Ryan, you're south of Baghdad right now. What's going on?
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Actually, Wolf, in Baghdad. The 101st Airborne's Third Brigade, also known as the Rackasans (ph), as I'm sure you've not grown accustomed to me here talking about them.
(AUDIO GAP)
... really an important even. This is the first time that a light infantry unit has moved into the capital of Iraq en masse, and really to bring about a new chapter in the fighting, and also later on, perhaps policing of this city.
Now, the Rackasans (ph) went into the city looking for a fight. There were lots of signs of fighting from previous days here. We saw as we rolled in an M1A1, an American made M1A1 American tank destroyed on the side of the road. We saw a Humvee destroyed on the side of the road. We saw a fueler destroyed. And lots of Iraqi, both military and civilian vehicles.
So there was obviously, a lot of fighting in this area. One of the units that had been here previously said the same thing. They said that there had been daily attacks on U.S. forces here, and they told soldiers from the 101st Airborne a harrowing tale about how they're looking for one of their soldiers who was killed in a firefight four days ago, still unable to recover his body. They asked the 101st if they should see -- or if they could ask around. They're still looking for the remains of that one soldier.
Looking for a fight, but not finding one. What they found a lot of, and I know that people are seeing this all throughout Baghdad, is a lot of looting. They went to one site where they thought that they might find some Iraqi fighters. Instead, they found a group of men looting the building. I think we have some video of that. It was actually a chicken and meat packaging factory. The people there, however were looting the place, and it was already the fourth day. So I'm not sure that there was that much more to loot.
Also, there seems to be in this part of Baghdad, a run on tires and clothing. I understand that there are two factories in this part of town that have both those things. So that's what it looks like here in the south of Baghdad -- Wolf.
Back to you.
BLITZER: All right, Ryan Chilcote, breaking story for us.
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 - 13:55 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 immediately go to CNN's embedded correspondent with the 101st Airborne, CNN's Ryan Chilcote.
I take it, Ryan, you're south of Baghdad right now. What's going on?
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Actually, Wolf, in Baghdad. The 101st Airborne's Third Brigade, also known as the Rackasans (ph), as I'm sure you've not grown accustomed to me here talking about them.
(AUDIO GAP)
... really an important even. This is the first time that a light infantry unit has moved into the capital of Iraq en masse, and really to bring about a new chapter in the fighting, and also later on, perhaps policing of this city.
Now, the Rackasans (ph) went into the city looking for a fight. There were lots of signs of fighting from previous days here. We saw as we rolled in an M1A1, an American made M1A1 American tank destroyed on the side of the road. We saw a Humvee destroyed on the side of the road. We saw a fueler destroyed. And lots of Iraqi, both military and civilian vehicles.
So there was obviously, a lot of fighting in this area. One of the units that had been here previously said the same thing. They said that there had been daily attacks on U.S. forces here, and they told soldiers from the 101st Airborne a harrowing tale about how they're looking for one of their soldiers who was killed in a firefight four days ago, still unable to recover his body. They asked the 101st if they should see -- or if they could ask around. They're still looking for the remains of that one soldier.
Looking for a fight, but not finding one. What they found a lot of, and I know that people are seeing this all throughout Baghdad, is a lot of looting. They went to one site where they thought that they might find some Iraqi fighters. Instead, they found a group of men looting the building. I think we have some video of that. It was actually a chicken and meat packaging factory. The people there, however were looting the place, and it was already the fourth day. So I'm not sure that there was that much more to loot.
Also, there seems to be in this part of Baghdad, a run on tires and clothing. I understand that there are two factories in this part of town that have both those things. So that's what it looks like here in the south of Baghdad -- Wolf.
Back to you.
BLITZER: All right, Ryan Chilcote, breaking story for us.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
