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Operation Iron Hammer Day Three

Aired November 14, 2003 - 15:00   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It is a quiet night in Baghdad, but don't let it fool you. Iron Hammer is hitting targets somewhere in Iraq for a third straight day, officials tell us, but we're not yet sure where or what. It's been a busy and brutal 24 hours, as the wreckage of this former Republican Guard complex can attest.
We get the latest from CNN's Alphonso Van Marsh in Baghdad.

ALPHONSO VAN MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles.

I'll give you some details about Operation Iron Hammer in just a moment. But, first, I want to tell you the very latest information we're getting from Task Force Iron Horse outside of Baghdad. Two U.S. service members have been killed and three others injured when their convoy hit a roadside bomb north of Baghdad. Now, that happened on Thursday, but news is coming to us here in Baghdad on the third consecutive night of consecutive bombings over Baghdad and other areas.

It's part of Operation Iron Horse. U.S. military officials say this started about seven hours ago, hitting five strike targets, predetermined areas, areas that the U.S. military says that opposition or enemy fighters are using to kill and attack U.S. and other coalition forces.

Now, last night, CNN was able to go along on a military helicopter ride over the skies of Baghdad, as the U.S. and other coalition forces were carrying out Operation Iron Hammer. Then a couple hours later, we were able to see as the military was assessing the damage from these attacks. They went out and about Baghdad and other targets to see what they hit. And a staff sergeant on the ground described one of Operation Iron Hammer's targets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This building here is a former Republican Guard compound. And our unit has been taking fire from this building for several days. And that's the reason why we called in that mission.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAN MARSH: Now, if this seems like a lot of military action in a relatively short period of time, well, because it is. Since November, some 43 U.S. service members have been killed -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Alphonso Van Marsh in Baghdad, thank you very much. U.S. Central Command staffers, by the hundreds, will soon be a whole lot closer to the action. CENTCOM is beefing up its Persian Gulf base of operations to levels not seen since the end of major combat in Iraq.

CNN's Chris Plante at the Pentagon with more on that -- hello, Chris.

CHRIS PLANTE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles.

They have decided to sort of staff up significantly at the Doha headquarters in Qatar, which is, of course, just south of Iraq in the region. The U.S. Central Command, which is headed by General John Abizaid, is based in Fort MacDill Air Force Base in Florida near Tampa. And the operation center has been running out of there since the end of major combat operations.

However, it's been decided recently that they needed to move several hundred additional forces forward to Doha to staff up there, if only to have people in the same time zone as the people that they're dealing with in Iraq to keep everybody on the same page. It turns out that communication, although 24 hours from MacDill Air Force Base, is still hampered to some extent by having people eight time zones away making decisions as to what's happening in Iraq.

So there are currently about 150 people staffing the Doha command center. During the war, it was at about 1,500. We're told that they will add to those numbers by 200, perhaps 300, perhaps even 400, over the next several weeks. General Abizaid is expecting to spend some more time in the region in the near future. And it's also thought that having additional support staff for him there is a good idea.

No major operational or tactical advantage gained by this, but we're told it's largely a bureaucratic move. General Abizaid, that we see here, held a press conference yesterday in Tampa. And one of the things that he said was that he believes that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden are both still on the loose, Saddam Hussein moving throughout Iraq, not clear whether he's behind these attacks against coalition forces, and Osama bin Laden moving back and forth in the border regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, CNN's Chris Plante at the Pentagon.

A military plane has landed in Rome carrying 20 Italians wounded this week in that suicide bombing in Iraq. Italian state television interrupted its schedule to show the first arrivals from the attack in Nasiriyah. Tomorrow, the bodies of 18 Italians killed in the blast are scheduled to be repatriated. And a national day of mourning and state funerals are planned. The losses in Iraq are Italy's worst military disaster since World War II.

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 November 14, 2003 - 15:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It is a quiet night in Baghdad, but don't let it fool you. Iron Hammer is hitting targets somewhere in Iraq for a third straight day, officials tell us, but we're not yet sure where or what. It's been a busy and brutal 24 hours, as the wreckage of this former Republican Guard complex can attest.
We get the latest from CNN's Alphonso Van Marsh in Baghdad.

ALPHONSO VAN MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles.

I'll give you some details about Operation Iron Hammer in just a moment. But, first, I want to tell you the very latest information we're getting from Task Force Iron Horse outside of Baghdad. Two U.S. service members have been killed and three others injured when their convoy hit a roadside bomb north of Baghdad. Now, that happened on Thursday, but news is coming to us here in Baghdad on the third consecutive night of consecutive bombings over Baghdad and other areas.

It's part of Operation Iron Horse. U.S. military officials say this started about seven hours ago, hitting five strike targets, predetermined areas, areas that the U.S. military says that opposition or enemy fighters are using to kill and attack U.S. and other coalition forces.

Now, last night, CNN was able to go along on a military helicopter ride over the skies of Baghdad, as the U.S. and other coalition forces were carrying out Operation Iron Hammer. Then a couple hours later, we were able to see as the military was assessing the damage from these attacks. They went out and about Baghdad and other targets to see what they hit. And a staff sergeant on the ground described one of Operation Iron Hammer's targets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This building here is a former Republican Guard compound. And our unit has been taking fire from this building for several days. And that's the reason why we called in that mission.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAN MARSH: Now, if this seems like a lot of military action in a relatively short period of time, well, because it is. Since November, some 43 U.S. service members have been killed -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Alphonso Van Marsh in Baghdad, thank you very much. U.S. Central Command staffers, by the hundreds, will soon be a whole lot closer to the action. CENTCOM is beefing up its Persian Gulf base of operations to levels not seen since the end of major combat in Iraq.

CNN's Chris Plante at the Pentagon with more on that -- hello, Chris.

CHRIS PLANTE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles.

They have decided to sort of staff up significantly at the Doha headquarters in Qatar, which is, of course, just south of Iraq in the region. The U.S. Central Command, which is headed by General John Abizaid, is based in Fort MacDill Air Force Base in Florida near Tampa. And the operation center has been running out of there since the end of major combat operations.

However, it's been decided recently that they needed to move several hundred additional forces forward to Doha to staff up there, if only to have people in the same time zone as the people that they're dealing with in Iraq to keep everybody on the same page. It turns out that communication, although 24 hours from MacDill Air Force Base, is still hampered to some extent by having people eight time zones away making decisions as to what's happening in Iraq.

So there are currently about 150 people staffing the Doha command center. During the war, it was at about 1,500. We're told that they will add to those numbers by 200, perhaps 300, perhaps even 400, over the next several weeks. General Abizaid is expecting to spend some more time in the region in the near future. And it's also thought that having additional support staff for him there is a good idea.

No major operational or tactical advantage gained by this, but we're told it's largely a bureaucratic move. General Abizaid, that we see here, held a press conference yesterday in Tampa. And one of the things that he said was that he believes that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden are both still on the loose, Saddam Hussein moving throughout Iraq, not clear whether he's behind these attacks against coalition forces, and Osama bin Laden moving back and forth in the border regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, CNN's Chris Plante at the Pentagon.

A military plane has landed in Rome carrying 20 Italians wounded this week in that suicide bombing in Iraq. Italian state television interrupted its schedule to show the first arrivals from the attack in Nasiriyah. Tomorrow, the bodies of 18 Italians killed in the blast are scheduled to be repatriated. And a national day of mourning and state funerals are planned. The losses in Iraq are Italy's worst military disaster since World War II.

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