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CNN Live Today

Coalition Forces in Bagdhad for 3rd Day

Aired April 07, 2003 - 10:07   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: In the meantime, though, back on the telephone with us, just checking in is Ron Martz. He is embedded with the 3rd ID as well. And he's an embedded journalists, actually with the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution."
Ron, you just popped up, we heard you hours ago going through central Baghdad, fascinating reports you were giving us then. What's happening now?

RON MARTZ, "ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTIUTION": Well, I'm still in the same position I was in early this morning. We're in a park in central Baghdad, just west of the Tigris River, near one of Saddam's palaces. I'm assuming it's the one that was taken by the task forces of the bridgade that I'm embedded with.

The fire that you may hear in the background is outgoing mortars. They've set up right near the position that I'm at. We've been under constant fire all day today from small arms, snipers and mortars incoming. They brought up the mortars to reinforce our position here, and they're firing at those mortar positions.

What I see from here is -- (AUDIO GAP) large ground -- (AUDIO GAP). At either end of the prairie ground, there are large crossed sabers with flags on top of them, Iraqi flags.

Until earlier this morning, a statue about 40 feet high of Saddam riding a horse directly in front of reviewing stand. That statue is now gone. It was shot down by an M1 abrams Tank from Charlie company of task force 164. It fell into a reflecting pool nearby, and the troops all cheered and grabbled pieces of it for souvenirs.

As I speak out, there is still fire going on around me. The troops here are trying to reinforce positions for the night, they're bringing up food, fuel, and reinforcements, and so it's going to be a long night here.

HEMMER: Listen, Ron, we're losing a bit of your signal, but I want to keep you here as long as we can. You mention this resistance, have they described it or classified it? Do they consider it heavy resistance, or more moderate than that?

MARTZ: I think it's think more moderate resistance for the most part. Most of what they're seeing is ones and twos, people that they have what they call the technicals with the pickup trucks, machine guns, aircraft guns mounted on top of them, had some snipers on the buildings that surround the park, operating in teams of ones and twos, rocket-propelled grenade teams in ones and twos also on the buildings, several of the teams who've hit by rocket-propelled grenades, very little damage, minimal damage to the tanks. They had at least one instance where an apparent suicide car bomber hit one of the tanks in Charlie company. Again, minimal damage to the tank. The car was pretty well shot up, the driver killed. The car did not explode.

The company has suffered only one minor wound. One soldier got a small fragmentation wound to his arm. He was patched up, and is back in the fight now.

HEMMER: Ron, listen, I don't know how much you can answer on this one, but earlier today, you were moving quite qukly through central Baghdad. You said you have not moved for several hours. What could account for that?

MARTZ: I think what they are trying to do, there are other units in this brigade that are trying to take positions around here. There are a number of government office buildings around here, from what I understnad. They want to take some of those buildings, and I think what I'm trying to do is use this as possibly their central point and push out from here in the future.

HEMMER: All right, Ron, thanks. Check back in when you can. Ron Martz, "AJC," embedded there in downtown Baghdad.

Paula, he told us an amazing story live earlier today, about how the U.S. Army had literally destroyed the huge statue of Saddam Hussein, central part Baghdad, mentioned once again, they're taking souvenirs for them after this day today.

More in a moment from Kuwait. Back to you.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Bill.

Martin Savidge is close to Baghdad. He which is 1st Battalion, 7th Marines. He reports now by way of videophone.

Martin, what are you encountering?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, we know that about the same time the U.S. Army was making its entry into Baghdad from the west today, the U.S. Marines began pushing in from the east.

However, there is a price that has already been paid. It was the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, that just a short distance way from us, were preparing to cross a canal where a bridge had been destroyed by retreating Iraqi troops, or at least partially destroyed.

As they were preparing to move, they were hit by Iraqi artillery.

Now it was confirmed to CNN, there had been some question as to whether it was friendly fire or incoming Iraqi artillery. We now have been told by the head of the Marine division, there is no doubt whatsoever this was Iraqi artillery and mortar fire that came in and hit an armored personnel carrier with Marines on board, and we have been told that there are at least two fatalities. We don't know if there were any wounded besides those two that were killed. Again, that is with the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines.

They even, despite that loss, they continued pushing on into Baghdad, and now behind is the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, and they are now holding that bridgehead, and they are building at the same time a temporary bridge so that they can handle and send more troops, more armor, more tanks into the Baghdad area. There has been fighting around a small village at that bridgehead. At times, the fighting would be described as moderate.

It includes artillery barrages, mortar exchange and also machine gun fire, as well as small arms fire. That has all died away now. There was also air support that was brought in, and it appears that that bridgehead is fully under control of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, and that would mean that they could continue to press forward, as could rear elements. That's action of today.

A significant development yesterday, achieved by 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, overshadowed by events in Baghdad. Yesterday, they were able secure the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission headquarters. It is a massive facility that covers acres and acres of property, that includes office buildings, as well as laboratories.

Marines were able to get into the facility, found it abandoned at the time, began going through the offices there. You can imagine there is a wealth of information held with in the file cabinets, and a number of bolts (ph) that were found there.

Then they moved on, found, the laboratories. They appeared to have sophisticated electronic equipment inside. They also appeared to have been recently used, and they found a number of subtances, liquides and, well, all sorts of things inside of boxes, inside of containers and inside of refrigeraters.

Keep in mind, the Marines are not scientists. It is their job to hold and take an objective, not to figure out its exact intention here. So, was this part of a civilian nuclear program? Or was it part of something more sinister than that? No one knows at this particular point. There were also chemical sheets that were found, chemical masks that were found, and warning on that sight, warning about radiation, and warning about wearing protective clothing.

What will happen now is see time called a SSE team, that is called sensitive site exploitation team, will be brought in eventually to this site, and they are the scientists, they are the experts, and they will begin trying to determine exactly how this facility was being used, whether it was being used properly, or whether it was being used for some sort of weapons program. It could turn out to be a significant find for coalition forces -- Paula.

ZAHN: Martin Savidge, updating us now as he moves with the Marines toward Bagdhad.

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 7, 2003 - 10:07   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: In the meantime, though, back on the telephone with us, just checking in is Ron Martz. He is embedded with the 3rd ID as well. And he's an embedded journalists, actually with the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution."
Ron, you just popped up, we heard you hours ago going through central Baghdad, fascinating reports you were giving us then. What's happening now?

RON MARTZ, "ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTIUTION": Well, I'm still in the same position I was in early this morning. We're in a park in central Baghdad, just west of the Tigris River, near one of Saddam's palaces. I'm assuming it's the one that was taken by the task forces of the bridgade that I'm embedded with.

The fire that you may hear in the background is outgoing mortars. They've set up right near the position that I'm at. We've been under constant fire all day today from small arms, snipers and mortars incoming. They brought up the mortars to reinforce our position here, and they're firing at those mortar positions.

What I see from here is -- (AUDIO GAP) large ground -- (AUDIO GAP). At either end of the prairie ground, there are large crossed sabers with flags on top of them, Iraqi flags.

Until earlier this morning, a statue about 40 feet high of Saddam riding a horse directly in front of reviewing stand. That statue is now gone. It was shot down by an M1 abrams Tank from Charlie company of task force 164. It fell into a reflecting pool nearby, and the troops all cheered and grabbled pieces of it for souvenirs.

As I speak out, there is still fire going on around me. The troops here are trying to reinforce positions for the night, they're bringing up food, fuel, and reinforcements, and so it's going to be a long night here.

HEMMER: Listen, Ron, we're losing a bit of your signal, but I want to keep you here as long as we can. You mention this resistance, have they described it or classified it? Do they consider it heavy resistance, or more moderate than that?

MARTZ: I think it's think more moderate resistance for the most part. Most of what they're seeing is ones and twos, people that they have what they call the technicals with the pickup trucks, machine guns, aircraft guns mounted on top of them, had some snipers on the buildings that surround the park, operating in teams of ones and twos, rocket-propelled grenade teams in ones and twos also on the buildings, several of the teams who've hit by rocket-propelled grenades, very little damage, minimal damage to the tanks. They had at least one instance where an apparent suicide car bomber hit one of the tanks in Charlie company. Again, minimal damage to the tank. The car was pretty well shot up, the driver killed. The car did not explode.

The company has suffered only one minor wound. One soldier got a small fragmentation wound to his arm. He was patched up, and is back in the fight now.

HEMMER: Ron, listen, I don't know how much you can answer on this one, but earlier today, you were moving quite qukly through central Baghdad. You said you have not moved for several hours. What could account for that?

MARTZ: I think what they are trying to do, there are other units in this brigade that are trying to take positions around here. There are a number of government office buildings around here, from what I understnad. They want to take some of those buildings, and I think what I'm trying to do is use this as possibly their central point and push out from here in the future.

HEMMER: All right, Ron, thanks. Check back in when you can. Ron Martz, "AJC," embedded there in downtown Baghdad.

Paula, he told us an amazing story live earlier today, about how the U.S. Army had literally destroyed the huge statue of Saddam Hussein, central part Baghdad, mentioned once again, they're taking souvenirs for them after this day today.

More in a moment from Kuwait. Back to you.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Bill.

Martin Savidge is close to Baghdad. He which is 1st Battalion, 7th Marines. He reports now by way of videophone.

Martin, what are you encountering?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, we know that about the same time the U.S. Army was making its entry into Baghdad from the west today, the U.S. Marines began pushing in from the east.

However, there is a price that has already been paid. It was the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, that just a short distance way from us, were preparing to cross a canal where a bridge had been destroyed by retreating Iraqi troops, or at least partially destroyed.

As they were preparing to move, they were hit by Iraqi artillery.

Now it was confirmed to CNN, there had been some question as to whether it was friendly fire or incoming Iraqi artillery. We now have been told by the head of the Marine division, there is no doubt whatsoever this was Iraqi artillery and mortar fire that came in and hit an armored personnel carrier with Marines on board, and we have been told that there are at least two fatalities. We don't know if there were any wounded besides those two that were killed. Again, that is with the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines.

They even, despite that loss, they continued pushing on into Baghdad, and now behind is the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, and they are now holding that bridgehead, and they are building at the same time a temporary bridge so that they can handle and send more troops, more armor, more tanks into the Baghdad area. There has been fighting around a small village at that bridgehead. At times, the fighting would be described as moderate.

It includes artillery barrages, mortar exchange and also machine gun fire, as well as small arms fire. That has all died away now. There was also air support that was brought in, and it appears that that bridgehead is fully under control of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, and that would mean that they could continue to press forward, as could rear elements. That's action of today.

A significant development yesterday, achieved by 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, overshadowed by events in Baghdad. Yesterday, they were able secure the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission headquarters. It is a massive facility that covers acres and acres of property, that includes office buildings, as well as laboratories.

Marines were able to get into the facility, found it abandoned at the time, began going through the offices there. You can imagine there is a wealth of information held with in the file cabinets, and a number of bolts (ph) that were found there.

Then they moved on, found, the laboratories. They appeared to have sophisticated electronic equipment inside. They also appeared to have been recently used, and they found a number of subtances, liquides and, well, all sorts of things inside of boxes, inside of containers and inside of refrigeraters.

Keep in mind, the Marines are not scientists. It is their job to hold and take an objective, not to figure out its exact intention here. So, was this part of a civilian nuclear program? Or was it part of something more sinister than that? No one knows at this particular point. There were also chemical sheets that were found, chemical masks that were found, and warning on that sight, warning about radiation, and warning about wearing protective clothing.

What will happen now is see time called a SSE team, that is called sensitive site exploitation team, will be brought in eventually to this site, and they are the scientists, they are the experts, and they will begin trying to determine exactly how this facility was being used, whether it was being used properly, or whether it was being used for some sort of weapons program. It could turn out to be a significant find for coalition forces -- Paula.

ZAHN: Martin Savidge, updating us now as he moves with the Marines toward Bagdhad.

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