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American Morning

Turks in Northern Iraq?

Aired March 21, 2003 - 08:44   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.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. Embassy is saying that a dispute over the possible presence of Turkish troops in northern Iraq has put on hold a decision by Turkish lawmakers to allow U.S. warplanes to actually use Turkish airspace. Ben Wedeman is our man on the ground in the Kurdish controlled part of the Iraq, the northern part of Iraq and he joins us now with the very latest from there.
Ben, good morning.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Paula. We are here on the northern front but unlike the southern front, this front is pretty quiet. Now just to give you an idea of what's behind me. Basically in these hills, over there are Iraqi fortifications. We can fairly regularly see Iraqi soldiers walking between the positions. There has been just a little bit of gunfire this morning. The most significant development in this area was just before sunrise, at about 4:30 local time, some -- we heard some planes overhead and saw anti-aircraft fire coming up from the direction of Mosul, which is the largest city of the north of Iraq, about two-and-a-half to 3 million people. And so it appears that that was the first bombing of the Mosul area.

Otherwise it's fairly quiet because facing off against these Iraqi positions are very lightly armed Kurdish troops. All they really have are some AK-47 assault rifles and some rocket propelled grenades. They have not tanks. No armored personnel carriers. So if they're to advance, they will definitely need the presence of some sort of American force. Now originally Plan A was that 60,000 American troops would cross Turkey, enter northern Iraq and really have a pincer movement between the north and the south. Now that doesn't look like it's going to happen. The most optimistic scenario is that possibly 5,000 airborne troops would arrive to supplement a very small force of Special Forces. But at this point, that decision for over flights over Turkey that would have brought those troops is still work in progress so to speak. So until now, this northern front remains fairly quiet -- Paula.

ZAHN: I don't know how many details you might have on this for us this morning but what happened near the town of Kalak where a small group of Iraqi soldiers surrendered. Is there any confirmation you can give us of that?

WEDEMAN: No. There's a lot of rumors flying around but we have not confirmation whatsoever about any reports of Iraqi soldiers. We are in Kalak actually. Kalak is this town right over here that you saw a little while ago, which is literally right in the shadows of the Iraqi positions. But no reports of surrenders in any significant numbers. In fact, just one little other bit of information is the town of Kalak is by and large deserted. We saw the most of its inhabitants of about 6,000 have left because they were worried that Iraqi forces in some final desperate act might use chemical weapons upon them. And that is a very real fear here, which has really emptied many of the Kurdish towns and cities of their population. People just trying to get as far as possible out of harms way -- Paula.

ZAHN: Final question for you just about any reaction you're hearing from the Kurds to that announcement by the U.S. Embassy about this decision by the Turks being put on hold to allow the use of Turkish airspace until they figure out how they could possibly deploy Turkish troops?

WEDEMAN: Paula, we just heard from shots right from the direction of Kalak so don't be surprised if I have to duck out of the way. But anyway, to answer your questions. Yes. The Kurds are very aware of this situation regarding Turkey -- there's some more shots. I don't know if you can hear those.

Anyway, so -- looks like there is some firing over there. Now I do want to answer your question. Yes. The Kurds are very opposed to the idea of the entry of Turkish forces here. They've made it very clear to us on several occasions that they would oppose with their weapons any sort of Turkish entry into the north of the country. So hopefully, as far as the Kurds are concerned, that will not happen -- Paula.

ZAHN: All right, Ben. You're making us a little uneasy as you calmly describe hearing gunshot fires.

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 March 21, 2003 - 08:44   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. Embassy is saying that a dispute over the possible presence of Turkish troops in northern Iraq has put on hold a decision by Turkish lawmakers to allow U.S. warplanes to actually use Turkish airspace. Ben Wedeman is our man on the ground in the Kurdish controlled part of the Iraq, the northern part of Iraq and he joins us now with the very latest from there.
Ben, good morning.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Paula. We are here on the northern front but unlike the southern front, this front is pretty quiet. Now just to give you an idea of what's behind me. Basically in these hills, over there are Iraqi fortifications. We can fairly regularly see Iraqi soldiers walking between the positions. There has been just a little bit of gunfire this morning. The most significant development in this area was just before sunrise, at about 4:30 local time, some -- we heard some planes overhead and saw anti-aircraft fire coming up from the direction of Mosul, which is the largest city of the north of Iraq, about two-and-a-half to 3 million people. And so it appears that that was the first bombing of the Mosul area.

Otherwise it's fairly quiet because facing off against these Iraqi positions are very lightly armed Kurdish troops. All they really have are some AK-47 assault rifles and some rocket propelled grenades. They have not tanks. No armored personnel carriers. So if they're to advance, they will definitely need the presence of some sort of American force. Now originally Plan A was that 60,000 American troops would cross Turkey, enter northern Iraq and really have a pincer movement between the north and the south. Now that doesn't look like it's going to happen. The most optimistic scenario is that possibly 5,000 airborne troops would arrive to supplement a very small force of Special Forces. But at this point, that decision for over flights over Turkey that would have brought those troops is still work in progress so to speak. So until now, this northern front remains fairly quiet -- Paula.

ZAHN: I don't know how many details you might have on this for us this morning but what happened near the town of Kalak where a small group of Iraqi soldiers surrendered. Is there any confirmation you can give us of that?

WEDEMAN: No. There's a lot of rumors flying around but we have not confirmation whatsoever about any reports of Iraqi soldiers. We are in Kalak actually. Kalak is this town right over here that you saw a little while ago, which is literally right in the shadows of the Iraqi positions. But no reports of surrenders in any significant numbers. In fact, just one little other bit of information is the town of Kalak is by and large deserted. We saw the most of its inhabitants of about 6,000 have left because they were worried that Iraqi forces in some final desperate act might use chemical weapons upon them. And that is a very real fear here, which has really emptied many of the Kurdish towns and cities of their population. People just trying to get as far as possible out of harms way -- Paula.

ZAHN: Final question for you just about any reaction you're hearing from the Kurds to that announcement by the U.S. Embassy about this decision by the Turks being put on hold to allow the use of Turkish airspace until they figure out how they could possibly deploy Turkish troops?

WEDEMAN: Paula, we just heard from shots right from the direction of Kalak so don't be surprised if I have to duck out of the way. But anyway, to answer your questions. Yes. The Kurds are very aware of this situation regarding Turkey -- there's some more shots. I don't know if you can hear those.

Anyway, so -- looks like there is some firing over there. Now I do want to answer your question. Yes. The Kurds are very opposed to the idea of the entry of Turkish forces here. They've made it very clear to us on several occasions that they would oppose with their weapons any sort of Turkish entry into the north of the country. So hopefully, as far as the Kurds are concerned, that will not happen -- Paula.

ZAHN: All right, Ben. You're making us a little uneasy as you calmly describe hearing gunshot fires.

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