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American Morning
Battle of Nasiriya
Aired March 24, 2003 - 07:14 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: There has been some intense fighting near the town of Nasiriya just north of Basra.
Alessio Vinci is with a U.S. Marine division there. He joins us now -- Alessio.
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Paula.
That fighting in the last few hours has somewhat died down. Nevertheless, in the early hours of this morning and throughout the morning, while now I'm talking to you, though, the fight has quieted down, and there is some gunfire in the distance.
But anyway, heavy fighting earlier this morning with Iraqi forces throwing mortar rounds at the U.S. military, the U.S. Marines in various locations around the city of Nasiriya. One of the captains here telling me that it seemed that it was a coordinated attack by the Iraqi forces against Marines all around the Nasiriya area. Of course, this plays as an important supply route for the U.S. military war machine, who are continuing its drive up going towards the north.
The U.S. military, the Marines have responded with their own mortar fire, as well as at times calling for air support. And we did see a couple of Cobra helicopters hovering above us, firing their rockets and using their heavy machine guns in order to hit Iraqi positions on the other side of the front lines.
And according to one of the captains here, those positions -- those Iraqi positions comprise mainly of the 23rd Infantry Brigade, part of the 3rd Corps based here in Southern Iraq, but there are also reports that there are some Saddam Fedayeen, the paramilitary groups that are so much feared by most of the people opposing them, because they are able to mix themselves among civilian populations.
And the Marines here, when they're shooting at those targets, obviously they have a big concern about shooting at civilians. They do not want to do that. But it is, of course, a problem, because some of those Fedayeens are known to mix themselves inside or among civilians, and therefore, they are very difficult to differentiate between a civilian target and a military target.
Now, as far as the attack yesterday here, as you know, many Marines were killed when one of the units came under heavy fire of rocket-propelled grenades by Iraqi forces. One top commander here -- the top commander here in our area telling me that the latest casualty numbers are 10 Marines killed, 12 wounded and 16 are still missing.
Back to you -- Paula.
ZAHN: Tell us a little bit more when you describe this coordinated attack on U.S. Marines if it was more fierce than expected.
VINCI: Well, Paula, I just can tell you -- I mean, we are here in one of the many locations around the city of Nasiriya. And we have here at this particular unit that I'm embedded with has received direct fire from Iraqi forces who are about I would say maybe a mile away from here. And we do hear, you know, mortars coming by.
We've heard also incoming small arms fire, AK-47s. Those machine guns don't fire that far away, and the fact that their bullets have landed very close to where we are suggests that those Iraqi forces, at least earlier today, were very close to this position, and even within sight of us. Therefore, that was quite intense this morning in terms of you really felt that you were in the middle of the (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Now, in the distance, in other areas around this large area around Nasiriha, a town of a quarter of a million people, so a fairly large town, we heard in the distance the same kind of mortar fires, heavy machine guns. We also see helicopters firing at targets over there.
So quite intense. Not as intense as yesterday, the first day.
Now, whether this was a surprise or not, most of the Marines here are saying that they were expecting and they were trained to fight heavy resistance. But in all of the military briefings prior to the beginning of this war back in Kuwait we were hearing most of the time that it was expected that especially the regular army of the Iraqi military army, the regular army, would surrender (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in a matter of days -- we have a couple of helicopters flying overhead again.
So that happened in some areas of Southern Iraq, but with this unit, with the task force power with whom I've been embedded, so far we have not come across any large number of capitulations.
I can also report to you, by the way, Paula, that this morning the U.S. military, the Marines here, has taken some EPWs, the so- called Enemy Prisoners of War, enemies of course to the U.S. forces. They have taken some of those prisoners in custody this morning. And according to the initial reports, among them there are some of those Saddam Fedayeens.
Back to you -- Paula.
ZAHN: Alessio Vinci, stay safe. Thanks so much for that report.
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 24, 2003 - 07:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: There has been some intense fighting near the town of Nasiriya just north of Basra.
Alessio Vinci is with a U.S. Marine division there. He joins us now -- Alessio.
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Paula.
That fighting in the last few hours has somewhat died down. Nevertheless, in the early hours of this morning and throughout the morning, while now I'm talking to you, though, the fight has quieted down, and there is some gunfire in the distance.
But anyway, heavy fighting earlier this morning with Iraqi forces throwing mortar rounds at the U.S. military, the U.S. Marines in various locations around the city of Nasiriya. One of the captains here telling me that it seemed that it was a coordinated attack by the Iraqi forces against Marines all around the Nasiriya area. Of course, this plays as an important supply route for the U.S. military war machine, who are continuing its drive up going towards the north.
The U.S. military, the Marines have responded with their own mortar fire, as well as at times calling for air support. And we did see a couple of Cobra helicopters hovering above us, firing their rockets and using their heavy machine guns in order to hit Iraqi positions on the other side of the front lines.
And according to one of the captains here, those positions -- those Iraqi positions comprise mainly of the 23rd Infantry Brigade, part of the 3rd Corps based here in Southern Iraq, but there are also reports that there are some Saddam Fedayeen, the paramilitary groups that are so much feared by most of the people opposing them, because they are able to mix themselves among civilian populations.
And the Marines here, when they're shooting at those targets, obviously they have a big concern about shooting at civilians. They do not want to do that. But it is, of course, a problem, because some of those Fedayeens are known to mix themselves inside or among civilians, and therefore, they are very difficult to differentiate between a civilian target and a military target.
Now, as far as the attack yesterday here, as you know, many Marines were killed when one of the units came under heavy fire of rocket-propelled grenades by Iraqi forces. One top commander here -- the top commander here in our area telling me that the latest casualty numbers are 10 Marines killed, 12 wounded and 16 are still missing.
Back to you -- Paula.
ZAHN: Tell us a little bit more when you describe this coordinated attack on U.S. Marines if it was more fierce than expected.
VINCI: Well, Paula, I just can tell you -- I mean, we are here in one of the many locations around the city of Nasiriya. And we have here at this particular unit that I'm embedded with has received direct fire from Iraqi forces who are about I would say maybe a mile away from here. And we do hear, you know, mortars coming by.
We've heard also incoming small arms fire, AK-47s. Those machine guns don't fire that far away, and the fact that their bullets have landed very close to where we are suggests that those Iraqi forces, at least earlier today, were very close to this position, and even within sight of us. Therefore, that was quite intense this morning in terms of you really felt that you were in the middle of the (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Now, in the distance, in other areas around this large area around Nasiriha, a town of a quarter of a million people, so a fairly large town, we heard in the distance the same kind of mortar fires, heavy machine guns. We also see helicopters firing at targets over there.
So quite intense. Not as intense as yesterday, the first day.
Now, whether this was a surprise or not, most of the Marines here are saying that they were expecting and they were trained to fight heavy resistance. But in all of the military briefings prior to the beginning of this war back in Kuwait we were hearing most of the time that it was expected that especially the regular army of the Iraqi military army, the regular army, would surrender (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in a matter of days -- we have a couple of helicopters flying overhead again.
So that happened in some areas of Southern Iraq, but with this unit, with the task force power with whom I've been embedded, so far we have not come across any large number of capitulations.
I can also report to you, by the way, Paula, that this morning the U.S. military, the Marines here, has taken some EPWs, the so- called Enemy Prisoners of War, enemies of course to the U.S. forces. They have taken some of those prisoners in custody this morning. And according to the initial reports, among them there are some of those Saddam Fedayeens.
Back to you -- Paula.
ZAHN: Alessio Vinci, stay safe. Thanks so much for that report.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
