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American Morning
Supply Routes in Southern Iraq Secured by U.S. Forces
Aired March 26, 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: First to Alessio Vinci embedded with the U.S. Marines. Alessio joins us by way of videophone somewhere in southern Iraq.
Alessio -- hello.
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Bill. I am somewhere in southern Iraq very close to the city of An Nasiriya, the site where much great fighting here between U.S. forces and the Iraqi paramilitary groups here, Saddam's Fedayeen.
Not much fighting going on today here. We only heard sporadic gunfire in the distance, but not much fighting here.
The U.S. military commanders here on the ground are telling us that they pretty much control the supply route going through this town and re-supplying the troops continuing their drive north towards Baghdad. Commanders here are telling us that they do expect for the coming days and weeks that kind of guerrilla warfare against U.S. forces here, because while they do indeed control the supply route, there are also pockets of resistance all along this route, where the U.S. troops are encountering some resistance.
Meanwhile, U.S. forces here continue to capture prisoners of war. Most of them are surrendering voluntarily. We've seen some scenes of people coming to U.S. forces checkpoints with their arms raised, and those people are being taken in custody by U.S. forces, then taken by U.S. intelligence officers here for further questioning.
One of the problems that the U.S. Marines are encountering are the civilians, mainly because some of those civilians are known to be used by the paramilitary groups as scouts, basically as intelligence. They send them ahead, and then force them under threat of killing family members who are remaining back in town to give them some information about U.S. positions. And there have been some incidents not just yesterday but also in the past days of U.S. Marines having to fight in the direction of paramilitary groups who are shielded behind civilians, and indeed they have indeed killed some civilians as well.
U.S. commanders here are telling us that they're trying to do all they can to avoid civilian casualties, but they're saying that the paramilitary groups are using those civilians also as shields.
Back to you -- Bill.
HEMMER: All right, Alessio, thanks -- Alessio Vinci with the U.S. Marines in southern Iraq. We'll check in a bit later. 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 26, 2003 - 07:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: First to Alessio Vinci embedded with the U.S. Marines. Alessio joins us by way of videophone somewhere in southern Iraq.
Alessio -- hello.
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Bill. I am somewhere in southern Iraq very close to the city of An Nasiriya, the site where much great fighting here between U.S. forces and the Iraqi paramilitary groups here, Saddam's Fedayeen.
Not much fighting going on today here. We only heard sporadic gunfire in the distance, but not much fighting here.
The U.S. military commanders here on the ground are telling us that they pretty much control the supply route going through this town and re-supplying the troops continuing their drive north towards Baghdad. Commanders here are telling us that they do expect for the coming days and weeks that kind of guerrilla warfare against U.S. forces here, because while they do indeed control the supply route, there are also pockets of resistance all along this route, where the U.S. troops are encountering some resistance.
Meanwhile, U.S. forces here continue to capture prisoners of war. Most of them are surrendering voluntarily. We've seen some scenes of people coming to U.S. forces checkpoints with their arms raised, and those people are being taken in custody by U.S. forces, then taken by U.S. intelligence officers here for further questioning.
One of the problems that the U.S. Marines are encountering are the civilians, mainly because some of those civilians are known to be used by the paramilitary groups as scouts, basically as intelligence. They send them ahead, and then force them under threat of killing family members who are remaining back in town to give them some information about U.S. positions. And there have been some incidents not just yesterday but also in the past days of U.S. Marines having to fight in the direction of paramilitary groups who are shielded behind civilians, and indeed they have indeed killed some civilians as well.
U.S. commanders here are telling us that they're trying to do all they can to avoid civilian casualties, but they're saying that the paramilitary groups are using those civilians also as shields.
Back to you -- Bill.
HEMMER: All right, Alessio, thanks -- Alessio Vinci with the U.S. Marines in southern Iraq. We'll check in a bit later. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
