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American Morning
Aid Delayed into Southern Iraq
Aired March 27, 2003 - 08:09 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, ANCHOR: I want to take you to Baghdad quickly, Paula, show you some pictures we're watching right now. Somewhere in central Baghdad, perhaps even on the outskirts, we don't know, but the skies are darkening there.
Within the last hour, we did have a few reports of eyewitnesses on the ground. According to Reuters, saying there were possibly three explosions in the center part of the city. And also earlier, we heard about explosions at the south end of Baghdad, as well.
This follows the pattern, the reporting that we heard yesterday, too. South of the city of Baghdad, perhaps softening up these Republican Guard units that we were told were gathering there south of the Iraqi capital.
And also possible, with this black smoke, getting reports from the Pentagon that Iraqi civilians and soldiers perhaps digging these trenches, these wells, filling them with oil and lighting them on fire, which may account, may account, again, for the black skies we see over Baghdad.
It's about 4:10 in the afternoon in the Iraqi capital. We'll watch this. Again, we're getting these images from some of the Arab language networks here in the Persian Gulf.
Meanwhile, southern Iraq right now, we talked about Basra, we talked about the insecurity right there. We talked about the humanitarian aid being delayed yet another day into Umm Qasr.
Christiane Amanpour is live now in southern Iraq and she's watching all of these developments and more and joins us now.
Christiane, how goes it and good afternoon.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, good afternoon. And somewhat of a big picture view.
You remember people like Donald Rumsfeld and other civilians in the defense administration had talked about 60,000 troops perhaps being used and the rest of the operation being done by smart bombs from the air.
Well, of course, now, the military commanders on the ground are saying that, of course, was an unrealistic view of what would happen and now they say that we have, quote, "a medium level force." And even then, we're being told, particularly by the British here, that some of the personnel could soon start to get stretched and tired because the operations are so intense and ongoing.
Basra, of course, here is a focus of attention. What the British are trying to do still is engage the Iraqi military who are inside Basra, as well as the so-called irregular forces, the militias. They are also trying to kill off the Baath Party leadership, the political structure, and thus give the people there an opportunity to rise up, which is what they thought would have happened earlier.
In the meantime, there are people who are beginning to filter out of Basra. They're coming of the outskirts of the town engaging and having a chat and trying to get help from British troops outside.
The British keep telling us that they continue to target, as I say, these political headquarters and they're also saying that they've taken out radio and television in Basra and that they are now using some of those radio frequencies to run their own radio messages on that.
So the British here are saying that they continue to conduct both, quote, "heavy metal artillery" and armored engagements with the Iraqis and they're also doing other kinds of operations, as well.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over) This is what the British call soft operations, military action aimed at counter-insurgency and trying to win hearts and minds.
(on camera) The British are setting up checkpoints all along this road from the border up to Basra. Not only to secure the area militarily, but to also try to show the population that they are in control and to try to instill some confidence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously, there is a hard line there, militia, which is working in this area, to try and basically intimidate people and stop them speaking to us. So it's part our role -- one of our key roles is to make the civilian population feel safe. If they feel safe, they'll talk to us, we'll get intelligence and, obviously, that's going to help us greatly.
AMANPOUR: British soldiers tell us they have found ammunition and artillery rounds along the road, possibly to be used to ambush them.
But on this day, the Iraqis driving by are mostly good-natured and cooperate readily with the military searches.
Some wave white flags as they approach the checkpoints, and many tell us they are still afraid. They don't know exactly who is in charge yet. Others say they welcome the allies' arrival and Saddam's eventual departure. But most of the people tell us they are hungry and thirsty.
When soldiers ask to see inside these barrels, they found them filled, not with weapons, but water collected from the recent rainfall. And we watched these women scoop water from puddles on the ground.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
So everybody is telling us they've heard that humanitarian is meant to be coming and they're desperately waiting for it. There have been some low level humanitarian deliveries, essentially packets of food and bottles of water, but what they're waiting for is the big amount of aid that they've been promised.
And there was going to be several tons of aid coming in from the British on this ship which was coming into Umm Qasr, but that, as we've been reporting, has been delayed at least 24 hours because they found, we are told, more mines in the channel leading up to the Umm Qasr port -- Bill.
HEMMER: Christiane, thanks. Christiane Amanpour there in southeastern Iraq. Something clearly that we'll be keeping a close eye on.
Maybe it will come in 24 hours, Paula, maybe not. We've been talking about this just about, it seems, every day this week. But at this point, still, the coalition forces clearly do not believe that place is secure just yet.
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 27, 2003 - 08:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, ANCHOR: I want to take you to Baghdad quickly, Paula, show you some pictures we're watching right now. Somewhere in central Baghdad, perhaps even on the outskirts, we don't know, but the skies are darkening there.
Within the last hour, we did have a few reports of eyewitnesses on the ground. According to Reuters, saying there were possibly three explosions in the center part of the city. And also earlier, we heard about explosions at the south end of Baghdad, as well.
This follows the pattern, the reporting that we heard yesterday, too. South of the city of Baghdad, perhaps softening up these Republican Guard units that we were told were gathering there south of the Iraqi capital.
And also possible, with this black smoke, getting reports from the Pentagon that Iraqi civilians and soldiers perhaps digging these trenches, these wells, filling them with oil and lighting them on fire, which may account, may account, again, for the black skies we see over Baghdad.
It's about 4:10 in the afternoon in the Iraqi capital. We'll watch this. Again, we're getting these images from some of the Arab language networks here in the Persian Gulf.
Meanwhile, southern Iraq right now, we talked about Basra, we talked about the insecurity right there. We talked about the humanitarian aid being delayed yet another day into Umm Qasr.
Christiane Amanpour is live now in southern Iraq and she's watching all of these developments and more and joins us now.
Christiane, how goes it and good afternoon.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, good afternoon. And somewhat of a big picture view.
You remember people like Donald Rumsfeld and other civilians in the defense administration had talked about 60,000 troops perhaps being used and the rest of the operation being done by smart bombs from the air.
Well, of course, now, the military commanders on the ground are saying that, of course, was an unrealistic view of what would happen and now they say that we have, quote, "a medium level force." And even then, we're being told, particularly by the British here, that some of the personnel could soon start to get stretched and tired because the operations are so intense and ongoing.
Basra, of course, here is a focus of attention. What the British are trying to do still is engage the Iraqi military who are inside Basra, as well as the so-called irregular forces, the militias. They are also trying to kill off the Baath Party leadership, the political structure, and thus give the people there an opportunity to rise up, which is what they thought would have happened earlier.
In the meantime, there are people who are beginning to filter out of Basra. They're coming of the outskirts of the town engaging and having a chat and trying to get help from British troops outside.
The British keep telling us that they continue to target, as I say, these political headquarters and they're also saying that they've taken out radio and television in Basra and that they are now using some of those radio frequencies to run their own radio messages on that.
So the British here are saying that they continue to conduct both, quote, "heavy metal artillery" and armored engagements with the Iraqis and they're also doing other kinds of operations, as well.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over) This is what the British call soft operations, military action aimed at counter-insurgency and trying to win hearts and minds.
(on camera) The British are setting up checkpoints all along this road from the border up to Basra. Not only to secure the area militarily, but to also try to show the population that they are in control and to try to instill some confidence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously, there is a hard line there, militia, which is working in this area, to try and basically intimidate people and stop them speaking to us. So it's part our role -- one of our key roles is to make the civilian population feel safe. If they feel safe, they'll talk to us, we'll get intelligence and, obviously, that's going to help us greatly.
AMANPOUR: British soldiers tell us they have found ammunition and artillery rounds along the road, possibly to be used to ambush them.
But on this day, the Iraqis driving by are mostly good-natured and cooperate readily with the military searches.
Some wave white flags as they approach the checkpoints, and many tell us they are still afraid. They don't know exactly who is in charge yet. Others say they welcome the allies' arrival and Saddam's eventual departure. But most of the people tell us they are hungry and thirsty.
When soldiers ask to see inside these barrels, they found them filled, not with weapons, but water collected from the recent rainfall. And we watched these women scoop water from puddles on the ground.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
So everybody is telling us they've heard that humanitarian is meant to be coming and they're desperately waiting for it. There have been some low level humanitarian deliveries, essentially packets of food and bottles of water, but what they're waiting for is the big amount of aid that they've been promised.
And there was going to be several tons of aid coming in from the British on this ship which was coming into Umm Qasr, but that, as we've been reporting, has been delayed at least 24 hours because they found, we are told, more mines in the channel leading up to the Umm Qasr port -- Bill.
HEMMER: Christiane, thanks. Christiane Amanpour there in southeastern Iraq. Something clearly that we'll be keeping a close eye on.
Maybe it will come in 24 hours, Paula, maybe not. We've been talking about this just about, it seems, every day this week. But at this point, still, the coalition forces clearly do not believe that place is secure just yet.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
