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American Morning
Twelve Marines Missing Near Nasiriya
Aired March 28, 2003 - 07:04 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: Jason Bellini is with the Marine Expeditionary Unit near Nasiriya. That's who we're going to get started with today, our own Jason Bellini embedded, as we just said, with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit. He is near Nasiriya in southern Iraq. He joins us now on the telephone.
And, Jason, if we have to cut you off, we apologize in advance, because we're going to have to take that news conference once it gets started.
Jason -- what's going on there now?
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Understood, Paula.
Here in an area where we are, I can't tell you exactly how close we are to An-Nasiriya, but from here the news of these 12 Marines, who are listed as missing, is of grave concern. The Marines that we are with were briefed on the situation earlier today, backing up the information that military officials in the U.S. are telling CNN about these 12 Marines. They're classified as "duty status unknown." If they're not found within the next 48 hours, they'll be listed as "missing in action."
Now, how does this affect the people we're with? Well, in this briefing that was given to all of the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) level Marines here in this unit, they were told that we're not (UNINTELLIGIBLE) around anymore.
These are the Marines who were in the port of Umm Qasr and they were dealing with the pot shots being taken at them from irregular forces, and my interpretation of what our commander said is that now they're aiming to go on the offensive, not just reacting to these specific -- these attacks that come from irregular forces, that come sporadically and unpredictably -- Paula.
ZAHN: Jason Bellini, we're going to leave it there, and try to quickly check in with Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for the very latest from there in advance of this briefing.
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 28, 2003 - 07:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Jason Bellini is with the Marine Expeditionary Unit near Nasiriya. That's who we're going to get started with today, our own Jason Bellini embedded, as we just said, with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit. He is near Nasiriya in southern Iraq. He joins us now on the telephone.
And, Jason, if we have to cut you off, we apologize in advance, because we're going to have to take that news conference once it gets started.
Jason -- what's going on there now?
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Understood, Paula.
Here in an area where we are, I can't tell you exactly how close we are to An-Nasiriya, but from here the news of these 12 Marines, who are listed as missing, is of grave concern. The Marines that we are with were briefed on the situation earlier today, backing up the information that military officials in the U.S. are telling CNN about these 12 Marines. They're classified as "duty status unknown." If they're not found within the next 48 hours, they'll be listed as "missing in action."
Now, how does this affect the people we're with? Well, in this briefing that was given to all of the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) level Marines here in this unit, they were told that we're not (UNINTELLIGIBLE) around anymore.
These are the Marines who were in the port of Umm Qasr and they were dealing with the pot shots being taken at them from irregular forces, and my interpretation of what our commander said is that now they're aiming to go on the offensive, not just reacting to these specific -- these attacks that come from irregular forces, that come sporadically and unpredictably -- Paula.
ZAHN: Jason Bellini, we're going to leave it there, and try to quickly check in with Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for the very latest from there in advance of this briefing.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
