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American Morning
Pockets of Iraqi Resistance Still in Baghdad
Aired April 08, 2003 - 10:04 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: Let's check in with Walt Rodgers. He'S embedded with the 3-7th Cavalry on outskirts of Baghdad.
He joins us now with the very latest.
Good morning, Walt.
WALT RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Within in the last hour, we heard two very loud explosions over my shoulder back there, southern suburbs of Baghdad. We are told by Army sources that the targets of the bombing, Air Force or Navy bombs, whatever they were, were the Iraqi Information Ministry and Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party headquarters. No word on whether the targets were hit.
Earlier in the day, targets of U.S. bombs, the Iraqi Republican Guard and headquarters and the Special Republican Guard headquarters.
Now we've been told by a senior Army colonel in the field that there is no longer any organized resistance, organized military resistance, to the U.S. push into Baghdad. That, however, is a bit misleading, because there is resistance, albeit in pockets. Sometime that resistance is very fierce. One soldier says it appears as if every Iraqi citizen has a rocket-propelled grenade or shoulder-fired artillery piece as his calling card.
Now there has been increasing contact throughout the day, every day, with more and more Iraqi citizens, coming to U.S. Army, a day ago, two days ago, the Army were soldiers; today their ombudsmen, trying to solve problems of Iraqi citizens.
One Iraqi came up to this group of soldiers, southern suburbs of Baghdad, handed a note that had been written for him in English, and it said, "I want to retrieve a body, I am not armed." Others trying to retrieve lost automobiles that they had to abandon when they came under fire. They want to pick those cars up before they are stolen again.
Finally, there was one interesting man who came up, and said he wanted to tell the Americans where there was a grave of an executed American soldier. When the Americans pressed him on it, they began to suspect this was a Fedayeen ambush. One Army officer said Iraqi who said he knew of the grave of an American soldier, an Army officer said, if we were shot at when we go to this grave, I will personally shoot you. The man evaporated into the crowd -- Paula. ZAHN: Let's talk a little bit about what the Marines are up against. Excuse me, the Army and 3-7th Cav. You talked a little bit about you being told by officers that there is no longer organized military resistance. Give us a sense then, once you meet these pockets of resistance how that affects strategy, and how in many ways that's even more challenging?
RODGERS: Well, it does slow the reconstruction and rehabilitation process here. The reason being, that what you have is not organized military resistance, but pockets of guerrilla resistance, and the Iraqis do pop up. When we were out were those civilians earlier this morning, a few hours ago, we could hear Crazy Horse Company exchanging shots with more Iraqi irregulars.
So, again, it's guerrilla warfare, small pockets of guerrilla warfare. It seems to decrease somewhat every day, but some Iraqis are out there, and as one -- as one soldier said, every Iraqi citizen's calling card seems to be a rocket-propelled grenade. There are just many of them out there, and that's an extraordinarily dangerous weapon. It's an old weapon, but it's like a bazooka -- you fire it on your shoulder, and it could take out a Humvee or we even saw a tank that was hit by it, an Army tank -- Paula.
ZAHN: Walt Rodgers, we've been looking at the video of some of those soldiers meeting with civilians, makes you quite nervous to watch.
Walt Rodgers, thanks so much.
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 April 8, 2003 - 10:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's check in with Walt Rodgers. He'S embedded with the 3-7th Cavalry on outskirts of Baghdad.
He joins us now with the very latest.
Good morning, Walt.
WALT RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Within in the last hour, we heard two very loud explosions over my shoulder back there, southern suburbs of Baghdad. We are told by Army sources that the targets of the bombing, Air Force or Navy bombs, whatever they were, were the Iraqi Information Ministry and Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party headquarters. No word on whether the targets were hit.
Earlier in the day, targets of U.S. bombs, the Iraqi Republican Guard and headquarters and the Special Republican Guard headquarters.
Now we've been told by a senior Army colonel in the field that there is no longer any organized resistance, organized military resistance, to the U.S. push into Baghdad. That, however, is a bit misleading, because there is resistance, albeit in pockets. Sometime that resistance is very fierce. One soldier says it appears as if every Iraqi citizen has a rocket-propelled grenade or shoulder-fired artillery piece as his calling card.
Now there has been increasing contact throughout the day, every day, with more and more Iraqi citizens, coming to U.S. Army, a day ago, two days ago, the Army were soldiers; today their ombudsmen, trying to solve problems of Iraqi citizens.
One Iraqi came up to this group of soldiers, southern suburbs of Baghdad, handed a note that had been written for him in English, and it said, "I want to retrieve a body, I am not armed." Others trying to retrieve lost automobiles that they had to abandon when they came under fire. They want to pick those cars up before they are stolen again.
Finally, there was one interesting man who came up, and said he wanted to tell the Americans where there was a grave of an executed American soldier. When the Americans pressed him on it, they began to suspect this was a Fedayeen ambush. One Army officer said Iraqi who said he knew of the grave of an American soldier, an Army officer said, if we were shot at when we go to this grave, I will personally shoot you. The man evaporated into the crowd -- Paula. ZAHN: Let's talk a little bit about what the Marines are up against. Excuse me, the Army and 3-7th Cav. You talked a little bit about you being told by officers that there is no longer organized military resistance. Give us a sense then, once you meet these pockets of resistance how that affects strategy, and how in many ways that's even more challenging?
RODGERS: Well, it does slow the reconstruction and rehabilitation process here. The reason being, that what you have is not organized military resistance, but pockets of guerrilla resistance, and the Iraqis do pop up. When we were out were those civilians earlier this morning, a few hours ago, we could hear Crazy Horse Company exchanging shots with more Iraqi irregulars.
So, again, it's guerrilla warfare, small pockets of guerrilla warfare. It seems to decrease somewhat every day, but some Iraqis are out there, and as one -- as one soldier said, every Iraqi citizen's calling card seems to be a rocket-propelled grenade. There are just many of them out there, and that's an extraordinarily dangerous weapon. It's an old weapon, but it's like a bazooka -- you fire it on your shoulder, and it could take out a Humvee or we even saw a tank that was hit by it, an Army tank -- Paula.
ZAHN: Walt Rodgers, we've been looking at the video of some of those soldiers meeting with civilians, makes you quite nervous to watch.
Walt Rodgers, thanks so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
