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American Morning
U.S. Marines Moved Into Heart of Tikrit
Aired April 14, 2003 - 08:06 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: Back to the battlefield right now. U.S. Marines moving into the heart of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown and thought to be the last stronghold, possibly, of Iraqi forces.
Matthew Fisher is a reporter for Canada's "National Post." He is there and joins us by way of telephone.
Matthew, we heard from CENTCOM say no substantial resistance put up there. What are you seeing on the ground?
MATTHEW FISHER, NATIONAL POST OF CANADA: I'm standing on a cliff overlooking a lagoon that Saddam Hussein had built for himself. Apparently it's stocked with fish.
I'm with U.S. Marines. They've occupied the mother of all presidential palaces here. It is a huge complex, 100, 150 buildings. Some of the buildings enormous just by themselves. It's about 2-and- a-half miles long and perhaps half a mile or a mile wide.
The city has been fairly calm. There is a bit of machine gunfire about an hour ago. Sporadic fighting this morning, but really very little. The Marines fought quite a bit more yesterday than they did today. Overnight, there were air strikes by U.S. aircraft, Air Force and Marine Corps aircraft. At all times, there are Cobra assault helicopters over the city and a lot of -- a lot of fighter jets.
The city right now very quiet. Not many pedestrians out. Nothing like the looting they saw in Baghdad. Although at these palaces, right now, people are walking away with chandeliers and gold cases and whatnot. And I know somebody who has picked up a pad that says "president of Iraq" on it and it's the writing paper of Saddam Hussein that they're taking away as a souvenir.
HEMMER: Matthew, does it appear the 2,500 Iraqi forces that were said to be assembled there over the weekend are either not there or not willing to put up a fight? Can you ascertain what the answer is on either one of those points?
FISHER: I think it's both. They're not willing to fight and some of them have fled.
Marines that we've spoken to earlier today said the suspicion is some Republican Guard senior folks bugged out yesterday for -- they were headed west and north. The suspicion is that they're headed for Syria.
The other people who are fighting here, the regulars of Fedayeen, who support Saddam Hussein -- they were still in the town yesterday evening. They have not fought. Presumably, they're wearing civilian clothes or ran away.
This morning, we spoke with a number of young men here -- or middle-aged men. They said they were officers in the Republican Guard. They said they'd given up the fight three days ago because of superior U.S. airpower. They saw no point in continuing to fight. They told us that they admired and loved Saddam Hussein. He was a great man and they seem to not be terribly pleased with the U.S. presence here at all.
HEMMER: Matthew, thanks. Matthew Fisher, reporter for Canada "Post" there -- "National Post" in Tikrit. We'll check in later with him, so long as his batteries hold on there in Tikrit.
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 14, 2003 - 08:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back to the battlefield right now. U.S. Marines moving into the heart of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown and thought to be the last stronghold, possibly, of Iraqi forces.
Matthew Fisher is a reporter for Canada's "National Post." He is there and joins us by way of telephone.
Matthew, we heard from CENTCOM say no substantial resistance put up there. What are you seeing on the ground?
MATTHEW FISHER, NATIONAL POST OF CANADA: I'm standing on a cliff overlooking a lagoon that Saddam Hussein had built for himself. Apparently it's stocked with fish.
I'm with U.S. Marines. They've occupied the mother of all presidential palaces here. It is a huge complex, 100, 150 buildings. Some of the buildings enormous just by themselves. It's about 2-and- a-half miles long and perhaps half a mile or a mile wide.
The city has been fairly calm. There is a bit of machine gunfire about an hour ago. Sporadic fighting this morning, but really very little. The Marines fought quite a bit more yesterday than they did today. Overnight, there were air strikes by U.S. aircraft, Air Force and Marine Corps aircraft. At all times, there are Cobra assault helicopters over the city and a lot of -- a lot of fighter jets.
The city right now very quiet. Not many pedestrians out. Nothing like the looting they saw in Baghdad. Although at these palaces, right now, people are walking away with chandeliers and gold cases and whatnot. And I know somebody who has picked up a pad that says "president of Iraq" on it and it's the writing paper of Saddam Hussein that they're taking away as a souvenir.
HEMMER: Matthew, does it appear the 2,500 Iraqi forces that were said to be assembled there over the weekend are either not there or not willing to put up a fight? Can you ascertain what the answer is on either one of those points?
FISHER: I think it's both. They're not willing to fight and some of them have fled.
Marines that we've spoken to earlier today said the suspicion is some Republican Guard senior folks bugged out yesterday for -- they were headed west and north. The suspicion is that they're headed for Syria.
The other people who are fighting here, the regulars of Fedayeen, who support Saddam Hussein -- they were still in the town yesterday evening. They have not fought. Presumably, they're wearing civilian clothes or ran away.
This morning, we spoke with a number of young men here -- or middle-aged men. They said they were officers in the Republican Guard. They said they'd given up the fight three days ago because of superior U.S. airpower. They saw no point in continuing to fight. They told us that they admired and loved Saddam Hussein. He was a great man and they seem to not be terribly pleased with the U.S. presence here at all.
HEMMER: Matthew, thanks. Matthew Fisher, reporter for Canada "Post" there -- "National Post" in Tikrit. We'll check in later with him, so long as his batteries hold on there in Tikrit.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
