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American Morning
The Hunt for Saddam Hussein in the Sunni Triangle
Aired August 04, 2003 - 08:03 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to Iraq. In a series of raids, U.S. forces have netted two dozen members of Saddam Hussein's regime near Saddam's ancestral hometown Tikrit.
CNN's Harris Whitbeck is in Tikrit now with more on this.
Good afternoon there -- Harris.
HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Heidi.
That raid was staged last night by the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division. It was quite a complex operation. An area of about, a little less than a square mile on the outskirts of Tikrit was the target. It's a series of very small farms.
The U.S. military thought that they were going to find a meeting of midlevel associates of Saddam Hussein's, including one top lieutenant, and that was the house that they initially targeted. They did not find that top lieutenant there. They believe that he and others might have escaped on foot. And a manhunt was undertaken for several hours but no specific results on that particular aspect of the mission.
Now, the mission lasted several hours. And what struck me about it was the fact that the U.S. soldiers were so heavily armed. They used Bradley fighting vehicles, or about 300 infantrymen who fanned out across this area and they had massive air power stacked up in the airspace above, including Apache attack helicopters, and fighter jets from the U.S. Air Force.
And Lieutenant Colonel Steve Russell who ran that mission told me that as they are getting closer to Saddam's inner circle, they are going out on these raids with heavy equipment, with heavy weaponry, because they feel that these hard-core targets, if you will, might be more desperate and might fight back. So they want to make sure that they can respond if they are attacked.
Again, there were some successes. And Lieutenant Colonel Russell was particularly pleased with information he says was found in one of the locations. Information that he says will continue helping them target other Saddam loyalists -- Heidi.
COLLINS: As far as that information goes, Harris, just curious, if from where you are and what you see in Tikrit, do you think it has anything to do with the burial of Uday and Qusay Hussein?
WHITBECK: Well that burial took place over the weekend, as you know, it was a very controversial event. The U.S. military was trying to keep it very low-key. And, in fact, it was relatively low key.
We visited the site of that burial hours after it happened. It was a very, very desolate scene. Three unmarked graves, one of them had an Iraqi flag over it. The grave that had the Iraqi flag on it was that of Mustafa, which was Saddam Hussein's grandson who was also killed during the firefight in Mosul. The other two graves initially had Iraqi flags on them, but they disappeared, and no word on how they disappeared or who took those flags.
Again, U.S. military is controlling that area. They want to avoid it turning into a shrine for those who still support Saddam Hussein -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. Harris Whitbeck live from Tikrit this morning. Thank you, Harris.
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 August 4, 2003 - 08:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to Iraq. In a series of raids, U.S. forces have netted two dozen members of Saddam Hussein's regime near Saddam's ancestral hometown Tikrit.
CNN's Harris Whitbeck is in Tikrit now with more on this.
Good afternoon there -- Harris.
HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Heidi.
That raid was staged last night by the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division. It was quite a complex operation. An area of about, a little less than a square mile on the outskirts of Tikrit was the target. It's a series of very small farms.
The U.S. military thought that they were going to find a meeting of midlevel associates of Saddam Hussein's, including one top lieutenant, and that was the house that they initially targeted. They did not find that top lieutenant there. They believe that he and others might have escaped on foot. And a manhunt was undertaken for several hours but no specific results on that particular aspect of the mission.
Now, the mission lasted several hours. And what struck me about it was the fact that the U.S. soldiers were so heavily armed. They used Bradley fighting vehicles, or about 300 infantrymen who fanned out across this area and they had massive air power stacked up in the airspace above, including Apache attack helicopters, and fighter jets from the U.S. Air Force.
And Lieutenant Colonel Steve Russell who ran that mission told me that as they are getting closer to Saddam's inner circle, they are going out on these raids with heavy equipment, with heavy weaponry, because they feel that these hard-core targets, if you will, might be more desperate and might fight back. So they want to make sure that they can respond if they are attacked.
Again, there were some successes. And Lieutenant Colonel Russell was particularly pleased with information he says was found in one of the locations. Information that he says will continue helping them target other Saddam loyalists -- Heidi.
COLLINS: As far as that information goes, Harris, just curious, if from where you are and what you see in Tikrit, do you think it has anything to do with the burial of Uday and Qusay Hussein?
WHITBECK: Well that burial took place over the weekend, as you know, it was a very controversial event. The U.S. military was trying to keep it very low-key. And, in fact, it was relatively low key.
We visited the site of that burial hours after it happened. It was a very, very desolate scene. Three unmarked graves, one of them had an Iraqi flag over it. The grave that had the Iraqi flag on it was that of Mustafa, which was Saddam Hussein's grandson who was also killed during the firefight in Mosul. The other two graves initially had Iraqi flags on them, but they disappeared, and no word on how they disappeared or who took those flags.
Again, U.S. military is controlling that area. They want to avoid it turning into a shrine for those who still support Saddam Hussein -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. Harris Whitbeck live from Tikrit this morning. Thank you, Harris.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
