Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Operation Iron Hammer in Iraq

Aired November 13, 2003 - 07:05   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The series of U.S. bombings and raids now taking place in Iraq are at a level not seen since before the end of major combat in May.
Ben Wedeman is live for us in Baghdad this morning.

Ben -- good morning.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, good morning, Soledad.

Well, the Americans seem to be putting more muscle into their get-tough approach to those who are attacking coalition forces, launching in a very dramatic and noisy fashion Wednesday night what they have dubbed Operation Iron Hammer.

Now, we saw two separate actions within the context of have operation. We saw an AC-130 Spectre gunship destroying a facility, which the coalition says was used as a meeting, storage and rendezvous point for what they described as belligerent elements.

In another action to the north of Baghdad, a U.S. Apache attack helicopter followed a van, which coalition officials say was being used to launch mortar rounds, mortar attacks on coalition forces. In that incident, they fired on that van, killing two people inside, wounding and capturing eight -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Ben Wedeman for us this morning. Ben, thanks for that update.

Let's get more on this military escalation from CNN military analyst General David Grange. He joins us this morning from Oak Book, Illinois.

General, nice to see you. Thanks for joining us.

GEN. DAVID GRANGE, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning.

O'BRIEN: From the attacks that we saw yesterday, and really, the days before as well, is it fair to say that the air war is back on in full force?

GRANGE: Well, I don't know if the air war. What you're going to have now is a continuous air/ground approach with a lot of pressure on the insurgents more than before. You know, the coalition forces kind of reduced their patrolling and their aggressive offensive operations during Ramadan in respect for the religious holiday. And what happened is the insurgents actually picked theirs up. And so, the U.S. and other coalition forces have to respond in order to keep it in check and to keep the offensive on against the insurgent forces.

O'BRIEN: There is a story on the front page of "The Washington Post" today that says that this methodical insurgency to some degree was exactly Saddam Hussein's plan all along, because he knew he could not win any kind of conventional war, that this was the plan -- to create an insurgency later on when the American forces were occupying. What do you make of that theory?

GRANGE: I don't think that was the going-in plan by Saddam. I don't think he was that clever or would take that kind of a chance. I think -- I agree that he wasn't prepared, and he was shocked with the speed that the coalition forces reduced his regime. And he was going to try to fight an insurgency during the war -- in other words, use guerrilla tactics -- and then maybe any pieces left over to go ahead and put something together. But not just lay back and wait for it all to go down and then start it.

So, this is just these insurgent forces reorganizing more effectively and gaining more public support of the Iraqi people and that's why the pace is picking up.

O'BRIEN: The U.S. response, the attacks on these insurgents yesterday, do you see that as a reprisal? Or would you say that this is a whole new tactic on the part of the U.S.?

GRANGE: I don't know if it's a new tactic. There's a lot of aggressive patrolling going on, but it's small-scale patrolling that quite often doesn't hit the news, and very successful I might say. But the strategy is to increase the pressure. These are not reprisals. This is not a tat for tat. For instance, if you blow up a bus and then you go in and in retaliation take out an apartment building from a Hamas leader. It's not the same type of thing. This is a counter-insurgency operation, and they are picking up the pressure on the insurgents.

O'BRIEN: Is there a risk, though, when you increase the pressure that way you also encourage, to some degree, the insurgents to continue to strike back?

GRANGE: Well, they're going to strike back anyway, because they smell blood. They know that this is a key turning point in the ongoing war in Iraq. And as they see any kind of will in the United States to wane or the people of Iraq itself saying, hey, this isn't worth the buy-in, they're going to increase their pressure anyway. So, U.S. pressure actually would be advantageous instead of reducing it. Your're going to have the fighting go going on.

But at the same time you're doing this fighting, you've got to continue to do the nation-building and the transition as fast as you can, as well.

O'BRIEN: Brigadier General David Grange joining us this morning. Nice to see you, General. Thank 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 November 13, 2003 - 07:05   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The series of U.S. bombings and raids now taking place in Iraq are at a level not seen since before the end of major combat in May.
Ben Wedeman is live for us in Baghdad this morning.

Ben -- good morning.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, good morning, Soledad.

Well, the Americans seem to be putting more muscle into their get-tough approach to those who are attacking coalition forces, launching in a very dramatic and noisy fashion Wednesday night what they have dubbed Operation Iron Hammer.

Now, we saw two separate actions within the context of have operation. We saw an AC-130 Spectre gunship destroying a facility, which the coalition says was used as a meeting, storage and rendezvous point for what they described as belligerent elements.

In another action to the north of Baghdad, a U.S. Apache attack helicopter followed a van, which coalition officials say was being used to launch mortar rounds, mortar attacks on coalition forces. In that incident, they fired on that van, killing two people inside, wounding and capturing eight -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Ben Wedeman for us this morning. Ben, thanks for that update.

Let's get more on this military escalation from CNN military analyst General David Grange. He joins us this morning from Oak Book, Illinois.

General, nice to see you. Thanks for joining us.

GEN. DAVID GRANGE, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning.

O'BRIEN: From the attacks that we saw yesterday, and really, the days before as well, is it fair to say that the air war is back on in full force?

GRANGE: Well, I don't know if the air war. What you're going to have now is a continuous air/ground approach with a lot of pressure on the insurgents more than before. You know, the coalition forces kind of reduced their patrolling and their aggressive offensive operations during Ramadan in respect for the religious holiday. And what happened is the insurgents actually picked theirs up. And so, the U.S. and other coalition forces have to respond in order to keep it in check and to keep the offensive on against the insurgent forces.

O'BRIEN: There is a story on the front page of "The Washington Post" today that says that this methodical insurgency to some degree was exactly Saddam Hussein's plan all along, because he knew he could not win any kind of conventional war, that this was the plan -- to create an insurgency later on when the American forces were occupying. What do you make of that theory?

GRANGE: I don't think that was the going-in plan by Saddam. I don't think he was that clever or would take that kind of a chance. I think -- I agree that he wasn't prepared, and he was shocked with the speed that the coalition forces reduced his regime. And he was going to try to fight an insurgency during the war -- in other words, use guerrilla tactics -- and then maybe any pieces left over to go ahead and put something together. But not just lay back and wait for it all to go down and then start it.

So, this is just these insurgent forces reorganizing more effectively and gaining more public support of the Iraqi people and that's why the pace is picking up.

O'BRIEN: The U.S. response, the attacks on these insurgents yesterday, do you see that as a reprisal? Or would you say that this is a whole new tactic on the part of the U.S.?

GRANGE: I don't know if it's a new tactic. There's a lot of aggressive patrolling going on, but it's small-scale patrolling that quite often doesn't hit the news, and very successful I might say. But the strategy is to increase the pressure. These are not reprisals. This is not a tat for tat. For instance, if you blow up a bus and then you go in and in retaliation take out an apartment building from a Hamas leader. It's not the same type of thing. This is a counter-insurgency operation, and they are picking up the pressure on the insurgents.

O'BRIEN: Is there a risk, though, when you increase the pressure that way you also encourage, to some degree, the insurgents to continue to strike back?

GRANGE: Well, they're going to strike back anyway, because they smell blood. They know that this is a key turning point in the ongoing war in Iraq. And as they see any kind of will in the United States to wane or the people of Iraq itself saying, hey, this isn't worth the buy-in, they're going to increase their pressure anyway. So, U.S. pressure actually would be advantageous instead of reducing it. Your're going to have the fighting go going on.

But at the same time you're doing this fighting, you've got to continue to do the nation-building and the transition as fast as you can, as well.

O'BRIEN: Brigadier General David Grange joining us this morning. Nice to see you, General. Thank 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.