Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Sunday Morning
Marines in Central Iraq Push North
Aired March 30, 2003 - 06:28 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: To central Iraq now, thousands of Marines pushing north today in a mission to clear a route to Baghdad.
We want more on that so we're going to bring in Jason Bellini. He is embedded with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
Jason, hello.
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn.
I was just listening to Art Harris' report and much of the information that he is getting is flowing downstream to us. Around here you hear lots of rumors, you hear lots of information. It's sometimes tough to decipher what is rumor and what is actual fact. Things like irregular forces, that's what the Marines here are calling them, irregular forces dressed up as women attacking them. Stories of people coming out with white flags to surrender and then attacking them. People coming just out of the woodwork at night is how our commander described it.
We spoke with him -- we spoke with him earlier. And he also spoke with our Marines, telling them what's going on right now, giving them the big picture of where they fit it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPT. DUNNE, U.S. MARINE CORPS: The plan going in to this thing was to try to isolate these urban areas, move up, get outside of Baghdad, because we didn't want to get bogged down, we didn't want to slow things down, allow our forces to get north. We're up there where we want to be, but we have some problems that we need to deal with. And when it comes -- what it comes down to, in my mind at least, is we're through (INAUDIBLE) around.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BELLINI: And what that means is they're going to have to do some of the fighting that they were hoping not to have to do when they -- when this war began, when they began all of this. They started out in Umm Qasr, these Marines that we are with. Theirs was a humanitarian mission from the start. They were hoping that they would be received with open arms. Now as things are changing, now that they're no longer under British command and they're under the command of the general Marine Expeditionary Force, they're being brought into the fray fronts very difficult fight -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Jason Bellini traveling with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit in southern Iraq. Jason, thank you for that.
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 30, 2003 - 06:28 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: To central Iraq now, thousands of Marines pushing north today in a mission to clear a route to Baghdad.
We want more on that so we're going to bring in Jason Bellini. He is embedded with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
Jason, hello.
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn.
I was just listening to Art Harris' report and much of the information that he is getting is flowing downstream to us. Around here you hear lots of rumors, you hear lots of information. It's sometimes tough to decipher what is rumor and what is actual fact. Things like irregular forces, that's what the Marines here are calling them, irregular forces dressed up as women attacking them. Stories of people coming out with white flags to surrender and then attacking them. People coming just out of the woodwork at night is how our commander described it.
We spoke with him -- we spoke with him earlier. And he also spoke with our Marines, telling them what's going on right now, giving them the big picture of where they fit it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPT. DUNNE, U.S. MARINE CORPS: The plan going in to this thing was to try to isolate these urban areas, move up, get outside of Baghdad, because we didn't want to get bogged down, we didn't want to slow things down, allow our forces to get north. We're up there where we want to be, but we have some problems that we need to deal with. And when it comes -- what it comes down to, in my mind at least, is we're through (INAUDIBLE) around.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BELLINI: And what that means is they're going to have to do some of the fighting that they were hoping not to have to do when they -- when this war began, when they began all of this. They started out in Umm Qasr, these Marines that we are with. Theirs was a humanitarian mission from the start. They were hoping that they would be received with open arms. Now as things are changing, now that they're no longer under British command and they're under the command of the general Marine Expeditionary Force, they're being brought into the fray fronts very difficult fight -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Jason Bellini traveling with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit in southern Iraq. Jason, thank you for that.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
