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CNN Sunday Morning

Marines Battling In, Around, For Nasiriya

Aired March 30, 2003 - 06:23   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.


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Another of the stories we've been following all morning long back in Iraq is the battle in and around and for Nasiriya. It is a story that has captivated our attention for the last several days, one of the fiercest battles the Marines have been engaged in, according to a senior Marine or several senior Marines who have spoken to CNN, the fiercest battles the Marines have been engaged with since the Vietnam War.
For an update now on what is going on at this moment in Nasiriya, Art Harris who's embedded with the Marines there -- Art.

ART HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, infighting along the Euphrates River in Nasiriya. I spent the night with the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, all part of Task Force Tarawa, and they are spread out along the Euphrates in fighting holes. They've gone door to door, searched a number of buildings and headquarters starting several days ago, Anderson. They found the Baath Party headquarters here. They found models of terrain. They found maps, detailed lists of soldiers, photographs, party members and also the location of other headquarters.

With that information, they have been able to target the Saddam Fedayeen headquarters, as well Al Kut paramilitary headquarters, with precision guided bombs. Even though the Marines were very close to those sites, just within a few kilometers, took those out.

And then rolled into a makeshift, well it's actually by a school where they, along the Euphrates, where they found a lot of munitions stored in a school, 10,000 rounds of machine gun bullets, hundreds of rounds of rocket-propelled grenades and a lot of school books extolling the virtues of Saddam Hussein. And I even -- they showed it to me, a cartoon of America, of Uncle Sam with a potbelly wetting his pants and bloodying his fist on a spike in a map of Iraq...

COOPER: Art.

HARRIS: ... which was a -- yes.

COOPER: Both from your own reporting and from accounts I've read over the last couple of days, I mean this battle has -- just has sounded extraordinarily fierce. I'm curious to know, and I know we don't talk about ongoing missions so use your judgement on this, but what is the nature of the resistance at this point? Is it just these irregulars or is it somehow more organized? And any sense of how large it is? I mean I read in the account a couple of days ago of as many as several hundred fighters massing near the train station and launching what seemed to be a pretty organized attack. What can you tell us about the nature of the opposition right now on the ground in Nasiriya?

HARRIS: Well the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines who are fighting along the river right now are taking sporadic -- you know sporadic attacks from snipers with RPGs and AK-47s. There doesn't seem to be a mass attack, as you have described. There are no numbers available, Anderson. And all I can tell you is that they believe they are fighting mostly irregulars.

But when they took this 11th Infantry headquarters near the Euphrates where their -- the other day, two days ago, they were there early in the morning, a night mission. And in the morning, two Iraqi soldiers in uniform showed up for work. They saw the Marines, turned around and left. The -- they were fired on and one was killed and one was wounded and medevaced. And a warrant officer was captured as well showing up for work. Those were in Army uniforms. So they believe they're fighting a combination of Iraqi army, but mostly paramilitary. And there's no real way to gauge except that the attacks and ambushes go on.

And when they do, what happens is what happened this morning. I watched over helicopter gunships move in for more than three dozen attacks with Hellfire missiles that just took the air or the oxygen out of the air, the sound waves, the shock waves shaking the ground. The explosions several hundred yards away. Smoke going up from positions of Iraqi machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Mortar fire was also sent into Iraqi positions from light armored U.S. vehicles. And the fighting, Anderson, goes on.

COOPER: It certainly does at that. Art Harris, appreciate you joining us this morning. Stay safe, Art. Easier said than done, I'm sure, but stay safe.

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 - 06:23   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Another of the stories we've been following all morning long back in Iraq is the battle in and around and for Nasiriya. It is a story that has captivated our attention for the last several days, one of the fiercest battles the Marines have been engaged in, according to a senior Marine or several senior Marines who have spoken to CNN, the fiercest battles the Marines have been engaged with since the Vietnam War.
For an update now on what is going on at this moment in Nasiriya, Art Harris who's embedded with the Marines there -- Art.

ART HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, infighting along the Euphrates River in Nasiriya. I spent the night with the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, all part of Task Force Tarawa, and they are spread out along the Euphrates in fighting holes. They've gone door to door, searched a number of buildings and headquarters starting several days ago, Anderson. They found the Baath Party headquarters here. They found models of terrain. They found maps, detailed lists of soldiers, photographs, party members and also the location of other headquarters.

With that information, they have been able to target the Saddam Fedayeen headquarters, as well Al Kut paramilitary headquarters, with precision guided bombs. Even though the Marines were very close to those sites, just within a few kilometers, took those out.

And then rolled into a makeshift, well it's actually by a school where they, along the Euphrates, where they found a lot of munitions stored in a school, 10,000 rounds of machine gun bullets, hundreds of rounds of rocket-propelled grenades and a lot of school books extolling the virtues of Saddam Hussein. And I even -- they showed it to me, a cartoon of America, of Uncle Sam with a potbelly wetting his pants and bloodying his fist on a spike in a map of Iraq...

COOPER: Art.

HARRIS: ... which was a -- yes.

COOPER: Both from your own reporting and from accounts I've read over the last couple of days, I mean this battle has -- just has sounded extraordinarily fierce. I'm curious to know, and I know we don't talk about ongoing missions so use your judgement on this, but what is the nature of the resistance at this point? Is it just these irregulars or is it somehow more organized? And any sense of how large it is? I mean I read in the account a couple of days ago of as many as several hundred fighters massing near the train station and launching what seemed to be a pretty organized attack. What can you tell us about the nature of the opposition right now on the ground in Nasiriya?

HARRIS: Well the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines who are fighting along the river right now are taking sporadic -- you know sporadic attacks from snipers with RPGs and AK-47s. There doesn't seem to be a mass attack, as you have described. There are no numbers available, Anderson. And all I can tell you is that they believe they are fighting mostly irregulars.

But when they took this 11th Infantry headquarters near the Euphrates where their -- the other day, two days ago, they were there early in the morning, a night mission. And in the morning, two Iraqi soldiers in uniform showed up for work. They saw the Marines, turned around and left. The -- they were fired on and one was killed and one was wounded and medevaced. And a warrant officer was captured as well showing up for work. Those were in Army uniforms. So they believe they're fighting a combination of Iraqi army, but mostly paramilitary. And there's no real way to gauge except that the attacks and ambushes go on.

And when they do, what happens is what happened this morning. I watched over helicopter gunships move in for more than three dozen attacks with Hellfire missiles that just took the air or the oxygen out of the air, the sound waves, the shock waves shaking the ground. The explosions several hundred yards away. Smoke going up from positions of Iraqi machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Mortar fire was also sent into Iraqi positions from light armored U.S. vehicles. And the fighting, Anderson, goes on.

COOPER: It certainly does at that. Art Harris, appreciate you joining us this morning. Stay safe, Art. Easier said than done, I'm sure, but stay safe.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com