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CNN Sunday Morning

Iraqi Army Broken into Guerrilla Units

Aired March 30, 2003 - 06:00   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.


(NEWS ALERT)
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And good afternoon from Kuwait City, I'm Daryn Kagan.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And a good morning to you, Daryn. And good morning, everyone. From CNN's global headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Anderson Cooper.

And you are going to be looking at a live picture of Baghdad where it is 2:02 p.m. in the afternoon. Smoke on the horizon, a picture we've all gotten used to seeing in these last 10 days or so.

Time now for an early briefing on stories that will be news later today.

President Bush returns to the White House today. You might remember he spent the weekend at the presidential retreat at Camp David. He led a videoconference with his war council there.

The next war briefing from U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar will take place this morning at 7:00 a.m., a little under an hour. General Tommy Franks will be speaking. And of course CNN plans live coverage.

And more war rallies are on tap today. Rallies for and against military action in Iraq are going to take place this afternoon in Philadelphia. We'll bring some of that to you.

Let's go back to Karl Penhaul. We have been speaking to him, really, throughout the morning for the last couple of hours. He, of course, embedded with the Army's 11th helicopter attack regiment. It is the unit closest to Baghdad. He joins us to talk about reaction to the suicide bombing that has killed four Americans -- Karl.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, certainly that suicide bombing yesterday not far from the base where I am now, here, the town of Najaf, has shaken a lot of nerves here. The soldiers here are extra alert and on the lookout for any signs that, like a small Iraqi guerrilla unit may be approaching the base, or for any signs of a repeat of yesterday's suicide bombing attack. Soldiers have been told to be extra vigilant at checkpoints. In addition to that, there are constant helicopter overflights checking out vehicles that come within a few hundred yards of the perimeter of this airbase.

Only this morning, Apache helicopters did find one white Datsun SUV, three male occupants dressed in civilian clothes. And with the Apache helicopters and a handful of ground troops, they were able to hold that vehicle, get the three occupants out and those three occupants have now been detained pending further questioning.

I've been looking at gun camera images taken during the course of that detention, some quite dramatic pictures. Certainly the situation seems very tense. Some of these -- some of the conversations between the Apache pilots indicate that tension that they were on the lookout for any slight movement from the detainees in case they would trigger any kind of explosive, as occurred in yesterday's car bomb attacking. In this case, no weapons, nor explosives were found in the SUV; but the men, like I say, have been detained for further questioning.

And military sources here say that it's expected that those men may have been an advanced party, some kind of scout party for these Iraqi Fedayeen units. That, however, not yet confirmed and investigation is still under way.

COOPER: Karl, as you well know, guerrilla warfare is a -- is a tactic of the weak, really, and it -- and it works by trying to provoke not only a harass -- not only is it a harassing tactic, but it works by trying to provoke an over response from the opponent. I imagine with, you know, fighting guerrilla war with a helicopter is a very difficult thing, especially trying to restrain it so you are not overresponding and therefore engendering ill will among the civilian population. Do -- I'm not asking you how they plan to do this, but do helicopter pilots feel equipped to fight this kind of a battle?

PENHAUL: I think they do feel equipped to fight any kind of battle from what they're saying. After all, the Apache helicopters are very sophisticated, a $25 million piece of kit, very sophisticated targeting and imaging...

COOPER: Karl, I'm sorry -- I'm sorry to jump in. I know I just asked you a question. We've got to go to Baghdad for a military spokesman that's giving a briefing.

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 - 06:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(NEWS ALERT)
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And good afternoon from Kuwait City, I'm Daryn Kagan.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And a good morning to you, Daryn. And good morning, everyone. From CNN's global headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Anderson Cooper.

And you are going to be looking at a live picture of Baghdad where it is 2:02 p.m. in the afternoon. Smoke on the horizon, a picture we've all gotten used to seeing in these last 10 days or so.

Time now for an early briefing on stories that will be news later today.

President Bush returns to the White House today. You might remember he spent the weekend at the presidential retreat at Camp David. He led a videoconference with his war council there.

The next war briefing from U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar will take place this morning at 7:00 a.m., a little under an hour. General Tommy Franks will be speaking. And of course CNN plans live coverage.

And more war rallies are on tap today. Rallies for and against military action in Iraq are going to take place this afternoon in Philadelphia. We'll bring some of that to you.

Let's go back to Karl Penhaul. We have been speaking to him, really, throughout the morning for the last couple of hours. He, of course, embedded with the Army's 11th helicopter attack regiment. It is the unit closest to Baghdad. He joins us to talk about reaction to the suicide bombing that has killed four Americans -- Karl.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, certainly that suicide bombing yesterday not far from the base where I am now, here, the town of Najaf, has shaken a lot of nerves here. The soldiers here are extra alert and on the lookout for any signs that, like a small Iraqi guerrilla unit may be approaching the base, or for any signs of a repeat of yesterday's suicide bombing attack. Soldiers have been told to be extra vigilant at checkpoints. In addition to that, there are constant helicopter overflights checking out vehicles that come within a few hundred yards of the perimeter of this airbase.

Only this morning, Apache helicopters did find one white Datsun SUV, three male occupants dressed in civilian clothes. And with the Apache helicopters and a handful of ground troops, they were able to hold that vehicle, get the three occupants out and those three occupants have now been detained pending further questioning.

I've been looking at gun camera images taken during the course of that detention, some quite dramatic pictures. Certainly the situation seems very tense. Some of these -- some of the conversations between the Apache pilots indicate that tension that they were on the lookout for any slight movement from the detainees in case they would trigger any kind of explosive, as occurred in yesterday's car bomb attacking. In this case, no weapons, nor explosives were found in the SUV; but the men, like I say, have been detained for further questioning.

And military sources here say that it's expected that those men may have been an advanced party, some kind of scout party for these Iraqi Fedayeen units. That, however, not yet confirmed and investigation is still under way.

COOPER: Karl, as you well know, guerrilla warfare is a -- is a tactic of the weak, really, and it -- and it works by trying to provoke not only a harass -- not only is it a harassing tactic, but it works by trying to provoke an over response from the opponent. I imagine with, you know, fighting guerrilla war with a helicopter is a very difficult thing, especially trying to restrain it so you are not overresponding and therefore engendering ill will among the civilian population. Do -- I'm not asking you how they plan to do this, but do helicopter pilots feel equipped to fight this kind of a battle?

PENHAUL: I think they do feel equipped to fight any kind of battle from what they're saying. After all, the Apache helicopters are very sophisticated, a $25 million piece of kit, very sophisticated targeting and imaging...

COOPER: Karl, I'm sorry -- I'm sorry to jump in. I know I just asked you a question. We've got to go to Baghdad for a military spokesman that's giving a briefing.

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