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CNN Sunday Morning
War in Iraq: Civilian Drives Pickup Truck Into Line of Soldiers in Kuwait
Aired March 30, 2003 - 07:00 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning and good afternoon here in Kuwait City. I'm Bill Hemmer. Welcome to Sunday. Still awaiting that briefing right now. Should begin any minute now down in Qatar.
The head of Central Command, Tommy Franks, will do the briefing today. He'll be talking to reporters in a matter of moments. We'll have that for you when it starts.
While we await some breaking news from here in Kuwait, a civilian a short time ago has driven a pick-up truck into a line of soldiers at a military store at Camp Udari (ph). That's north and west of Kuwait City, out in the desert, going up that main highway that runs up to the border with Iraq. Details right now, very sketchy. Not many at this point.
Reports thought of shooting at the time. And we're also told ambulances have been called to the scene there. Certainly when we get more, you'll have it here.
All this comes now as U.S. forces holding the territory feeling especially vulnerable after a suicide bombing yesterday. The joint chiefs chairman, General Richard Myers, says U.S. forces are having to adjust their tactics when dealing with Iraqi civilians in order to protect themselves. Meanwhile, the Iraqi resistance surprising commanders to some degree.
British forces continue to destroy tanks and break up paramilitary units around Basra. The deputy commander for British forces says the coalition did not fully understand Saddam Hussein's rule of fear, to quote them, their rule of fear in the country of Iraq.
Now while we await for General Franks, let's bring in Heidi Collins working today at the CNN Center. Paula has a well deserved day off today.
Heidi, good afternoon and good morning to you.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and good afternoon, Bill. Thanks so much. Let's go ahead and get a check on some of the latest war developments now.
CNN's Art Harris embedded with the 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Marines says sporadic fighting continues along the Euphrates River near Nasiriya. He says Marines found one Ba'ath Party headquarters, which led them to other military sites, including a school where they found 10,000 rounds of machine gun ammunition.
CNN's Kevin Sites reporting from the northern Iraqi town of Chamchiral (ph) says he's seen the first signs of U.S. Special Forces operating in the area. He also saw B-52s overhead shortly before hearing explosions from the vicinity of the Iraqi controlled city of Kirkuk.
Iraq's information minister says coalition forces destroyed almost 76,000 tons of food and supplies in Basra even as they were announcing the arrival of some 200 tons of aid. The Pentagon is denying the information minister's claim that Iraq shot down a U.S. helicopter.
For now, we send it back to Bill in Kuwait.
HEMMER: Heidi, thank you. And to our viewers, we're going to be hearing from many of our reporters throughout the region of Iraq. Walter Rodgers still with the 3-7th Cavalry somewhere between the town of Najaf and Baghdad. Martin Savidge is in central Iraq. And Christiane Amanpour is around the Kuwaiti border in the southeastern part of the country.
First though, as we wait, Tommy Franks to the Pentagon. For the very latest from there today, here's Patty Davis.
Patty, good morning.
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill. Well the Pentagon says that it has received those initial reports of a truck being driven into a group of soldiers in Kuwait, but it says it is awaiting further details on that report.
Now meanwhile, Iraq is claiming that has shot down an Apache helicopter, downing two pilots with it in southern Iraq. Now the Pentagon says that there are no reports of a lost aircraft or an aircraft down.
Now there are also bloodied U.S. battle fatigues that have been found in a hospital, an Iraqi hospital in Nasiriya, that according to Pentagon officials. They had name tags on them. U.S. flag patches ripped off. U.S. troops also discovered what looked like a torture device, a metal cot and a car battery. The uniforms appearing to be those of missing soldiers, members of the 507th Maintenance Unit that were ambushed a week ago today.
Now Bill, forensic testing to be done on those uniforms to see just who they belong to. Back to you.
HEMMER: Patty, we'd like to pick your brain just a bit more about what Pentagon officials are telling you about what Richard Myers is saying about some sort of adjustment now taking place as a result of a suicide bombing yesterday that Centcom now says killed four U.S. soldiers. How will the tactics change? Do we know? DAVIS: Well, they are being very, very careful. And they realize now that this is a major threat. So they're approaching these vehicles very, very carefully here. Kind of a change, something that they certainly hoped wouldn't happen here at the Pentagon, but now they realize that they have got to be on the lookout for this as well -- Bill.
HEMMER: Patty, thanks. Patty Davis at the Pentagon. We'll be in touch throughout the day here.
Meanwhile, one update, Heidi, quickly on this situation at Camp Udari (ph) northwest of Kuwait City. Now we're being told by Central Command in Qatar, 15 injuries, no fatalities, but 15 injuries as a result of this vehicle that was driven into a group of U.S. soldiers waiting to buy supplies at a military source there on the base. More when we get it.
By the way, you find your Apaches there, your Blackhawk helicopters there, a large staging point for the past two months now for that type of aircraft in the Kuwaiti desert. Heidi, back to you now at the CNN Center.
COLLINS: All right, Bill, thanks so much. As we wait for the Centcom briefing coming up here just any moment, we'd like to bring in Major General Don Shepperd who has been with us for quite some time now doing military analysis.
And you know, everything that's happened in Najaf with these suicide bombers. We've been talking quite a bit about how this might change the scope of things as far as military strategy. And we've been hearing that they're not going to change military strategy, but I would think as a soldier, certainly you're going to be on your guard and having defenses up any time you're approached as civilians.
MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, Heidi, this is not going to change the overall military strategy, but force protection has been on the minds of commanders for a long time. And we're reminded about it again that it's a dangerous world out there.
There is no silver bullet on how you can avoid all these type of attacks. Anyone that is a suicide bomber and that's willing to strap on an explosive belt and walk into other and blow themselves up is -- there's no way to defend against that, other than to be very watchful. It's the same thing that's going on in Israel right now between the -- we see the suicide bombs going on all over Israel. You establish checkpoints. You watch for suspicious people. You put your facilities for sleeping, messing, that type of thing away from roads. You be careful about who you let enter various areas, but there is no silver bullet which you can be safe.
You simply continue about your work with your strategic plan, being careful in your rear as you try to clear the country and change the regime.
COLLINS: Does this get a little exhausting, I would imagine? We talked a little bit, too about the trust factor. Who -- the good guys and the bad guys and trying to pick them all out.
SHEPPERD: Yes, it makes it really difficult. And the main reason it makes it difficult is what you're trying to do is when the hearts and minds of the people. And you want to be friendly to them. And you want to take care of their kids. You want to put your arm around them and hand them things. And yet at the same time, you know that any one of them could blow you up. So it really slows you down and it changes your mindset out there. It makes you suspicious and it does get very, very exhausting.
We lived with it in Vietnam the whole time we were over there. We knew that anybody could walk by us at any time and slip a grenade at us. You depend upon workers in the areas. And it's not all military where you are. You depend upon workers for your food service and that type of thing. Driving your trucks so there's no answer to this, other than be really, really careful and continue on your job.
COLLINS: Guerrilla warfare?
SHEPPERD: It is. And ever since guerrilla warfare and it's terrorism, Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, very good. We will get more on that, I'm sure, as the day continues.
For now, we are going to send it back to Bill Hemmer in Kuwait City. Hey, Bill.
HEMMER: Heidi, thanks again. To our viewers, we will take you to Centcom as soon as that gets underway. We're told any minute right now. General Tommy Franks, head of Central Command will take care of the briefing today. We have not seen him many times. We do not see him daily at these briefings, but he will conduct it today. We'll get you there after a quick break. Back in a moment with more.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: You are looking at a live picture now of not a whole lot going on, but we certainly are waiting for the Centcom briefing and that we will be bringing to you. And we are getting ready to start here it appears.
General Tommy Franks, I'm sure, will be taking the podium just momentarily. We will monitor that until he comes forward.
In the meantime, we have been following developments overnight in Iraq. Here now are the highlights this morning from our reporters on the front lines. We begin with Tom Mintier.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The information we're receiving overnight is that the air campaign against the Republican Guard and against Baghdad are probably the heaviest of the entire campaign so far. A Centcom official told me that they were using much heavier bombers, apparently B-52s to do this operation. Asked him if it was a carpet bombing operation. He told me that if you were standing down below and looking up, you would probably characterize it that way. He didn't.
So an indication that the campaign is intensifying at least from the air. And this bombing of Republican Guard units apparently an effort to soften them up before any ground offensive take place.
Also, telling us before the briefing that an al Samoud missile was taken out by a predator. A predator is an unmanned vehicle that is usually used as an observation platform, but it does have strike capability. A hellfire missile was apparently used to take out the al Samoud missile on its launcher.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At about 8:30 local time, that's about an hour and a half ago, we heard coalition airplanes flying overhead, actually I do hear them -- no.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: All right, we take you to Tommy Franks now in Qatr.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Soldiers in Kuwait>
Aired March 30, 2003 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning and good afternoon here in Kuwait City. I'm Bill Hemmer. Welcome to Sunday. Still awaiting that briefing right now. Should begin any minute now down in Qatar.
The head of Central Command, Tommy Franks, will do the briefing today. He'll be talking to reporters in a matter of moments. We'll have that for you when it starts.
While we await some breaking news from here in Kuwait, a civilian a short time ago has driven a pick-up truck into a line of soldiers at a military store at Camp Udari (ph). That's north and west of Kuwait City, out in the desert, going up that main highway that runs up to the border with Iraq. Details right now, very sketchy. Not many at this point.
Reports thought of shooting at the time. And we're also told ambulances have been called to the scene there. Certainly when we get more, you'll have it here.
All this comes now as U.S. forces holding the territory feeling especially vulnerable after a suicide bombing yesterday. The joint chiefs chairman, General Richard Myers, says U.S. forces are having to adjust their tactics when dealing with Iraqi civilians in order to protect themselves. Meanwhile, the Iraqi resistance surprising commanders to some degree.
British forces continue to destroy tanks and break up paramilitary units around Basra. The deputy commander for British forces says the coalition did not fully understand Saddam Hussein's rule of fear, to quote them, their rule of fear in the country of Iraq.
Now while we await for General Franks, let's bring in Heidi Collins working today at the CNN Center. Paula has a well deserved day off today.
Heidi, good afternoon and good morning to you.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and good afternoon, Bill. Thanks so much. Let's go ahead and get a check on some of the latest war developments now.
CNN's Art Harris embedded with the 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Marines says sporadic fighting continues along the Euphrates River near Nasiriya. He says Marines found one Ba'ath Party headquarters, which led them to other military sites, including a school where they found 10,000 rounds of machine gun ammunition.
CNN's Kevin Sites reporting from the northern Iraqi town of Chamchiral (ph) says he's seen the first signs of U.S. Special Forces operating in the area. He also saw B-52s overhead shortly before hearing explosions from the vicinity of the Iraqi controlled city of Kirkuk.
Iraq's information minister says coalition forces destroyed almost 76,000 tons of food and supplies in Basra even as they were announcing the arrival of some 200 tons of aid. The Pentagon is denying the information minister's claim that Iraq shot down a U.S. helicopter.
For now, we send it back to Bill in Kuwait.
HEMMER: Heidi, thank you. And to our viewers, we're going to be hearing from many of our reporters throughout the region of Iraq. Walter Rodgers still with the 3-7th Cavalry somewhere between the town of Najaf and Baghdad. Martin Savidge is in central Iraq. And Christiane Amanpour is around the Kuwaiti border in the southeastern part of the country.
First though, as we wait, Tommy Franks to the Pentagon. For the very latest from there today, here's Patty Davis.
Patty, good morning.
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill. Well the Pentagon says that it has received those initial reports of a truck being driven into a group of soldiers in Kuwait, but it says it is awaiting further details on that report.
Now meanwhile, Iraq is claiming that has shot down an Apache helicopter, downing two pilots with it in southern Iraq. Now the Pentagon says that there are no reports of a lost aircraft or an aircraft down.
Now there are also bloodied U.S. battle fatigues that have been found in a hospital, an Iraqi hospital in Nasiriya, that according to Pentagon officials. They had name tags on them. U.S. flag patches ripped off. U.S. troops also discovered what looked like a torture device, a metal cot and a car battery. The uniforms appearing to be those of missing soldiers, members of the 507th Maintenance Unit that were ambushed a week ago today.
Now Bill, forensic testing to be done on those uniforms to see just who they belong to. Back to you.
HEMMER: Patty, we'd like to pick your brain just a bit more about what Pentagon officials are telling you about what Richard Myers is saying about some sort of adjustment now taking place as a result of a suicide bombing yesterday that Centcom now says killed four U.S. soldiers. How will the tactics change? Do we know? DAVIS: Well, they are being very, very careful. And they realize now that this is a major threat. So they're approaching these vehicles very, very carefully here. Kind of a change, something that they certainly hoped wouldn't happen here at the Pentagon, but now they realize that they have got to be on the lookout for this as well -- Bill.
HEMMER: Patty, thanks. Patty Davis at the Pentagon. We'll be in touch throughout the day here.
Meanwhile, one update, Heidi, quickly on this situation at Camp Udari (ph) northwest of Kuwait City. Now we're being told by Central Command in Qatar, 15 injuries, no fatalities, but 15 injuries as a result of this vehicle that was driven into a group of U.S. soldiers waiting to buy supplies at a military source there on the base. More when we get it.
By the way, you find your Apaches there, your Blackhawk helicopters there, a large staging point for the past two months now for that type of aircraft in the Kuwaiti desert. Heidi, back to you now at the CNN Center.
COLLINS: All right, Bill, thanks so much. As we wait for the Centcom briefing coming up here just any moment, we'd like to bring in Major General Don Shepperd who has been with us for quite some time now doing military analysis.
And you know, everything that's happened in Najaf with these suicide bombers. We've been talking quite a bit about how this might change the scope of things as far as military strategy. And we've been hearing that they're not going to change military strategy, but I would think as a soldier, certainly you're going to be on your guard and having defenses up any time you're approached as civilians.
MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, Heidi, this is not going to change the overall military strategy, but force protection has been on the minds of commanders for a long time. And we're reminded about it again that it's a dangerous world out there.
There is no silver bullet on how you can avoid all these type of attacks. Anyone that is a suicide bomber and that's willing to strap on an explosive belt and walk into other and blow themselves up is -- there's no way to defend against that, other than to be very watchful. It's the same thing that's going on in Israel right now between the -- we see the suicide bombs going on all over Israel. You establish checkpoints. You watch for suspicious people. You put your facilities for sleeping, messing, that type of thing away from roads. You be careful about who you let enter various areas, but there is no silver bullet which you can be safe.
You simply continue about your work with your strategic plan, being careful in your rear as you try to clear the country and change the regime.
COLLINS: Does this get a little exhausting, I would imagine? We talked a little bit, too about the trust factor. Who -- the good guys and the bad guys and trying to pick them all out.
SHEPPERD: Yes, it makes it really difficult. And the main reason it makes it difficult is what you're trying to do is when the hearts and minds of the people. And you want to be friendly to them. And you want to take care of their kids. You want to put your arm around them and hand them things. And yet at the same time, you know that any one of them could blow you up. So it really slows you down and it changes your mindset out there. It makes you suspicious and it does get very, very exhausting.
We lived with it in Vietnam the whole time we were over there. We knew that anybody could walk by us at any time and slip a grenade at us. You depend upon workers in the areas. And it's not all military where you are. You depend upon workers for your food service and that type of thing. Driving your trucks so there's no answer to this, other than be really, really careful and continue on your job.
COLLINS: Guerrilla warfare?
SHEPPERD: It is. And ever since guerrilla warfare and it's terrorism, Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, very good. We will get more on that, I'm sure, as the day continues.
For now, we are going to send it back to Bill Hemmer in Kuwait City. Hey, Bill.
HEMMER: Heidi, thanks again. To our viewers, we will take you to Centcom as soon as that gets underway. We're told any minute right now. General Tommy Franks, head of Central Command will take care of the briefing today. We have not seen him many times. We do not see him daily at these briefings, but he will conduct it today. We'll get you there after a quick break. Back in a moment with more.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: You are looking at a live picture now of not a whole lot going on, but we certainly are waiting for the Centcom briefing and that we will be bringing to you. And we are getting ready to start here it appears.
General Tommy Franks, I'm sure, will be taking the podium just momentarily. We will monitor that until he comes forward.
In the meantime, we have been following developments overnight in Iraq. Here now are the highlights this morning from our reporters on the front lines. We begin with Tom Mintier.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The information we're receiving overnight is that the air campaign against the Republican Guard and against Baghdad are probably the heaviest of the entire campaign so far. A Centcom official told me that they were using much heavier bombers, apparently B-52s to do this operation. Asked him if it was a carpet bombing operation. He told me that if you were standing down below and looking up, you would probably characterize it that way. He didn't.
So an indication that the campaign is intensifying at least from the air. And this bombing of Republican Guard units apparently an effort to soften them up before any ground offensive take place.
Also, telling us before the briefing that an al Samoud missile was taken out by a predator. A predator is an unmanned vehicle that is usually used as an observation platform, but it does have strike capability. A hellfire missile was apparently used to take out the al Samoud missile on its launcher.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At about 8:30 local time, that's about an hour and a half ago, we heard coalition airplanes flying overhead, actually I do hear them -- no.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: All right, we take you to Tommy Franks now in Qatr.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Soldiers in Kuwait>
