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CNN Saturday Morning News

Air Strikes Hit Lebanese Transmission Towers; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Travel to Middle East; Americans Continue to Evacuate Lebanon

Aired July 22, 2006 - 10:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Some other developments to tell you about right now, so let's get straight to CNN's Randi Kaye at the international desk. Randi.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty, all day we've been watching these air strikes, Israeli air strikes on these television towers, these transmission towers in Lebanon. We're getting word of two more now. LBC, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, is reporting that another air strike has occurred on a transmission tower in the town of Fiah (ph). That is in the Koura district in north Lebanon. You're looking at some live pictures there apparently of the situation there.

Also we're getting word of another air strike, Al-Jazeera this time is reporting that one, another air strike in Mashgara (ph). That is in the western Bekaa Valley so that's two more air strikes and just about 15 minutes ago I was telling you about a third one in Ito (ph) mountain in north Lebanon. That was a town of Aiden (ph) where that was occurring. So this now makes, we're coming up to now seven air strikes on television and transmission towers in Lebanon just today. So certainly a lot of action taking place there.

NGUYEN: That on many fronts, a lot of action to say the least, Randi Kaye, thank you for that.

LUI: Well we've seen some of the first pictures of Israeli tanks rolling into southern Lebanon this morning.

NGUYEN: And when we come back, CNN military analyst retired Brigadier General David Grange tells us what that means. Our extensive coverage of the crisis in the Middle East continues right here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: President Bush's weekly radio address this morning touched upon developments in the Middle East. The president is at his ranch in Crawford, Texas and so is our White House correspondent Elaine Quijano. A very good morning to you Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you Richard. And from his ranch in Crawford, President Bush engaged in some diplomacy this morning. Earlier today he called the prime minister of Turkey, continuing consultations on the situation in the Middle East. Now, the president and the prime minister discussed in particular the humanitarian situation facing the Lebanese people. They also discussed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's trip to the region. She's set to leave tomorrow. Now in his weekly radio address as well, the president talked about his decision to dispatch the secretary at this time and what the secretary's primary goal will be.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Secretary Rice will make it clear that resolving the crisis demands confronting the terrorist group that launched the attacks and the nations that support it. For many years Syria has been a primary sponsor of Hezbollah and it has helped provide Hezbollah with shipments of Iranian-made weapons.

Iran's regime has also repeatedly defied the international community with its ambition for nuclear weapons and aid to terrorist groups. Their actions threaten the entire Middle East and stand in the way of resolving the current crisis and bringing lasting peace to this troubled region.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, during her trip to the Middle East, the secretary will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, as well as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank. She's also going to attend a conference that will include Arab and European allies to discuss the humanitarian efforts going on in Lebanon.

And before that, though, she will head to the White House to meet with President Bush when he returns to Washington tomorrow. She will sit down not only with the president, but also with Saudi officials to discuss the Middle East crisis. Richard?

LUI: A very busy schedule there. Elaine Quijano, thank you very much, with the president in Crawford, Texas.

NGUYEN: Israel says its latest incursion into southern Lebanon is not the start of a full-scale ground invasion, just a widening pinpoint of operations. But, thousands of troops are lined up along the border and that signals a possibility of an all out offensive. Joining us from Oak Brook, Illinois, with some perspective, CNN military analyst Retired Army Brigadier General David Grange. General, thanks for your time this morning.

BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you.

NGUYEN: Let's talk about the developments this morning. What does it signal to you and what's the strategy, because here's what we've seen so far in just the past few hours. We've seen television and cell phone sites being knocked out in Lebanon, in many areas of Lebanon. Then you have seen Israeli tanks go into southern Lebanon. What does that tell you?

GRANGE: The knocking out of the cell phones and other signal communications is just to degrade the command and control that Hezbollah and the connectivity (ph) back to Beirut and other areas, maybe Syria, where they can coordinate and report on Israeli movements, et cetera. That's just to help isolate those forces. The fighting right now so far is to take down strong points to gain footholds and to continue to degrade the missile firing capabilities of the Hezbollah as they move north into an area to create a buffer zone.

NGUYEN: Looking at the movement and looking at the strategy, does it appear that a ground assault is something that could be coming soon?

GRANGE: You know, the perception of ground assault depends on what position you're in. If you're a platoon leader leading 30 to 40 troops, you're in a ground assault, much of that going on right now. If you're a general of a corps or a division, a ground assault may mean that you already have one brigade size which is let's say 5,000 troops already across the border. So I would say that it's in perspective of where you command, where you lead the troops. You have a lot of small ground assaults going on with no large assault currently happening.

NGUYEN: I got you. So in these small ground assaults as we wait for the official, the large scale one to occur if and when it occurs, mind you, the IDF spokesperson earlier today was very careful in not calling this a ground assault. But given what you just said in the small scale ground assaults, what are they looking to do? And what are they facing once they get into Lebanon, which is where they are right now?

GRANGE: What happens in these type of fights, Americans have experienced this quite a lot, themselves, recently in Iraq. And that is that your air power cannot find all these targets. You have Hezbollah to train to avoid detection from the air. Whether it be from drones, whether it be from piloted aircraft, whatever the case may be. So they lay low and it's brushy, very hilly terrain around villages and that out of sight, out of mind from a lot of the technological means to find them.

What you have to do is send in squads and platoons, you know, 10 to 30, 40 men in different areas to search out and destroy these pockets of Hezbollah, because dispersal is their survival. So that's what you have going on right now and they are going to continue to do that and then move in larger forces as needed.

NGUYEN: So are you talking about street-to-street, house-to- house, guerilla warfare?

GRANGE: Well, it's not just house-to-house, that happens in the villages and small little outposts, also throughout this -- even though it is rather open when you look long distances close in it is - there's a lot of places to hide in this rugged, hilly, brushy terrain.

NGUYEN: When this ground assault, if and when it occurs, a full scale one mind you, general, when that occurs if and when, would that incite others like Syria and Iran to jump in this game? GRANGE: Pretty hard for Iran to get involved because of their geographic location. And I don't see them using any kind of air force. It would be stupid on their part. On Syria, they are just kind of on the fence there. Whatever they do, if they get involved, they will be hammered for sure. You can bet that the Israelis have detailed plans on how to react to any movement, any response from Syria on their right flank.

NGUYEN: General Grange, we appreciate your time this morning, a CNN military analyst. Thanks for your insight.

GRANGE: My pleasure.

LUI: Cyprus is struggling mightily right now to handle the thousands of evacuees from Lebanon now crowding the island's ports and hotels. CNN's Chris Burn joins us live from Larnaca, Cyprus. Chris, is the situation getting better?

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Richard, it's not getting much worse at this point. There's a constant flow really, 24,000 people have arrived here since Monday and they're expecting thousands more every day. Over my shoulder a French chartered ship that arrived this morning with some 1,000 people. The "USS Nashville" arrived over in Limassol, also around mid-day with another 1,000 people. It is constant and how are they dealing with this?

Well, the officials here say they're able to deal with it up to now. Most of the people, in fact we have only seen one person who might have been injured from the conflict. But for the most part, these are people with symptoms of either stress, anxiety from the conflict or from bad food, the heat. It's a very hot climate as they make this trip on those ships over here, sea sickness, that kind of thing.

Hundreds of people have been treated and the hospitals here we're told by emergency officials are handling it, but they are at about 80 percent capacity. If there's a very large influx of people all of a sudden, if the situation in Lebanon does get much worse and a lot of people start heading for the exits, that they could have an emergency situation here. I asked the head of emergency services here in Cyprus earlier today and he said -- I asked him do you need international help? He said not yet, Richard.

LUI: Chris, you were telling us over the past week that the numbers are we're looking at about 100,000, 120,000 coming into Cyprus and that the Americans are one small part. Any sense of whether they are halfway through this process of getting everybody out?

BURNS: Well, it's curious Richard, is at the beginning what we heard some of the numbers among the 25,000 estimated Americans in Lebanon. We thought that there would be maybe 4,000 coming out. Now as of yesterday, officials said that they had about 8,000 that came out and they expect much more. You see now that the U.S. operation is expanding beyond Cyprus now. Today for the first time we're seeing a ship with a thousand people going over to Turkey. The operation is expanding to Turkey to the port of Mersin. There are also U.S. military planes waiting in the air base in (INAUDIBLE) Turkey, waiting to take Americans back. They seem to be gearing up and getting ready for many, many more people possibly coming. This is what people are worried about here as well. Thousands more people could be coming and then you might have a difficult emergency situation.

LUI: All right. Chris Burns.

BURNS: That's why the U.S. is expanding to Turkey.

LUI: Right, Chris Burns watching the humanitarian efforts there in Larnaca. Appreciate it. Thanks.

Well a question we're getting from many of you, how can I help the humanitarian effort so far?

NGUYEN: Next right here on this special edition of CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: We are closely monitoring all of the developments all across the region in the Mideast. Joining us now with the latest is Randi Kaye. And Randi, I understand there are some air strikes in northern Beirut. Is that true?

KAYE: Actually in the southern suburbs. We're going to get to that in just a second. First I want to tell you, Betty, the Israeli military now, this is being reported by the Associated Press just coming into CNN on the international desk here.

The Israeli military says Hezbollah guerillas have attacked an Israeli military base near the border wounding one soldier. That is the very latest from there. Now, yet that's the very latest from there on that one. As you mentioned, we do have some video coming in from APTN (ph) that we can show you.

This is the southern suburbs of Beirut, very close to the airport. The airport in Beirut is in this area. We are told these are new air strikes from Israeli forces there taking place in Beirut just moments ago in the southern suburbs. So that is the latest coming into the international desk here at CNN. We will keep you updated as we continue to monitor these feeds. We're not sure certainly not yet of casualties or what was hit at the video that you're looking at, but once again Beirut, southern suburbs, coming to us from APTN, new Israeli air strikes.

NGUYEN: A lot happening very quickly. Randi staying on top of that for us. Thank you.

LUI: Well as the conflict in the Middle East escalates, more people have become displaced. The United Nations along with Kofi Annan putting an estimate at around 700,000 people at this moment. Veronica de la Cruz you can see is here to tell us how you can help in all this. VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Richard, like you know, we've set up this special report online CNN.com/Mideast. There you can learn more about how the conflict began. You can also read e- mail from people in the region.

And you can help people who have been caught in the middle of this conflict. As you know, the Lebanese prime minister is describing his country as a disaster zone. People are crammed into bomb shelters. They have no running water and no food. Thousands of people Richard have evacuated like you mentioned the United Nations now saying more than 700,000 people now displaced.

The Israeli defense force is reporting Hezbollah attacks have killed 15 civilians and 19 soldiers in Israel. In Lebanon, the prime minister says more than 300 have been killed and more than a thousand others wounded. So here's how you can help. On this page you will find links to more than 15 different aid organizations.

There's a link to aid groups like Americares, who is shipping medicine and antibiotics to the region, Habitat for Humanity, who will help the rebuilding effort, Mercy Corps, who is providing food, bedding and other relief supplies and UNICEF Richard, which you know is part of the United Nations organization and serves children living in poverty around the world.

You can access all the Web sites at these addresses at these addresses that you're looking at right now on your screen. You can also log on to our Web site, CNN.com/Mideast. That will give you a complete list of those aid groups as well as our special report.

LUI: A lot of good places where everybody around the world can actually pitch in and help them out there.

DE LA CRUZ: And a lot of good information, as well.

LUI: Yeah, good stuff, OK, thanks Veronica. More coverage of the Middle East crisis as Israeli tanks are pushing into southern Lebanon. Will this lead to a full scale ground assault? That's the question. We're live throughout the region as we follow this developing story. CNN SATURDAY MORNING continues in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: I want to get you the latest information out of the Mideast. Let's go to CNN's Randi Kaye at the international desk. Randi what do you know?

KAYE: Well Betty all day now, we have been talking about the Israeli attacks and air strikes against Lebanon and Hezbollah forces there. Hezbollah is fighting back. We're getting word now that Hezbollah has wounded an Israeli soldier. This attack coming at (INAUDIBLE) army base which is near the Israeli town of Avivim.

That's according to a spokesperson for the Israeli defense forces. They are confirming that one Israeli soldier has been wounded. Military sources are saying according to the Associated Press that the attack apparently involved sniper fire from guerillas on the Lebanese side of the border.

We want to show you some of the action that has been occurring on the border throughout the day already. We want to take you to Maroun al Ras. You can see there, there are certainly some tanks and some armored vehicles moving into that area. Israeli forces have been moving in, soldiers there on the move. They have knocked down a border fence at a United Nations observation post.

This is a Lebanese border village just across from the city of Avivim where that soldier was wounded that I was just telling you about. This is not a major offensive, not a massive incursion, not a full-scale ground invasion, want to be clear on that, just an effort to pinpoint their operations on the part of the Israelis and to take out some of the infrastructure there. But the Israel defense forces also confirming that their forces are there in Maroun al Ras.

We also understand that the Hezbollah militants are firing back which could be how that soldier in Avivim was wounded. We also want to show you some other activity that's been taking place, some television towers, some transmission towers being hit earlier today in some areas. We're talking about at least seven transmission towers. You can see some of the chaos that occurred earlier. LBC, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation reporting one transmission tower in Fiah, in the Cora district was hit.

Al-Jazeera reporting another air strike in Mashgara in the western Bekaa valley, also in Ito Mountain in northern Lebanon, one near Tripoli, Mount Lebanon and two near Juni (ph). LBC is reporting as we take a look at some of the search for the survivors, very, very desperate search to find some of these people who are buried in the rubble.

The network which is the leading private network there in Lebanon reporting that one of their employees has been killed at a tower that was attacked in Fataq (ph) and two injured at a transmission tower that was attacked in Sanin (ph), in north Lebanon. This is considered to be the first major air strikes in the heartland of the country.

Now a total of seven transmission towers under attack by Israeli forces. Phone service is out. These networks have been knocked off the air certainly in Lebanon. But their satellites are still working so we are able to still bring in all the pictures that we can here at the CNN international desk and continue to bring them to you as the people there continue to search for survivors. That's the very latest.

NGUYEN: Randi Kaye you cover a lot of ground. Thank you for bringing us up to speed on all the developments so far within the past three hours that we've been on the air. It's been a lot, a lot to tell you about. So thank you for that. And of course, we are going to continue our coverage of the crisis in the Middle East as things develop today. We're going to take just a short break and be right back after this. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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