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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports
Video of A-Day Released; U.S. Helicopters Come Under Fire Near Baghdad; Syrian Civilian on Bus Killed by Coalition Bombs
Aired March 24, 2003 - 17:00 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.
ANNOUNCER: CNN live this hour: WOLF BLITZER REPORTS from Kuwait City. With correspondents from around the world, WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts now.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Sixty miles from Baghdad. Soon coalition ground forces may face off with their toughest foe yet, Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard.
It's dark over Baghdad now, but bombs continue to fall. CNN correspondent Gary Streiker tells us the air war is about to enter a new and more intense phase.
In Kuwait, the missiles keep on coming, every few hours it seems, people in the small but rich emirate hear the sirens signaling danger may be approaching.
Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting live tonight from Kuwait City. Let's begin with late developments surrounding American prisoners of war.
Within the past two hours Iraqi television has aired video it says shows two American Apache helicopter pilots Iraq claims to have captured. CNN will not air the video until we confirm the pilots' families have been notified.
Earlier Iraqi TV showed what appears to be an intact Apache helicopter and two helmets. U.S. central command confirmed that an Apache is missing in Iraq. In the video, allegedly of the pilots, two men wearing flight suits are seen separately, talking to someone off camera. They appear to be in good condition.
And the Associated Press is reporting that a 19-year-old West Virginia woman is among a dozen soldiers reported missing in Iraq. The AP quotes her father as saying she's with the Army's 507th Maintenance Company. Three other soldiers from that unit are confirmed prisoners of war.
Now to some of most dramatic pictures of the latest fighting in Iraq. Battles continue in the southern city of Nasiriyah, about 100 miles south of Baghdad. A senior commander says at least 10 U.S. Marines were killed there yesterday, 12 were wounded. And 16 are still considered missing.
These are the scenes of yesterday's fighting in Basra. Britain says one of its troops was killed in action there yesterday. It was first report of a British combat death. More bombs fell on Baghdad today. There were multiple waves and an air force building was among the targets. There also were bombings in Mosul in northern
Iraq. We have correspondents watching developments in the air and on the ground. Watching the air war for us this hour, CNN's Frank Buckley, he's aboard the USS Constellation, and Carl Penhaul, he's with the Army's 11th Attack helicopter regimen.
Watching the ground war for us, CNN's Alessio Vinci. He's at battle for Nasiriyah. Dr. Sanjay Gupta with the so-called Devil Doctors, a brave group of field medics. And Jason Bellini, he's in southern Iraq, as well.
But first, the likelihood of urban warfare in the Iraqi capital appears to be getting closer. Let's look at where things stand right now.
Central Iraq, the focus of anticipation with a battle for Baghdad possibly just ahead. Coalition forces struck about 60 miles south of the Iraqi capital near Karbala, according to the British prime minister, Tony Blair. They could soon encounter a division of Iraq's elite Republican Guard in place to protect Baghdad, he said.
Near Karbala, Iraqi villagers circle around a U.S. Apache attack helicopter that went down during a three-hour attack on Republican Guard positions. U.S. officials say the fate of the two-man crew is uncertain.
In Baghdad, successive waves of explosions were felt, first at about 7:05 p.m. local time, 11:05 a.m. eastern.
In the south, Iraqi resistance is still fierce. A British soldier killed in action today near Basra.
Intense battles continued in the southern city of Nasiriyah, 100 miles south of Baghdad. Over the weekend, at least ten Marines were killed, 12 were wounded and 16 still considered missing.
Iraqi troops were also reportedly engaging coalition forces in the Al-Faw Peninsula and the port city of Umm Qasr.
And the northern front is heating up. CNN's Ben Wedeman tells us at least 200 U.S. special operations troops have been inserted in air fields near Irbil and Sulaymaniyah.
We've just received some remarkable pictures of navy planes in combat, taken by the pilots themselves. The planes are on the aircraft carrier the U.S.S. Constellation in the Persian Gulf. And that's where we find our Frank Buckley -- Frank.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, air operations continue off the USS Constellation. At any given moment over Iraq right now, there is some U.S. Navy air assets that are flying over from one of the five aircraft carriers in the region. One of the aircraft that is frequently over Iraq right now is this F-14 Tomcat. You can see it's a two-seat aircraft. The person who sits in the back is someone called a RIO, a radar intercept officer. Today, the USS Constellation released some videos shot by a RIO during first the first night of strikes into Iraq. It's our first firsthand look into Baghdad during that first night of strikes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over) In the night sky, destination Baghdad. It is first night of coalition air strikes, the beginning of A-Day. A radar intercept officer in the back seat of another F-14 tomcat is shooting this home video through his night vision goggles.
The F-14 and other jets are from the USS Constellation in the Persian Gulf. As they approach Iraq, the jets of each strike package get gas from tanker planes.
It is a beautiful, starry night, but the lights down below are even more striking. On the ground in Baghdad, the source of the lights, explosions from coalition air strikes and cruise missile hits. Triple-A seen as small bursts of light in the air and surface-to-air missiles, not seen on this tape, are going up.
Pilots returning to the Constellation described a spectacular light show.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just continuous constant explosions going of all over the place. Saw the Triple-A coming up, occasionally see some missile bursts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think anything we could have thought of would have prepared us for what we were seeing happening on the ground out there.
BUCKLEY: Their job done, the strike packages fly out of Iraq and return to the Constellation. The plan known as the "shock and awe" campaign, is under way.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BUCKLEY: And those aircraft returned safely that night as they have every night. As we say, Wolf, air operations continue. Aircraft for the Constellation continuing to fixed target, as well as providing close air support for coalition troops on the ground -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Frank Buckley reporting from the USS Constellation in the Persian Gulf. Thanks very much.
And as you were making -- as we were getting that report from Frank Buckley, once again here in Kuwait City, air raid sirens have indeed gone off. Sirens going off right now, suggesting that there is a possibility more Iraqi surface surface-to-surface missiles may be attempted to be fired at this small emirate.
Earlier today there were two such missiles, both of which were intercepted by Patriot air defense missiles. The Al Samoud missile was thought to be perhaps one of them. The Ababil missile was perhaps thought to be the other one. So far U.S. military officials say no SCUD missiles have been fired at -- at Kuwait.
Happy to report to you even as I'm talking the all clear siren has now just gone off. The all clear siren once again suggest no more imminent threat to anyone here in Kuwait City or elsewhere around the country. This happens every three or four hours.
Fortunately, throughout all of these ordeals there has been no serious injury no injury whatsoever. All of these incoming ground-to- ground missiles have either been intercepted by the new generation of Patriot air defense missiles or they've fall into the water, into the Persian Gulf, or into the deserts of Kuwait.
We'll continue to watch what's happening here in Kuwait City, continue to find out if this was, in fact, a ground-to-ground missile.
Let's move on now as we mentioned, U.S. Army helicopter gunships brought a fierce battle today and they fought that battle near Baghdad. Chopper pilots say they feel lucky to be alive because of the heavy fire and the downing of one of the gunships.
CNN's Carl Penhaul is with the unit involved in that attack, the 11th Attack Helicopter Regiment.
CARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What I can tell you is that the other Apache helicopters that flew alongside that came under heavy anti-aircraft fire. They flew a mission to attack Republican Guard positions around the town of Karbala.
The aim of the mission was to destroy some T-72 tank emplacements, up to 90 T-72 tanks in that region, and heavy artillery pieces. But as the helicopters flew into the target area, they came under heavy anti-aircraft fire, both from military emplacements and also, commanders say, from residential areas.
In an effort not to target civilians or cause possible civilian deaths in many of the helicopters didn't unleash their Hellfire misses for fear of destroying homes and the like.
On return to the airfield where the Apache helicopters are now, the pilots throughout the day today have been assessing the damage that they received to their craft. Not one of them has escaped without a bullet impact. Most of them have anything between 10 and 20 bullet impacts. One even had an engine blown off by a rocket propelled grenade.
BLITZER: And now to the state of the Iraqi leadership.
While the U.S. military says Saddam Hussein is losing control, images from Iraq today are designed to show the contrary. A recording of Saddam Hussein, which may or may not be recent, a news conference from the deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz showed reports of his death to be greatly exaggerated. And the foreign minister, Naji Sabri, at a Cairo summit of Arab foreign ministers, warns Arab nations against, and I'm quoting here, "stabbing the Iraqi people in the back."
For more on Saddam Hussein and a report that coalition missile hit a Syrian bus in western Iraq, let's go to Amman, Jordan. That's where CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is standing by -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, that bus, a Syrian bus, according to Syrian officials full of Syrian civilian workers returning from Baghdad to Syria well along the highway towards the Syrian border, a road we traveled a couple of days ago when leaving Iraq. Now, the bus was hit, according to the Pentagon, when it went onto a bridge. The bridge was being in the process of being bombed. The pilot had loosed the bombs when the bus came into sight. There was no way to stop the bombing process.
That road is very close to H2 and H3, two airfields in the western Iraqi Desert that are -- that are controlled at this time by U.S. special forces. And as we traveled that road a couple of days ago, there were holes in some of the bridges, apparently struck by missiles and a number of what appeared to be Iraqi military vehicles also along that road. That road quite heavily shot up in some places. Clearly a dangerous place to be at this time.
Syrian officials called the act a criminal act. They said five Syrian civilians died along with an undisclosed number of injured.
Also, we have heard from Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, today saying that the Iraqi leadership was still firmly in control, saying that those coalition forces had said they -- that the Iraqi leadership would quickly lose their grip. He said completely the contrary.
He talked about the fighting in Umm Qasr, the southern port south of Basra, very, very close to Kuwait. He said that that was an indication of just how difficult it would be for coalition forces to take Basra, a bigger city, he said, the defense put up there was good.
A theme also that President Saddam Hussein structured in his speech, as well, praising the efforts of the Iraqi commander in Umm Qasr and trying to raise morale in Baghdad, raise morale in mostly the north, which has also been under heavy bombing, urging the fighters, urging what he said were his brave fighters to fight with all their strength and said very much that victory would be theirs in due time -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Nic Robertson, our man now in Amman, Jordan. Thanks, Nic, very much for that report.
What is the U.S. intelligence, the latest U.S. intelligence, on the fate of Saddam Hussein and those latest videotapes we've now all seen. For that, let's turn to our national security correspondent, David Ensor. He's joining us now live from Washington -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, U.S. officials are looking at this latest tape as they have looked at the others, with a decidedly jaundiced eye.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over_ In the taped speech, Saddam Hussein refers to the biggest southern city, now encircled by coalition forces which are bypassing it on the way to Baghdad.
SADDAM HUSSEIN, PRESIDENT OF IRAQ (through translator): In Basra, the beloved Basra, I say to them, be patient, you brethren. Victory is imminent.
ENSOR: U.S. intelligence officials, analyzing the tape, say it is the Iraqi leader, but there is nothing said that proves when he recorded it.
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We cannot be sure whether these recordings are prerecorded and some of them appear to be dated, but I don't think there is an exact science in this.
ENSOR: Another cause of suspicion about when the tape was made, U.S. officials say Hussein credits some Iraqi units that, in fact, have had nothing to do with the fighting so far.
KENNETH POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: He may have created these tapes ahead of time to make sure that no matter what happened to him and his regime, he could maintain both the morale of his supporters and the fear of the Iraqi population for as long as it was possible to do so.
ENSOR: In Baghdad, Iraq's deputy prime minister angrily denounced as lies any suggestion that Saddam Hussein might not be in full control.
TARIQ AZIZ, IRAQI DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Saddam Hussein has full control of his country and over the armed forces and the Iraqi people and all the resources of Iraq.
ENSOR: Full control or not, some intelligence suggests he display been wounded in the first bombing, U.S. officials say, but most analysts believe he is alive.
POLLACK: The expectation is that if he were dead, we would see the whole place starting to come apart at the seams.
ENSOR: Concerning the Americans taken prisoner in Nasiriyah, U.S. officials say they were seized by the Fedayeen Saddam, a paramilitary group known for their black uniforms, now spread throughout the country in plain clothes.
POLLACK: The Saddam Fedayeen are by and large street thugs. They are recruited from among young city men, many of whom couldn't make it in the military, many of whom have ties of one sort or another to Saddam.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR: Iraq's government may soon show Saddam Hussein in a way that's proof positive he is alive. U.S. officials say it has not done so yet. In the meantime, his fate is becoming the subject of something of a public relations battle -- Wolf.
BLITZER: David Ensor, thanks very much. Our national security correspondent in Washington, David Ensor.
Here is your chance to weigh in on the war in Iraq. Our Web question of the day is this: "How much control do you think Saddam Hussein has of his government and troops? Full control, some control, no control." We'll have the results later in this broadcast. Please vote at CNN.com/Wolf.
While you're there, I'd like to hear from you. Send me your comments. I'll try to read some of them on the air each day at end of this program. That's also, of course, where you can read my daily online column: CNN.com/Wolf.
Now to the war and the progress report.
Even though coalition forces are facing their fair share of setbacks, U.S. and British leaders say progress is indeed being made. Listen to the prime minister of Britain, Tony Blair, speaking before the House of Commons.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLAIR: Now, let me give the House some detail, if I may, of the military campaign.
In the south, our raid was to secure the key oil installations on the Al-Faw Peninsula, to take the port of Umm Qasr, the only Iraqi port to the outside world, and to render Basra the second largest city in Iraq, ineffective as a basis for military operations by Saddam against coalition troops.
In the west, in the desert, our aim is to prevent Saddam from using it as a base for hostile external aggression.
In the north, our objective is to protect people in the Kurdish autonomous zone, to secure the northern oil fields and to ensure the north cannot provide a base for Saddam's resistance. That, of course, the vital goal, is to reach Baghdad as swiftly as possible, thus bringing the end of the regime closer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: U.S. Marines are still fighting in what military officials say is the toughest battle so far in the war, the battle for the key southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. At least ten Marines were killed in fighting there yesterday.
CNN's Alessio Vinci is with the Marines and filed this report on the fighting.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hours after the U.S. armored column came under attack in An Nasiriyah, the body of one Marin was being wrapped in an American flag and carried to a waiting helicopter, which had just landed nearby. He was one of many Marines to die in this intense battle to control an important supply of food for U.S. forces trying to reach Baghdad to the north.
The charred remains of one of the vehicles still smoldering, a testimony to the ferocity of the fight as Iraqi forces used rocket propelled grenades to destroy the heavily armed personnel carrier, killing everyone on board.
Nearby, a second armored vehicle, heavily damaged, the burned gear of another Marin lying on the ground.
Earlier in the day, only six miles away, another deadly attack against American forces in the region. A U.S. military supply convoy was ambushed as it lost its way around the unfamiliar territory.
(on camera) Several hours after the Iraqi forces ambushed a U.S. military supply convoy, Iraqi forces continued to engage the U.S. military, who is responding with heavy machine gunfire and 40 millimeter grenades.
(voice-over) Advancing U.S. Marines, many of them as young as 19, and seeing their first combat, called for air support as they attempted to enter the city of Nasiriyah.
U.S. military commanders say helicopters and planes managed to destroy several Iraqi tanks, trucks and anti-aircraft batteries, but somehow commanders here say, they did not manage to prevent serious losses in the fiercest battle yet of the Iraqi conflict.
Alessio Vinci, CNN, with the U.S. Marines in Nasiriyah, Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And as the war continues to rage, civilians are doing their best to avoid the violence. CNN's Jane Arraf has found some villagers in Kurdish controlled northern Iraq who are taking refuge underground.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just a few kilometers from Iraqi territory, it's Sheikh Khidri, and it's been attacked and almost destroyed four times by Iraqi forces, according to villagers, the last time in 1987 when it was dynamited to the ground.
Now all day long people have been hearing the sound of bombers, which is why they have been finding a place to hide.
And this is where people have taken refuge for centuries, underground. There are almost 40 caves like this underneath this village and it's where people have come when they've been under persecution or felt under threat, as this community has. These people are Uzidis (ph). It's a very small, little known religious community. There are only about 150,000 of them here, almost as many in Germany as there are in northern Iraq.
Now, over the years they've been persecuted and sometimes even massacred in the mistaken belief that they're devil worshipers. They say they believe in God and they believe in seven angels.
But now they feel under threat because of Iraqi forces. The Iraqi front lines are just a few kilometers from here and you can hear bombing.
Now, this particular house belongs to Kareem Jokli (ph) and his wife, Makmora (ph). They're here with their 12 children and some of their relatives. The oldest is named Kurdistan. One of the middle children, his name is Dick Cheney. And, yes, he is named after the U.S. defense secretary during the 1991 Gulf War, now vice president. His father said that if this war continues and they have another child, he will be naming him George Bush.
Now, this is where a lot of families have fled for safety, in the ruins of this destroyed village underground. They're not sure they'll be safe here, but they're hoping that this time they will be saved by American forces, they say, as well.
Jane Arraf, CNN, reporting from underneath Sheikh Khidri.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Now to the U.S. prisoners of war and their very worried families. We check in with CNN's Brian Cabell. He is live at Ft. Bliss in Texas; that's near El Paso. Go ahead.
BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we had hoped to learn more about the 12 missing soldiers from here at Ft. Bliss today. There was a press conference scheduled for yesterday that was canceled. Again today there was a press conference scheduled, again canceled.
What we're told here is that officials don't have enough information from the Pentagon to definitively identify those 12 and tell us what happened, so they're holding off until they have that information.
Officially they say the 12 are unaccounted for. That is their term, but what we know, of course is that five of them have appeared on Iraqi TV as POW's.
Here at CNN we feel comfortable in identifying four of those five. One of them, Specialist Edgar Hernandez. He is from Mission, Texas. He is single. He is 21 years old.
Also, Specialist Joseph Hudson, 23 years old. He's married, he's the father of one. He is from the El Paso area.
Specialist Shoshana Johnson, 30 years old. She is a single mother of one. She is a chef in the Army; she joined about five years ago.
And Private First Class Patrick Miller 23 years old, the father two of young children. He's from the Wichita, Kansas, area. He joined the Army just last year.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS HERSHBERGER, HALF-BROTHER OF POW: We're glad he wasn't killed. And we hope he makes it back. We all love him. And we just hope that they treat him humanely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABELL: They are all from the 507th Maintenance Company here at Ft. Bliss. About 100 to 150 soldiers comprise that unit. They were part of a six-vehicle convoy near Nasiriyah yesterday when they took a wrong turn, tried to turn back and then they were ambushed.
And today most of their families are here at Ft. Bliss, awaiting information, providing comfort to one another, getting some support from the chaplain, from the Red Cross and from counselors, hoping for the best, but, again, a very, very difficult time here, Wolf.
BLITZER: Sad, sad time at -- in Texas right now at Ft. Bliss, and indeed around the country, as well. Brian Cabell, thanks very much for that report.
Here in Kuwait City, the mood remains somewhat tense. Only within the past 20 minutes or so as we just reported, there was yet once again another air raid siren, the fear of incoming Iraqi missiles. Once again that siren lasted for only a few minutes. We're still awaiting word from Kuwaiti authorities on what the nature of that air raid siren was.
Earlier in the day, two other missiles were both intercepted, intercepted by Patriot air defense missiles, which have been put throughout this small country.
They seem to be working a lot better now than they did during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. After that war, despite all the publicity, the earlier generation of Patriot missiles received, apparently they didn't succeed in knocking down one incoming Iraqi SCUD, whether in Saudi Arabia, in Qatar -- there was one SCUD launched towards Qatar -- or 39 SCUDs launched towards Israel. The new generation appears to be working a whole lot better than that.
In another scary development here in Kuwait earlier today, authorities apparently stopped someone in a car who had a briefcase with a bomb. They say the suspected bomb was found in the vehicle parked outside the Marriott Hotel in Kuwait City. They say the device was taken to a safe place and detonated. No injury. The owner of the car described as a European, is now in the custody of the local Kuwaiti police.
American POW's caught, in Iraq's hands, see part of the tapes that were shown on Iraqi TV. Plus, a front line MASH unit scrambles to save lives. We'll take you inside the E.R. with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our medical correspondent.
And the staggering cost of war in dollars and in lives: a first glimpse at what the president plans to spend.
And reaction to the war from around the world. The protests that just don't stop coming in. Stay with us.
ANNOUNCER: CNN's continuing coverage of the war in Iraq. Saddam Hussein rallies his troops, but just when was his speech recorded?
U.S. Patriot missiles shoot down Iraqi missiles headed toward Kuwait.
And Dr. Sanjay Gupta inside Iraq with U.S. surgeons on the front lines.
For the latest on the war in Iraq, stay with CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: CNN live this hour: WOLF BLITZER REPORTS from Kuwait City, with correspondents from around the world. WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts now.
BLITZER: Welcome back to CNN's continuing coverage of the war in Iraq. We'll take you to the front lines.
Plus, American POW's: find out what Iraq says about their treatment. But first, for the latest headlines, we go back to CNN's Heidi Collins at the CNN news room in Atlanta -- Heidi.
(NEWSBREAK)
BLITZER: Thanks very much, Heidi. We have live reports coming up on all the latest developments in the war.
Let's start by bringing you up to date. Here's CNN's Miles O'Brien.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Recapping developments so far today, 3:04 a.m. Eastern time, Iraqi TV broadcast a speech by Saddam Hussein. He praises the Iraqi armed forces, urges Iraqis to fight coalition forces and predicts Iraqi victory. Analysts are studying the speech to determine when it was made and if it's really the Iraqi president.
3:45 a.m., CNN's Walter Rodgers embedded with the 3rd Squadron 7th Cavalry reports the unit's progress is slow because, sources say, Iraqi forces are using civilians as human shields.
4:00 a.m., Iraqi TV shows pictures of a downed coalition helicopter south of Baghdad. It apparently crash landed amidst an intense U.S. helicopter-Iraq tank battle witnessed by CNN's Karl Penhaul near Karbala.
CNN's Tom Mintier reports U.S. Central Command confirms one Apache helicopter is missing in Iraq. No word on the chopper pilot.
6:05 a.m., Bill Hemmer reports Kuwaiti airspace was penetrated half an hour before by an Iraqi missile which was shot down by a Kuwaiti Patriot missile. He later reports Patriots shots down two more Iraqi missiles and a fourth failed to reach Kuwaiti airspace.
7:15 a.m., CNN's Alessio Vinci traveling with the 2nd Marine Division reports a second day of heavy fighting around the southern city of Nasiriya. Today the Marines exchanged mortar fire with several Iraqi units and called in air support from Cobra helicopters.
9:05 a.m. Eastern, U.S. Commander General Tommy Franks says despite sporadic resistance coalition forces are making rapid progress. He also shows targets being destroyed and says small Special Operations teams are accomplishing wonderful things in northern and western Iraq.
11:05 a.m. Eastern time, 7:05 p.m, in Baghdad, new explosions heard in the Iraqi capital indicating another wave of coalition air strikes.
1:19 p.m. Eastern, Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz announces President Saddam Hussein and his top aides are alive and in control of the government.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: That was our CNN Miles O'Brien with a complete update of some of the developments today.
For the most part, the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, in the southern part of the country, is under allied control, but American Marines are still fighting roving bands of Iraqi regular troops, some of them wearing civilian clothes.
CNN's Jason Bellini is there with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via videophone): Another messy frustrating combat situation for the Marines of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, this time outside the port city of Umm Qasr where they've been for the last three days.
They've moved and are encountering another fight, this time a similar situation, armed men coming from the town firing at them, firing at them sporadically, and then running and hiding back in the residential areas, men who are not in Iraqi military uniforms.
They tried to draw them out of the urban area using suppression fire. They fired tow missile, several artillery rounds and machine gun fire in the direction from which these men are coming. At one point the men came out and waved a white flag, but then shortly thereafter they took off again.
1ST LT. JASON PANDAK, U.S. MARINES: We're trying to figure out who's who and make sure we're not, you know, make sure that we don't shoot civilians but those folks that are military but aren't in uniform we're going to go ahead and take care of them.
BELLINI: They went back behind the building where they had been firing from, leaving the Marines to try to flush them out some more, leaving them again an hour after all this began in their same position, their same battle position at their machine guns hiding behind a berm here in the desert.
The other thing we saw was an ambulance coming up and it appeared that some individuals were picked up by that ambulance. Again, this adds to the complexity of their situation that they know they're dealing with civilians in the area from which these - from which they're being fired upon, making very difficult calls for the Marines here at the ground level who have to decide how much force to use.
I'm Jason Bellini with the Marines of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit outside the port city of Umm Qasr.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And they call themselves "devil docs," American Navy doctors attached to the Marines. Friend or foe it doesn't matter, the "devil docs" are on the battlefield to save lives.
CNN Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is with them now in central Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We're here in central Iraq. Behind me are two operating rooms in the desert. They're known as FRFS or Forward Resuscitative Surgical Suites, and I can assure you they're both in use right now. Surgeons are operating on two patients.
Just about a half an hour ago, six patients came via helo, all Iraqis, all with gunshot wounds. Four of them did not need operations right away and they are in the triage area right now. Two patients did need immediate operations and they are in the operating rooms behind me.
The Forward Resuscitative Surgical Suite is designed for this purpose. They can be torn down and built back up in about two hours' time. It is totally mobile and travels as do the troops -- Dr. Sanjay Gupta in central Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Amid all of this, Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed Aldouri, also denies his government is mistreating U.S. prisoners of war and says Iraq will never, never stop fighting.
The ambassador spoke with CNN's Senior U.N. Correspondent Richard Roth earlier today. Richard is joining us now live from the U.N. - Richard.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Mohammed Aldouri strongly defended his country and its treatment of American prisoners of war.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MOHAMMED ALDOURI, IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: We are respecting always our engagements, our obligations within international treaties and specifically especially the Geneva Convention.
There is no question about that. This is a part of our life. This is a part of our religion. This is a part of our principle, so I can not accept that Iraq is violating Geneva Conventions as it has been said before.
ROTH: It hasn't been determined yet, it appeared, according to the video that some have seen that the U.S. soldiers, some were shot perhaps in the forehead right directly, almost execution style.
ALDOURI: Well, you know you can accuse. You can - this is a part of the propaganda, American propaganda against my country. I really - I can not accept this kind of accusations.
Those who are invading my country are Americans. Why they are there, what they are doing? We are a small country. We are looking for peaceful solutions. We did whatever to avoid this war and after that Americans are killing now Iraqi people, bombarding cities, attacking residential areas, everywhere in the country killing hundreds and hundreds of people.
So, this is the violation of humanitarian international law and not just questioning some prisoners of war or just exposing them to our television.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROTH: Iraq's U.N. ambassador predicted a long war. Iraq and other Arab countries are calling now for an urgent meeting of the Security Council to discuss the situation, a meeting, Wolf, which may happen in the next day or so, back to you.
BLITZER: Richard Roth at the United Nations thanks Richard very much.
And, as coalition forces advance toward Baghdad, they're also trying to overcome stubborn resistance in areas already overrun.
Let's go live to our Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre - Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, U.S. troops are about 50 miles from Baghdad contemplating what could be a decisive battle in the war against Iraq.
Of course, this began with a U.S. Apache helicopter assault which was by all accounts a pretty fierce battle. It resulted in one Apache helicopter having to put down in a field and the crew is still officially listed as missing.
The Pentagon sources tell us that of the air strikes launched over the last 36 hours, more than a half of those were directed at Republican Guard units on the ground in and around Baghdad, and that's an indication of how the air war is shifting against those Republican Guard targets.
U.S. commanders insist they are not at all surprised by the level of Iraqi resistance. General Tommy Franks today called these dead- enders who are continuing to fight for the regime and they are concerned, though, about the discovery of what they say is the Fedayeen Saddam, the most loyal Saddam supporters who are backing the regime and sometimes infiltrating in the south. Nevertheless, the Pentagon says, it will not be changing the rules of engagement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. GEN. STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: In regards to the rules of engagement, I don't think they will change. I don't think you can change the basic humanity of American soldiers. Clearly, they will be careful as they always are, but I think it's important that we make it easy and safe for Iraqi soldiers to surrender and they must feel that. They must feel that they can surrender without fear and then be treated well, which is exactly what I'm sure we'll continue to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCINTYRE: Now, the U.S. says it's making good progress in taking ground in the south and it notes that a lot of the cities that it is encircling, it's not necessarily going in and taking control of them, but basically containing them so they don't pose a threat to the rest of the force as they continue to mass within 50 or 60 miles of Baghdad - Wolf.
BLITZER: Jamie McIntyre, our man at the Pentagon, thanks Jamie very much.
You know President Bush is ready to put a price tag on the war in Iraq and is asking Congress to help pay the bill. Meantime, the administration is saying that U.S. forces may, may pay a high price for Russia's sale of high-tech military equipment to Iraq.
Let's go live to our Senior White House Correspondent John King - John.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And, Wolf, we also are told that the president before the week is out will have a visitor here in Washington, his top ally, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, administration and diplomatic sources telling CNN Prime Minister Blair due to visit perhaps as early as Thursday of this week.
That meeting, we are told, almost certainly will be up at Camp David at the presidential retreat so that the two leaders with the troops in the field can compare notes on strategy.
Of course, by Thursday we should be at a key juncture in just what Jamie McIntyre was just talking about, the engagement of coalition forces against the key Republican Guard units around Baghdad, so a key moment for Tony Blair and George W. Bush to compare notes here in Washington near the middle of the week.
As the president prepares to welcome an ally he's in a bit of a diplomatic fight with a man he normally calls a friend. Mr. Bush spoke to the Russian President Vladimir Putin today and we are told the president complained that Russian companies have been supplying several items of sensitive technology to the Iraqi military, including night vision goggles, some high technology antitank missiles, and of most concern to the administration, electronic jamming equipment that allows the Iraqis to try to jam the global positioning satellite equipment that the United States now uses for its new generation of smart bombs and missiles and the like.
We are told the Russian government for months has denied this assistance, denied it as recently as this morning. We are told in a phone conversation President Bush asked President Putin to look again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECY.: We have credible evidence that Russian companies provided the assistance and the prohibited hardware to the Iraqi regime. That's why we found these actions to be disturbing. Beyond that, I'm not prepared to say with any level of specificity beyond that, but we have concerns they were provided. They were not provided for the purpose of sitting on shelves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Now at this hour, the president is briefing key members of Congress on an emergency budget request he will submit tomorrow to pay for this war. CNN is told the president wants about $75 billion.
Now most of that, more than $60 billion, would go to pay directly for the war, the ammunition, the operating costs, the payment for all those reserves called up and activated. But there's also several billion dollars in there for homeland security improvements here and several billion dollars in foreign aid to help Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and other coalition allies and key countries in the region to defer the costs of all this.
And, we should note, that as the president prepares to unveil that emergency spending request, he will have a much higher profile this week than we saw last week. As we noted, Mr. Bush is meeting with members of Congress now. He had lunch today with the military's top generals. Tomorrow, he will travel across the Potomac River to the Pentagon where he will officially unveil the emergency war budget request, and then on Wednesday off to Tampa, Florida. That is the Central Command Headquarters, the former home base of General Tommy Franks who is leading this war.
Mr. Bush will meet with Franks' deputies, the management team he has left behind in the United States; also spend some time with U.S. and coalition forces stationed now in Tampa, Florida. That is on Wednesday and, again, we are told as early as Thursday look for the president to welcome his chief ally, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair here in Washington - Wolf.
BLITZER: John King at the White House, thanks John very much.
Let's go over to Capitol Hill in Washington. That's where CNN Congressional Correspondent Jonathan Karl is standing by with a special guest, go ahead Jon.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. I'm joined by Senator John McCain.
Senator McCain, it's been a rough couple of days for the campaign in Iraq. Is this a sign that this war may be more difficult than we may have been led to believe?
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: The campaign is going extremely well. We've averted environmental disaster. We've got control of the oil fields. This military force, this column headed towards Baghdad has gone further, faster than any military movement in history.
Of course, in wars, in battles you have casualties, and that's why it's the last option and that's why it's tough. But after five days, I think that it's overall been a very good success and I'm still confident that we will succeed. Have we got unforeseen problems? That's what they call the fog of war.
KARL: And now, we know of course the Iraqis have prisoners of war.
MCCAIN: Yes.
KARL: How does that affect the dynamic of the war?
MCCAIN: It doesn't. We will insist that the Iraqis treat our prisoners of war according to the Geneva Convention. We will hold them responsible if they violate the Geneva Conventions and we will go after them and we will get them and we will try them and they will pay the ultimate penalty. So, the responsibility is theirs to treat these prisoners, these brave Americans, according to the rules of war.
KARL: Now, of course, you've spent five years as a prisoner of war. What's going through the minds of these military men and women?
MCCAIN: It's tough. Combat is tough. Captivity is tough. They have been well trained. They've been well indoctrinated. We will be proud of them. They will perform courageously as they have in other wars and we will be very proud of them.
KARL: And if they were - had some way to see you today what would be your message to them?
MCCAIN: We're proud of you and thank you for serving our nation. We'll get you out of there just as soon as possible and it's going to be sooner rather than later.
KARL: Now, moving on to the cost of the war. We now have the congressional leadership at the White House talking with the president, $70-$75 billion, probably going to get a lot higher than that. How do you think Congress is going to react to the cost here?
MCCAIN: I think it's necessary. It's not the beginning. It's not certainly everything by a long shot but I worry about, I worry about pork barrel spending being added on to it. Watch that. Watch that carefully.
KARL: It would be a shock, wouldn't it? Thank you very much, Senator, appreciate it.
MCCAIN: Thanks, Jon.
KARL: Thank you -- Wolf, back to you.
BLITZER: OK, John, before I let you go, could you just ask Senator McCain this question if he can hear me if he thinks the rules of engagement have to be changed. There's been some grumbling that in the effort to protect Iraqi civilians, U.S. troops are being endangered in some of these close-in battles.
MCCAIN: Wolf, there's no doubt that our fighting men and women are taking extra risks to minimize civilian casualties. That's one of the greatness of America. No other nation would do that. If there needs to be some modifications, then I'm sure that the military people know more than I do.
But, we will continue to do everything we can to minimize civilian casualties. Our war is with Saddam Hussein and his cadre, not the Iraqi people. We're there to liberate the Iraqi people.
BLITZER: Senator John McCain, thanks very much. Senator McCain, of course, was himself a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
He will be a special guest tonight on "LARRY KING LIVE." That's at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, and also Larry has another special guest, the mother of a POW being held captive by the Iraqis. We'll all want to watch "LARRY KING LIVE" tonight.
Thanks to Senator McCain and to Jonathan Karl on Capitol Hill.
Meanwhile, Iraq's capture of an American woman serving in the Army is again raising the question whether women should be in combat or even allowed to be near the front lines. CNN's Patty Davis talked to one woman who was a prisoner of war in the first Persian Gulf War.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Specialist Shoshana Johnson, a chef with the Army's 507th Maintenance Unit, the first woman taken prisoner in Iraq.
Colonel Rhonda Cornum knows what it's like. The Army flight surgeon, suffering two broken arms and other injuries when her helicopter crashed, was one of two women captured by the Iraqis in the 1991 Gulf War.
RHONDA CORNUM, FORMER GULF WAR POW: The first thing you worry about is what's going to happen to your family. I mean are they OK? And the next things you worry about in order are, are they going to kill me? Am I going to be disabled and when am I going to get out?
DAVIS: Cornum did get out, released eight days later, but not before being sexually abused. That's exactly why some say that women should not be near the front lines of a war.
ELAINE DONNELLY, CTR. FOR MILITARY READINESS: We know that in that part of the world and many parts of the world rape is used as a weapon of war.
DAVIS: To give women more opportunities, the Pentagon in 1994 eased its risk rules on women in combat. While it still bars women from direct ground combat, the U.S. military now allows women in combat support jobs and combat air missions, up from 11 percent in the Gulf War.
The National Organization for Women, and other groups that advocate women in combat, say sexual assault is just another risk in war.
CORNUM: Women aren't the only people who are possibly subject to that. Secondly, there obviously isn't any place safe. So combat versus non combat, you weren't safe in the Twin Towers. You weren't safe a lot of places, so I don't think that women in combat is really an issue here. Everybody's in combat that's either in the war on terrorism or in Iraqi freedom.
DAVIS (on camera): Even with the indignity she endured, Cornum says her goal, like any male soldier, stay alive long enough for the U.S. military to get her out.
Patty Davis CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Bodies spread across the desert. We'll take you to the front lines in southern Iraq after a heavy, heavy night of bombing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: ...with crowds denouncing the U.S. led war on Iraq.
Coalition forces are still facing tough resistance in areas of southern Iraq which they seized earlier in the fighting. Bill Neely is with Britain's Royal Marines and reports on the aftermath of one clash and a disturbing find.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL NEELY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Early morning and the land that the Royal Marines have taken could be a scene from World War I. Mud, barbed wire, bomb craters, and trenches, it's the first thing they and we do to dig in.
The Marines have now taken a vast (unintelligible) of southern Iraq, securing its oil fields. Saddam's lifeless troops are scattered along roads. These men killed by U.S. warplanes before the Marines even landed. One pair flew a makeshift white flag to their enemy far above in the air.
And these troops have one other thing with them, gas masks, to protect themselves against chemical weapons.
(on camera): These masks don't prove Saddam has chemical weapons, but Britain and the U.S. don't use them, so why would Saddam issue these to his troops?
(voice-over): British and American experts will be pouring over the documents found here for clues to any biological or chemical program. British troops have been burying the Iraqi dead. So far, the Marines have lost not a single man.
LT. COL. BUSTER HOWES, BRITISH ROYAL MARINES: It hasn't gone as well as we hoped. I mean the timings aren't quite working according to plan and there's a number of other small things which I would have liked to have done different, but by and large I couldn't have asked for it to have gone better.
NEELY: The Marines have been pouring in gunfire for two days now. The Iraqis have responded firing shells that landed close to us. But those who fought had no answer to wire guided missiles fired from the ground and from the air or to U.S. Cobra helicopters.
(on camera): The Iraqis were well dug in. These trenches go on for miles but their weapons were weak and these positions, dug possibly 20 years ago during the Iran-Iraq War, are no defense against far deadlier firepower.
(voice-over): Some prisoners are being taken but many Iraqi troops fled before the Marines even arrived. Many more are dead -- Bill Nelly with the Royal Marines in southern Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And multiply that report many times, many times in southern and central Iraq. You'll get a sense of what's going on in this war.
I'll be back in just a moment with the results of our web question of the day.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in on our web question of the day. Remember, we've been asking you this: "How much control do you think Saddam Hussein has of his government and troops?"
Look at this, 31 percent of you say full control; 56 percent of you said some control; about 14 percent of you said no control. You can find the exact vote tally and continue to vote, by the way. Go to my website, cnn.com/wolf. Remember, this is not a scientific poll.
Please stay with CNN throughout the night for up-to-the-minute, up-to-the-minute war coverage. I'll be back in one hour for two hours of special coverage with CNN's Aaron Brown. Until then, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Kuwait City.
For the latest, we hand it over now to Lou Dobbs. He's standing by in New York - Lou.
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, thank you very much.
Tonight, U.S. forces are within 50 miles of Baghdad. Over the course of the next hour we'll be talking with our correspondents in the field, with the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force.
We'll also have military analysis. General Don Sheppherd and General David Grange they join us.
Now let's go to CNN Center in Atlanta and Heidi Collins for the latest developments in the war in Iraq - Heidi.
(NEWSBREAK)
Near Baghdad; Syrian Civilian on Bus Killed by Coalition Bombs>
Aired March 24, 2003 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: CNN live this hour: WOLF BLITZER REPORTS from Kuwait City. With correspondents from around the world, WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts now.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Sixty miles from Baghdad. Soon coalition ground forces may face off with their toughest foe yet, Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard.
It's dark over Baghdad now, but bombs continue to fall. CNN correspondent Gary Streiker tells us the air war is about to enter a new and more intense phase.
In Kuwait, the missiles keep on coming, every few hours it seems, people in the small but rich emirate hear the sirens signaling danger may be approaching.
Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting live tonight from Kuwait City. Let's begin with late developments surrounding American prisoners of war.
Within the past two hours Iraqi television has aired video it says shows two American Apache helicopter pilots Iraq claims to have captured. CNN will not air the video until we confirm the pilots' families have been notified.
Earlier Iraqi TV showed what appears to be an intact Apache helicopter and two helmets. U.S. central command confirmed that an Apache is missing in Iraq. In the video, allegedly of the pilots, two men wearing flight suits are seen separately, talking to someone off camera. They appear to be in good condition.
And the Associated Press is reporting that a 19-year-old West Virginia woman is among a dozen soldiers reported missing in Iraq. The AP quotes her father as saying she's with the Army's 507th Maintenance Company. Three other soldiers from that unit are confirmed prisoners of war.
Now to some of most dramatic pictures of the latest fighting in Iraq. Battles continue in the southern city of Nasiriyah, about 100 miles south of Baghdad. A senior commander says at least 10 U.S. Marines were killed there yesterday, 12 were wounded. And 16 are still considered missing.
These are the scenes of yesterday's fighting in Basra. Britain says one of its troops was killed in action there yesterday. It was first report of a British combat death. More bombs fell on Baghdad today. There were multiple waves and an air force building was among the targets. There also were bombings in Mosul in northern
Iraq. We have correspondents watching developments in the air and on the ground. Watching the air war for us this hour, CNN's Frank Buckley, he's aboard the USS Constellation, and Carl Penhaul, he's with the Army's 11th Attack helicopter regimen.
Watching the ground war for us, CNN's Alessio Vinci. He's at battle for Nasiriyah. Dr. Sanjay Gupta with the so-called Devil Doctors, a brave group of field medics. And Jason Bellini, he's in southern Iraq, as well.
But first, the likelihood of urban warfare in the Iraqi capital appears to be getting closer. Let's look at where things stand right now.
Central Iraq, the focus of anticipation with a battle for Baghdad possibly just ahead. Coalition forces struck about 60 miles south of the Iraqi capital near Karbala, according to the British prime minister, Tony Blair. They could soon encounter a division of Iraq's elite Republican Guard in place to protect Baghdad, he said.
Near Karbala, Iraqi villagers circle around a U.S. Apache attack helicopter that went down during a three-hour attack on Republican Guard positions. U.S. officials say the fate of the two-man crew is uncertain.
In Baghdad, successive waves of explosions were felt, first at about 7:05 p.m. local time, 11:05 a.m. eastern.
In the south, Iraqi resistance is still fierce. A British soldier killed in action today near Basra.
Intense battles continued in the southern city of Nasiriyah, 100 miles south of Baghdad. Over the weekend, at least ten Marines were killed, 12 were wounded and 16 still considered missing.
Iraqi troops were also reportedly engaging coalition forces in the Al-Faw Peninsula and the port city of Umm Qasr.
And the northern front is heating up. CNN's Ben Wedeman tells us at least 200 U.S. special operations troops have been inserted in air fields near Irbil and Sulaymaniyah.
We've just received some remarkable pictures of navy planes in combat, taken by the pilots themselves. The planes are on the aircraft carrier the U.S.S. Constellation in the Persian Gulf. And that's where we find our Frank Buckley -- Frank.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, air operations continue off the USS Constellation. At any given moment over Iraq right now, there is some U.S. Navy air assets that are flying over from one of the five aircraft carriers in the region. One of the aircraft that is frequently over Iraq right now is this F-14 Tomcat. You can see it's a two-seat aircraft. The person who sits in the back is someone called a RIO, a radar intercept officer. Today, the USS Constellation released some videos shot by a RIO during first the first night of strikes into Iraq. It's our first firsthand look into Baghdad during that first night of strikes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over) In the night sky, destination Baghdad. It is first night of coalition air strikes, the beginning of A-Day. A radar intercept officer in the back seat of another F-14 tomcat is shooting this home video through his night vision goggles.
The F-14 and other jets are from the USS Constellation in the Persian Gulf. As they approach Iraq, the jets of each strike package get gas from tanker planes.
It is a beautiful, starry night, but the lights down below are even more striking. On the ground in Baghdad, the source of the lights, explosions from coalition air strikes and cruise missile hits. Triple-A seen as small bursts of light in the air and surface-to-air missiles, not seen on this tape, are going up.
Pilots returning to the Constellation described a spectacular light show.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just continuous constant explosions going of all over the place. Saw the Triple-A coming up, occasionally see some missile bursts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think anything we could have thought of would have prepared us for what we were seeing happening on the ground out there.
BUCKLEY: Their job done, the strike packages fly out of Iraq and return to the Constellation. The plan known as the "shock and awe" campaign, is under way.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BUCKLEY: And those aircraft returned safely that night as they have every night. As we say, Wolf, air operations continue. Aircraft for the Constellation continuing to fixed target, as well as providing close air support for coalition troops on the ground -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Frank Buckley reporting from the USS Constellation in the Persian Gulf. Thanks very much.
And as you were making -- as we were getting that report from Frank Buckley, once again here in Kuwait City, air raid sirens have indeed gone off. Sirens going off right now, suggesting that there is a possibility more Iraqi surface surface-to-surface missiles may be attempted to be fired at this small emirate.
Earlier today there were two such missiles, both of which were intercepted by Patriot air defense missiles. The Al Samoud missile was thought to be perhaps one of them. The Ababil missile was perhaps thought to be the other one. So far U.S. military officials say no SCUD missiles have been fired at -- at Kuwait.
Happy to report to you even as I'm talking the all clear siren has now just gone off. The all clear siren once again suggest no more imminent threat to anyone here in Kuwait City or elsewhere around the country. This happens every three or four hours.
Fortunately, throughout all of these ordeals there has been no serious injury no injury whatsoever. All of these incoming ground-to- ground missiles have either been intercepted by the new generation of Patriot air defense missiles or they've fall into the water, into the Persian Gulf, or into the deserts of Kuwait.
We'll continue to watch what's happening here in Kuwait City, continue to find out if this was, in fact, a ground-to-ground missile.
Let's move on now as we mentioned, U.S. Army helicopter gunships brought a fierce battle today and they fought that battle near Baghdad. Chopper pilots say they feel lucky to be alive because of the heavy fire and the downing of one of the gunships.
CNN's Carl Penhaul is with the unit involved in that attack, the 11th Attack Helicopter Regiment.
CARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What I can tell you is that the other Apache helicopters that flew alongside that came under heavy anti-aircraft fire. They flew a mission to attack Republican Guard positions around the town of Karbala.
The aim of the mission was to destroy some T-72 tank emplacements, up to 90 T-72 tanks in that region, and heavy artillery pieces. But as the helicopters flew into the target area, they came under heavy anti-aircraft fire, both from military emplacements and also, commanders say, from residential areas.
In an effort not to target civilians or cause possible civilian deaths in many of the helicopters didn't unleash their Hellfire misses for fear of destroying homes and the like.
On return to the airfield where the Apache helicopters are now, the pilots throughout the day today have been assessing the damage that they received to their craft. Not one of them has escaped without a bullet impact. Most of them have anything between 10 and 20 bullet impacts. One even had an engine blown off by a rocket propelled grenade.
BLITZER: And now to the state of the Iraqi leadership.
While the U.S. military says Saddam Hussein is losing control, images from Iraq today are designed to show the contrary. A recording of Saddam Hussein, which may or may not be recent, a news conference from the deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz showed reports of his death to be greatly exaggerated. And the foreign minister, Naji Sabri, at a Cairo summit of Arab foreign ministers, warns Arab nations against, and I'm quoting here, "stabbing the Iraqi people in the back."
For more on Saddam Hussein and a report that coalition missile hit a Syrian bus in western Iraq, let's go to Amman, Jordan. That's where CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is standing by -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, that bus, a Syrian bus, according to Syrian officials full of Syrian civilian workers returning from Baghdad to Syria well along the highway towards the Syrian border, a road we traveled a couple of days ago when leaving Iraq. Now, the bus was hit, according to the Pentagon, when it went onto a bridge. The bridge was being in the process of being bombed. The pilot had loosed the bombs when the bus came into sight. There was no way to stop the bombing process.
That road is very close to H2 and H3, two airfields in the western Iraqi Desert that are -- that are controlled at this time by U.S. special forces. And as we traveled that road a couple of days ago, there were holes in some of the bridges, apparently struck by missiles and a number of what appeared to be Iraqi military vehicles also along that road. That road quite heavily shot up in some places. Clearly a dangerous place to be at this time.
Syrian officials called the act a criminal act. They said five Syrian civilians died along with an undisclosed number of injured.
Also, we have heard from Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, today saying that the Iraqi leadership was still firmly in control, saying that those coalition forces had said they -- that the Iraqi leadership would quickly lose their grip. He said completely the contrary.
He talked about the fighting in Umm Qasr, the southern port south of Basra, very, very close to Kuwait. He said that that was an indication of just how difficult it would be for coalition forces to take Basra, a bigger city, he said, the defense put up there was good.
A theme also that President Saddam Hussein structured in his speech, as well, praising the efforts of the Iraqi commander in Umm Qasr and trying to raise morale in Baghdad, raise morale in mostly the north, which has also been under heavy bombing, urging the fighters, urging what he said were his brave fighters to fight with all their strength and said very much that victory would be theirs in due time -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Nic Robertson, our man now in Amman, Jordan. Thanks, Nic, very much for that report.
What is the U.S. intelligence, the latest U.S. intelligence, on the fate of Saddam Hussein and those latest videotapes we've now all seen. For that, let's turn to our national security correspondent, David Ensor. He's joining us now live from Washington -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, U.S. officials are looking at this latest tape as they have looked at the others, with a decidedly jaundiced eye.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over_ In the taped speech, Saddam Hussein refers to the biggest southern city, now encircled by coalition forces which are bypassing it on the way to Baghdad.
SADDAM HUSSEIN, PRESIDENT OF IRAQ (through translator): In Basra, the beloved Basra, I say to them, be patient, you brethren. Victory is imminent.
ENSOR: U.S. intelligence officials, analyzing the tape, say it is the Iraqi leader, but there is nothing said that proves when he recorded it.
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We cannot be sure whether these recordings are prerecorded and some of them appear to be dated, but I don't think there is an exact science in this.
ENSOR: Another cause of suspicion about when the tape was made, U.S. officials say Hussein credits some Iraqi units that, in fact, have had nothing to do with the fighting so far.
KENNETH POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: He may have created these tapes ahead of time to make sure that no matter what happened to him and his regime, he could maintain both the morale of his supporters and the fear of the Iraqi population for as long as it was possible to do so.
ENSOR: In Baghdad, Iraq's deputy prime minister angrily denounced as lies any suggestion that Saddam Hussein might not be in full control.
TARIQ AZIZ, IRAQI DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Saddam Hussein has full control of his country and over the armed forces and the Iraqi people and all the resources of Iraq.
ENSOR: Full control or not, some intelligence suggests he display been wounded in the first bombing, U.S. officials say, but most analysts believe he is alive.
POLLACK: The expectation is that if he were dead, we would see the whole place starting to come apart at the seams.
ENSOR: Concerning the Americans taken prisoner in Nasiriyah, U.S. officials say they were seized by the Fedayeen Saddam, a paramilitary group known for their black uniforms, now spread throughout the country in plain clothes.
POLLACK: The Saddam Fedayeen are by and large street thugs. They are recruited from among young city men, many of whom couldn't make it in the military, many of whom have ties of one sort or another to Saddam.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR: Iraq's government may soon show Saddam Hussein in a way that's proof positive he is alive. U.S. officials say it has not done so yet. In the meantime, his fate is becoming the subject of something of a public relations battle -- Wolf.
BLITZER: David Ensor, thanks very much. Our national security correspondent in Washington, David Ensor.
Here is your chance to weigh in on the war in Iraq. Our Web question of the day is this: "How much control do you think Saddam Hussein has of his government and troops? Full control, some control, no control." We'll have the results later in this broadcast. Please vote at CNN.com/Wolf.
While you're there, I'd like to hear from you. Send me your comments. I'll try to read some of them on the air each day at end of this program. That's also, of course, where you can read my daily online column: CNN.com/Wolf.
Now to the war and the progress report.
Even though coalition forces are facing their fair share of setbacks, U.S. and British leaders say progress is indeed being made. Listen to the prime minister of Britain, Tony Blair, speaking before the House of Commons.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLAIR: Now, let me give the House some detail, if I may, of the military campaign.
In the south, our raid was to secure the key oil installations on the Al-Faw Peninsula, to take the port of Umm Qasr, the only Iraqi port to the outside world, and to render Basra the second largest city in Iraq, ineffective as a basis for military operations by Saddam against coalition troops.
In the west, in the desert, our aim is to prevent Saddam from using it as a base for hostile external aggression.
In the north, our objective is to protect people in the Kurdish autonomous zone, to secure the northern oil fields and to ensure the north cannot provide a base for Saddam's resistance. That, of course, the vital goal, is to reach Baghdad as swiftly as possible, thus bringing the end of the regime closer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: U.S. Marines are still fighting in what military officials say is the toughest battle so far in the war, the battle for the key southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. At least ten Marines were killed in fighting there yesterday.
CNN's Alessio Vinci is with the Marines and filed this report on the fighting.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hours after the U.S. armored column came under attack in An Nasiriyah, the body of one Marin was being wrapped in an American flag and carried to a waiting helicopter, which had just landed nearby. He was one of many Marines to die in this intense battle to control an important supply of food for U.S. forces trying to reach Baghdad to the north.
The charred remains of one of the vehicles still smoldering, a testimony to the ferocity of the fight as Iraqi forces used rocket propelled grenades to destroy the heavily armed personnel carrier, killing everyone on board.
Nearby, a second armored vehicle, heavily damaged, the burned gear of another Marin lying on the ground.
Earlier in the day, only six miles away, another deadly attack against American forces in the region. A U.S. military supply convoy was ambushed as it lost its way around the unfamiliar territory.
(on camera) Several hours after the Iraqi forces ambushed a U.S. military supply convoy, Iraqi forces continued to engage the U.S. military, who is responding with heavy machine gunfire and 40 millimeter grenades.
(voice-over) Advancing U.S. Marines, many of them as young as 19, and seeing their first combat, called for air support as they attempted to enter the city of Nasiriyah.
U.S. military commanders say helicopters and planes managed to destroy several Iraqi tanks, trucks and anti-aircraft batteries, but somehow commanders here say, they did not manage to prevent serious losses in the fiercest battle yet of the Iraqi conflict.
Alessio Vinci, CNN, with the U.S. Marines in Nasiriyah, Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And as the war continues to rage, civilians are doing their best to avoid the violence. CNN's Jane Arraf has found some villagers in Kurdish controlled northern Iraq who are taking refuge underground.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just a few kilometers from Iraqi territory, it's Sheikh Khidri, and it's been attacked and almost destroyed four times by Iraqi forces, according to villagers, the last time in 1987 when it was dynamited to the ground.
Now all day long people have been hearing the sound of bombers, which is why they have been finding a place to hide.
And this is where people have taken refuge for centuries, underground. There are almost 40 caves like this underneath this village and it's where people have come when they've been under persecution or felt under threat, as this community has. These people are Uzidis (ph). It's a very small, little known religious community. There are only about 150,000 of them here, almost as many in Germany as there are in northern Iraq.
Now, over the years they've been persecuted and sometimes even massacred in the mistaken belief that they're devil worshipers. They say they believe in God and they believe in seven angels.
But now they feel under threat because of Iraqi forces. The Iraqi front lines are just a few kilometers from here and you can hear bombing.
Now, this particular house belongs to Kareem Jokli (ph) and his wife, Makmora (ph). They're here with their 12 children and some of their relatives. The oldest is named Kurdistan. One of the middle children, his name is Dick Cheney. And, yes, he is named after the U.S. defense secretary during the 1991 Gulf War, now vice president. His father said that if this war continues and they have another child, he will be naming him George Bush.
Now, this is where a lot of families have fled for safety, in the ruins of this destroyed village underground. They're not sure they'll be safe here, but they're hoping that this time they will be saved by American forces, they say, as well.
Jane Arraf, CNN, reporting from underneath Sheikh Khidri.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Now to the U.S. prisoners of war and their very worried families. We check in with CNN's Brian Cabell. He is live at Ft. Bliss in Texas; that's near El Paso. Go ahead.
BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we had hoped to learn more about the 12 missing soldiers from here at Ft. Bliss today. There was a press conference scheduled for yesterday that was canceled. Again today there was a press conference scheduled, again canceled.
What we're told here is that officials don't have enough information from the Pentagon to definitively identify those 12 and tell us what happened, so they're holding off until they have that information.
Officially they say the 12 are unaccounted for. That is their term, but what we know, of course is that five of them have appeared on Iraqi TV as POW's.
Here at CNN we feel comfortable in identifying four of those five. One of them, Specialist Edgar Hernandez. He is from Mission, Texas. He is single. He is 21 years old.
Also, Specialist Joseph Hudson, 23 years old. He's married, he's the father of one. He is from the El Paso area.
Specialist Shoshana Johnson, 30 years old. She is a single mother of one. She is a chef in the Army; she joined about five years ago.
And Private First Class Patrick Miller 23 years old, the father two of young children. He's from the Wichita, Kansas, area. He joined the Army just last year.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS HERSHBERGER, HALF-BROTHER OF POW: We're glad he wasn't killed. And we hope he makes it back. We all love him. And we just hope that they treat him humanely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABELL: They are all from the 507th Maintenance Company here at Ft. Bliss. About 100 to 150 soldiers comprise that unit. They were part of a six-vehicle convoy near Nasiriyah yesterday when they took a wrong turn, tried to turn back and then they were ambushed.
And today most of their families are here at Ft. Bliss, awaiting information, providing comfort to one another, getting some support from the chaplain, from the Red Cross and from counselors, hoping for the best, but, again, a very, very difficult time here, Wolf.
BLITZER: Sad, sad time at -- in Texas right now at Ft. Bliss, and indeed around the country, as well. Brian Cabell, thanks very much for that report.
Here in Kuwait City, the mood remains somewhat tense. Only within the past 20 minutes or so as we just reported, there was yet once again another air raid siren, the fear of incoming Iraqi missiles. Once again that siren lasted for only a few minutes. We're still awaiting word from Kuwaiti authorities on what the nature of that air raid siren was.
Earlier in the day, two other missiles were both intercepted, intercepted by Patriot air defense missiles, which have been put throughout this small country.
They seem to be working a lot better now than they did during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. After that war, despite all the publicity, the earlier generation of Patriot missiles received, apparently they didn't succeed in knocking down one incoming Iraqi SCUD, whether in Saudi Arabia, in Qatar -- there was one SCUD launched towards Qatar -- or 39 SCUDs launched towards Israel. The new generation appears to be working a whole lot better than that.
In another scary development here in Kuwait earlier today, authorities apparently stopped someone in a car who had a briefcase with a bomb. They say the suspected bomb was found in the vehicle parked outside the Marriott Hotel in Kuwait City. They say the device was taken to a safe place and detonated. No injury. The owner of the car described as a European, is now in the custody of the local Kuwaiti police.
American POW's caught, in Iraq's hands, see part of the tapes that were shown on Iraqi TV. Plus, a front line MASH unit scrambles to save lives. We'll take you inside the E.R. with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our medical correspondent.
And the staggering cost of war in dollars and in lives: a first glimpse at what the president plans to spend.
And reaction to the war from around the world. The protests that just don't stop coming in. Stay with us.
ANNOUNCER: CNN's continuing coverage of the war in Iraq. Saddam Hussein rallies his troops, but just when was his speech recorded?
U.S. Patriot missiles shoot down Iraqi missiles headed toward Kuwait.
And Dr. Sanjay Gupta inside Iraq with U.S. surgeons on the front lines.
For the latest on the war in Iraq, stay with CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: CNN live this hour: WOLF BLITZER REPORTS from Kuwait City, with correspondents from around the world. WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts now.
BLITZER: Welcome back to CNN's continuing coverage of the war in Iraq. We'll take you to the front lines.
Plus, American POW's: find out what Iraq says about their treatment. But first, for the latest headlines, we go back to CNN's Heidi Collins at the CNN news room in Atlanta -- Heidi.
(NEWSBREAK)
BLITZER: Thanks very much, Heidi. We have live reports coming up on all the latest developments in the war.
Let's start by bringing you up to date. Here's CNN's Miles O'Brien.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Recapping developments so far today, 3:04 a.m. Eastern time, Iraqi TV broadcast a speech by Saddam Hussein. He praises the Iraqi armed forces, urges Iraqis to fight coalition forces and predicts Iraqi victory. Analysts are studying the speech to determine when it was made and if it's really the Iraqi president.
3:45 a.m., CNN's Walter Rodgers embedded with the 3rd Squadron 7th Cavalry reports the unit's progress is slow because, sources say, Iraqi forces are using civilians as human shields.
4:00 a.m., Iraqi TV shows pictures of a downed coalition helicopter south of Baghdad. It apparently crash landed amidst an intense U.S. helicopter-Iraq tank battle witnessed by CNN's Karl Penhaul near Karbala.
CNN's Tom Mintier reports U.S. Central Command confirms one Apache helicopter is missing in Iraq. No word on the chopper pilot.
6:05 a.m., Bill Hemmer reports Kuwaiti airspace was penetrated half an hour before by an Iraqi missile which was shot down by a Kuwaiti Patriot missile. He later reports Patriots shots down two more Iraqi missiles and a fourth failed to reach Kuwaiti airspace.
7:15 a.m., CNN's Alessio Vinci traveling with the 2nd Marine Division reports a second day of heavy fighting around the southern city of Nasiriya. Today the Marines exchanged mortar fire with several Iraqi units and called in air support from Cobra helicopters.
9:05 a.m. Eastern, U.S. Commander General Tommy Franks says despite sporadic resistance coalition forces are making rapid progress. He also shows targets being destroyed and says small Special Operations teams are accomplishing wonderful things in northern and western Iraq.
11:05 a.m. Eastern time, 7:05 p.m, in Baghdad, new explosions heard in the Iraqi capital indicating another wave of coalition air strikes.
1:19 p.m. Eastern, Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz announces President Saddam Hussein and his top aides are alive and in control of the government.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: That was our CNN Miles O'Brien with a complete update of some of the developments today.
For the most part, the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, in the southern part of the country, is under allied control, but American Marines are still fighting roving bands of Iraqi regular troops, some of them wearing civilian clothes.
CNN's Jason Bellini is there with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via videophone): Another messy frustrating combat situation for the Marines of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, this time outside the port city of Umm Qasr where they've been for the last three days.
They've moved and are encountering another fight, this time a similar situation, armed men coming from the town firing at them, firing at them sporadically, and then running and hiding back in the residential areas, men who are not in Iraqi military uniforms.
They tried to draw them out of the urban area using suppression fire. They fired tow missile, several artillery rounds and machine gun fire in the direction from which these men are coming. At one point the men came out and waved a white flag, but then shortly thereafter they took off again.
1ST LT. JASON PANDAK, U.S. MARINES: We're trying to figure out who's who and make sure we're not, you know, make sure that we don't shoot civilians but those folks that are military but aren't in uniform we're going to go ahead and take care of them.
BELLINI: They went back behind the building where they had been firing from, leaving the Marines to try to flush them out some more, leaving them again an hour after all this began in their same position, their same battle position at their machine guns hiding behind a berm here in the desert.
The other thing we saw was an ambulance coming up and it appeared that some individuals were picked up by that ambulance. Again, this adds to the complexity of their situation that they know they're dealing with civilians in the area from which these - from which they're being fired upon, making very difficult calls for the Marines here at the ground level who have to decide how much force to use.
I'm Jason Bellini with the Marines of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit outside the port city of Umm Qasr.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And they call themselves "devil docs," American Navy doctors attached to the Marines. Friend or foe it doesn't matter, the "devil docs" are on the battlefield to save lives.
CNN Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is with them now in central Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We're here in central Iraq. Behind me are two operating rooms in the desert. They're known as FRFS or Forward Resuscitative Surgical Suites, and I can assure you they're both in use right now. Surgeons are operating on two patients.
Just about a half an hour ago, six patients came via helo, all Iraqis, all with gunshot wounds. Four of them did not need operations right away and they are in the triage area right now. Two patients did need immediate operations and they are in the operating rooms behind me.
The Forward Resuscitative Surgical Suite is designed for this purpose. They can be torn down and built back up in about two hours' time. It is totally mobile and travels as do the troops -- Dr. Sanjay Gupta in central Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Amid all of this, Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed Aldouri, also denies his government is mistreating U.S. prisoners of war and says Iraq will never, never stop fighting.
The ambassador spoke with CNN's Senior U.N. Correspondent Richard Roth earlier today. Richard is joining us now live from the U.N. - Richard.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Mohammed Aldouri strongly defended his country and its treatment of American prisoners of war.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MOHAMMED ALDOURI, IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: We are respecting always our engagements, our obligations within international treaties and specifically especially the Geneva Convention.
There is no question about that. This is a part of our life. This is a part of our religion. This is a part of our principle, so I can not accept that Iraq is violating Geneva Conventions as it has been said before.
ROTH: It hasn't been determined yet, it appeared, according to the video that some have seen that the U.S. soldiers, some were shot perhaps in the forehead right directly, almost execution style.
ALDOURI: Well, you know you can accuse. You can - this is a part of the propaganda, American propaganda against my country. I really - I can not accept this kind of accusations.
Those who are invading my country are Americans. Why they are there, what they are doing? We are a small country. We are looking for peaceful solutions. We did whatever to avoid this war and after that Americans are killing now Iraqi people, bombarding cities, attacking residential areas, everywhere in the country killing hundreds and hundreds of people.
So, this is the violation of humanitarian international law and not just questioning some prisoners of war or just exposing them to our television.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROTH: Iraq's U.N. ambassador predicted a long war. Iraq and other Arab countries are calling now for an urgent meeting of the Security Council to discuss the situation, a meeting, Wolf, which may happen in the next day or so, back to you.
BLITZER: Richard Roth at the United Nations thanks Richard very much.
And, as coalition forces advance toward Baghdad, they're also trying to overcome stubborn resistance in areas already overrun.
Let's go live to our Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre - Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, U.S. troops are about 50 miles from Baghdad contemplating what could be a decisive battle in the war against Iraq.
Of course, this began with a U.S. Apache helicopter assault which was by all accounts a pretty fierce battle. It resulted in one Apache helicopter having to put down in a field and the crew is still officially listed as missing.
The Pentagon sources tell us that of the air strikes launched over the last 36 hours, more than a half of those were directed at Republican Guard units on the ground in and around Baghdad, and that's an indication of how the air war is shifting against those Republican Guard targets.
U.S. commanders insist they are not at all surprised by the level of Iraqi resistance. General Tommy Franks today called these dead- enders who are continuing to fight for the regime and they are concerned, though, about the discovery of what they say is the Fedayeen Saddam, the most loyal Saddam supporters who are backing the regime and sometimes infiltrating in the south. Nevertheless, the Pentagon says, it will not be changing the rules of engagement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. GEN. STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: In regards to the rules of engagement, I don't think they will change. I don't think you can change the basic humanity of American soldiers. Clearly, they will be careful as they always are, but I think it's important that we make it easy and safe for Iraqi soldiers to surrender and they must feel that. They must feel that they can surrender without fear and then be treated well, which is exactly what I'm sure we'll continue to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCINTYRE: Now, the U.S. says it's making good progress in taking ground in the south and it notes that a lot of the cities that it is encircling, it's not necessarily going in and taking control of them, but basically containing them so they don't pose a threat to the rest of the force as they continue to mass within 50 or 60 miles of Baghdad - Wolf.
BLITZER: Jamie McIntyre, our man at the Pentagon, thanks Jamie very much.
You know President Bush is ready to put a price tag on the war in Iraq and is asking Congress to help pay the bill. Meantime, the administration is saying that U.S. forces may, may pay a high price for Russia's sale of high-tech military equipment to Iraq.
Let's go live to our Senior White House Correspondent John King - John.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And, Wolf, we also are told that the president before the week is out will have a visitor here in Washington, his top ally, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, administration and diplomatic sources telling CNN Prime Minister Blair due to visit perhaps as early as Thursday of this week.
That meeting, we are told, almost certainly will be up at Camp David at the presidential retreat so that the two leaders with the troops in the field can compare notes on strategy.
Of course, by Thursday we should be at a key juncture in just what Jamie McIntyre was just talking about, the engagement of coalition forces against the key Republican Guard units around Baghdad, so a key moment for Tony Blair and George W. Bush to compare notes here in Washington near the middle of the week.
As the president prepares to welcome an ally he's in a bit of a diplomatic fight with a man he normally calls a friend. Mr. Bush spoke to the Russian President Vladimir Putin today and we are told the president complained that Russian companies have been supplying several items of sensitive technology to the Iraqi military, including night vision goggles, some high technology antitank missiles, and of most concern to the administration, electronic jamming equipment that allows the Iraqis to try to jam the global positioning satellite equipment that the United States now uses for its new generation of smart bombs and missiles and the like.
We are told the Russian government for months has denied this assistance, denied it as recently as this morning. We are told in a phone conversation President Bush asked President Putin to look again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECY.: We have credible evidence that Russian companies provided the assistance and the prohibited hardware to the Iraqi regime. That's why we found these actions to be disturbing. Beyond that, I'm not prepared to say with any level of specificity beyond that, but we have concerns they were provided. They were not provided for the purpose of sitting on shelves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Now at this hour, the president is briefing key members of Congress on an emergency budget request he will submit tomorrow to pay for this war. CNN is told the president wants about $75 billion.
Now most of that, more than $60 billion, would go to pay directly for the war, the ammunition, the operating costs, the payment for all those reserves called up and activated. But there's also several billion dollars in there for homeland security improvements here and several billion dollars in foreign aid to help Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and other coalition allies and key countries in the region to defer the costs of all this.
And, we should note, that as the president prepares to unveil that emergency spending request, he will have a much higher profile this week than we saw last week. As we noted, Mr. Bush is meeting with members of Congress now. He had lunch today with the military's top generals. Tomorrow, he will travel across the Potomac River to the Pentagon where he will officially unveil the emergency war budget request, and then on Wednesday off to Tampa, Florida. That is the Central Command Headquarters, the former home base of General Tommy Franks who is leading this war.
Mr. Bush will meet with Franks' deputies, the management team he has left behind in the United States; also spend some time with U.S. and coalition forces stationed now in Tampa, Florida. That is on Wednesday and, again, we are told as early as Thursday look for the president to welcome his chief ally, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair here in Washington - Wolf.
BLITZER: John King at the White House, thanks John very much.
Let's go over to Capitol Hill in Washington. That's where CNN Congressional Correspondent Jonathan Karl is standing by with a special guest, go ahead Jon.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. I'm joined by Senator John McCain.
Senator McCain, it's been a rough couple of days for the campaign in Iraq. Is this a sign that this war may be more difficult than we may have been led to believe?
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: The campaign is going extremely well. We've averted environmental disaster. We've got control of the oil fields. This military force, this column headed towards Baghdad has gone further, faster than any military movement in history.
Of course, in wars, in battles you have casualties, and that's why it's the last option and that's why it's tough. But after five days, I think that it's overall been a very good success and I'm still confident that we will succeed. Have we got unforeseen problems? That's what they call the fog of war.
KARL: And now, we know of course the Iraqis have prisoners of war.
MCCAIN: Yes.
KARL: How does that affect the dynamic of the war?
MCCAIN: It doesn't. We will insist that the Iraqis treat our prisoners of war according to the Geneva Convention. We will hold them responsible if they violate the Geneva Conventions and we will go after them and we will get them and we will try them and they will pay the ultimate penalty. So, the responsibility is theirs to treat these prisoners, these brave Americans, according to the rules of war.
KARL: Now, of course, you've spent five years as a prisoner of war. What's going through the minds of these military men and women?
MCCAIN: It's tough. Combat is tough. Captivity is tough. They have been well trained. They've been well indoctrinated. We will be proud of them. They will perform courageously as they have in other wars and we will be very proud of them.
KARL: And if they were - had some way to see you today what would be your message to them?
MCCAIN: We're proud of you and thank you for serving our nation. We'll get you out of there just as soon as possible and it's going to be sooner rather than later.
KARL: Now, moving on to the cost of the war. We now have the congressional leadership at the White House talking with the president, $70-$75 billion, probably going to get a lot higher than that. How do you think Congress is going to react to the cost here?
MCCAIN: I think it's necessary. It's not the beginning. It's not certainly everything by a long shot but I worry about, I worry about pork barrel spending being added on to it. Watch that. Watch that carefully.
KARL: It would be a shock, wouldn't it? Thank you very much, Senator, appreciate it.
MCCAIN: Thanks, Jon.
KARL: Thank you -- Wolf, back to you.
BLITZER: OK, John, before I let you go, could you just ask Senator McCain this question if he can hear me if he thinks the rules of engagement have to be changed. There's been some grumbling that in the effort to protect Iraqi civilians, U.S. troops are being endangered in some of these close-in battles.
MCCAIN: Wolf, there's no doubt that our fighting men and women are taking extra risks to minimize civilian casualties. That's one of the greatness of America. No other nation would do that. If there needs to be some modifications, then I'm sure that the military people know more than I do.
But, we will continue to do everything we can to minimize civilian casualties. Our war is with Saddam Hussein and his cadre, not the Iraqi people. We're there to liberate the Iraqi people.
BLITZER: Senator John McCain, thanks very much. Senator McCain, of course, was himself a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
He will be a special guest tonight on "LARRY KING LIVE." That's at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, and also Larry has another special guest, the mother of a POW being held captive by the Iraqis. We'll all want to watch "LARRY KING LIVE" tonight.
Thanks to Senator McCain and to Jonathan Karl on Capitol Hill.
Meanwhile, Iraq's capture of an American woman serving in the Army is again raising the question whether women should be in combat or even allowed to be near the front lines. CNN's Patty Davis talked to one woman who was a prisoner of war in the first Persian Gulf War.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Specialist Shoshana Johnson, a chef with the Army's 507th Maintenance Unit, the first woman taken prisoner in Iraq.
Colonel Rhonda Cornum knows what it's like. The Army flight surgeon, suffering two broken arms and other injuries when her helicopter crashed, was one of two women captured by the Iraqis in the 1991 Gulf War.
RHONDA CORNUM, FORMER GULF WAR POW: The first thing you worry about is what's going to happen to your family. I mean are they OK? And the next things you worry about in order are, are they going to kill me? Am I going to be disabled and when am I going to get out?
DAVIS: Cornum did get out, released eight days later, but not before being sexually abused. That's exactly why some say that women should not be near the front lines of a war.
ELAINE DONNELLY, CTR. FOR MILITARY READINESS: We know that in that part of the world and many parts of the world rape is used as a weapon of war.
DAVIS: To give women more opportunities, the Pentagon in 1994 eased its risk rules on women in combat. While it still bars women from direct ground combat, the U.S. military now allows women in combat support jobs and combat air missions, up from 11 percent in the Gulf War.
The National Organization for Women, and other groups that advocate women in combat, say sexual assault is just another risk in war.
CORNUM: Women aren't the only people who are possibly subject to that. Secondly, there obviously isn't any place safe. So combat versus non combat, you weren't safe in the Twin Towers. You weren't safe a lot of places, so I don't think that women in combat is really an issue here. Everybody's in combat that's either in the war on terrorism or in Iraqi freedom.
DAVIS (on camera): Even with the indignity she endured, Cornum says her goal, like any male soldier, stay alive long enough for the U.S. military to get her out.
Patty Davis CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Bodies spread across the desert. We'll take you to the front lines in southern Iraq after a heavy, heavy night of bombing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: ...with crowds denouncing the U.S. led war on Iraq.
Coalition forces are still facing tough resistance in areas of southern Iraq which they seized earlier in the fighting. Bill Neely is with Britain's Royal Marines and reports on the aftermath of one clash and a disturbing find.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL NEELY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Early morning and the land that the Royal Marines have taken could be a scene from World War I. Mud, barbed wire, bomb craters, and trenches, it's the first thing they and we do to dig in.
The Marines have now taken a vast (unintelligible) of southern Iraq, securing its oil fields. Saddam's lifeless troops are scattered along roads. These men killed by U.S. warplanes before the Marines even landed. One pair flew a makeshift white flag to their enemy far above in the air.
And these troops have one other thing with them, gas masks, to protect themselves against chemical weapons.
(on camera): These masks don't prove Saddam has chemical weapons, but Britain and the U.S. don't use them, so why would Saddam issue these to his troops?
(voice-over): British and American experts will be pouring over the documents found here for clues to any biological or chemical program. British troops have been burying the Iraqi dead. So far, the Marines have lost not a single man.
LT. COL. BUSTER HOWES, BRITISH ROYAL MARINES: It hasn't gone as well as we hoped. I mean the timings aren't quite working according to plan and there's a number of other small things which I would have liked to have done different, but by and large I couldn't have asked for it to have gone better.
NEELY: The Marines have been pouring in gunfire for two days now. The Iraqis have responded firing shells that landed close to us. But those who fought had no answer to wire guided missiles fired from the ground and from the air or to U.S. Cobra helicopters.
(on camera): The Iraqis were well dug in. These trenches go on for miles but their weapons were weak and these positions, dug possibly 20 years ago during the Iran-Iraq War, are no defense against far deadlier firepower.
(voice-over): Some prisoners are being taken but many Iraqi troops fled before the Marines even arrived. Many more are dead -- Bill Nelly with the Royal Marines in southern Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And multiply that report many times, many times in southern and central Iraq. You'll get a sense of what's going on in this war.
I'll be back in just a moment with the results of our web question of the day.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in on our web question of the day. Remember, we've been asking you this: "How much control do you think Saddam Hussein has of his government and troops?"
Look at this, 31 percent of you say full control; 56 percent of you said some control; about 14 percent of you said no control. You can find the exact vote tally and continue to vote, by the way. Go to my website, cnn.com/wolf. Remember, this is not a scientific poll.
Please stay with CNN throughout the night for up-to-the-minute, up-to-the-minute war coverage. I'll be back in one hour for two hours of special coverage with CNN's Aaron Brown. Until then, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Kuwait City.
For the latest, we hand it over now to Lou Dobbs. He's standing by in New York - Lou.
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, thank you very much.
Tonight, U.S. forces are within 50 miles of Baghdad. Over the course of the next hour we'll be talking with our correspondents in the field, with the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force.
We'll also have military analysis. General Don Sheppherd and General David Grange they join us.
Now let's go to CNN Center in Atlanta and Heidi Collins for the latest developments in the war in Iraq - Heidi.
(NEWSBREAK)
Near Baghdad; Syrian Civilian on Bus Killed by Coalition Bombs>
