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CNN SHOWDOWN: IRAQ
General David Grange Gives Insight on Where Coalition Goes From Here
Aired March 28, 2003 - 12:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, a senior U.S. military official is telling CNN this is what he is calling the calm before the storm. The storm being concentrated air attacks on Iraqi Republican Guard Divisions -- there are six of them -- surrounding Baghdad. For insights on where things stand right now, where the coalition is going to go from here, let's bring in CNN's Renay San Miguel and our military analyst, retired U.S. Army Brigadier General David Grange. They're in the CNN newsroom in Atlanta -- Renay.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, thank you very much. A lot of developments involving the Republican Guard. So let's go right to our map table here and show you exactly what's going on around the center. General, they are said to be repositioning, these Republican Guard units. The Medina Division taking some heavy damage.
BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, these are survivability moves. They're doing lateral movements most likely east and west from their defensive positions. They may be falling back closer to supplemental positions nearer to Baghdad, and they may even be moving forward in some cases to take advantage of villages or built-up areas to hide their equipment in.
SAN MIGUEL: And while we are on the map, let's talk about just some other quick areas that have come under fire here recently. Kevin Sites up near Chamchamal in-between Kirkuk and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) reports artillery coming from Iraqi positions. He is in a position that was abandoned by Iraqi forces just a few days ago.
And then we understand there are still some major battles going on in Nasiriya. But, also, three U.S. Marine infantry battalions occupy the north and south part of that town. They're very close to controlling Nasiriya and making it secure, according to what some Marine officials are telling our sources there.
And then, as we just heard, a new air base somewhere down in southeastern Iraq. And that -- you're going to soon be seeing planes looking like that, the A-10 tank busters, the Warthogs, as they're called. They're said to be very ugly looking machines, but they look pretty beautiful, I would imagine.
GRANGE: For a Marine or infantryman, they're great.
SAN MIGUEL: Exactly. We want to talk about what was going on in Baghdad overnight. As we heard Wolf say, we have some satellite imagery to show you exactly where the International Communications Center was in Baghdad. Whether this was a bunker buster or not, the building still took some major damage.
GRANGE: Well, it did. And a lot of the damage we may not be able to see because it's, again, subterranean. And regardless if it was a bunker buster or some other type of bomb, I'm sure that it was a type selected and programmed for that particular target to, again, get the maximum damage out of the bomb, and again keep down collateral damage in surrounding areas.
SAN MIGUEL: And it's all about command and control. Not really about broadcast or telecommunications or whatever. The Pentagon and Central Command obviously feeling there was command and control facilities here that the regime was taking advantage of.
GRANGE: Some type of command and control for the regime to either control people or control military units around the area.
SAN MIGUEL: All right. Thank you very much, General Grange. We'll talk with you later. Paula, back over to you.
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