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CNN SHOWDOWN: IRAQ
U.S. Troops Very Close to Baghdad; Electricity Out in Baghdad
Aired April 3, 2003 - 12:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The course is set. We're on the advance. Our destination is Baghdad, and we will accept nothing less than complete and final victory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The commander in chief offers up a battlefield report to U.S. Marines on the home front. Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer, reporting today live from Kuwait City.
We're just about 45 minutes away from the live daily news conference over at the Pentagon. We'll have live coverage of that as soon as it begins.
In the meantime, all eyes are on Baghdad. And I mean that almost literally. Only within the past few minutes it looks as if power has been turned off, electricity no longer exists in huge parts of the city. We're having live coverage of that as well.
In addition to that, just before the lights were turned off in downtown Baghdad, there were huge explosions, presumably more U.S. bombs or missiles. We'll have detailed coverage of these late- breaking developments in Baghdad.
The Iraqi capital skyline has, of course, been in sight of converging coalition forces; though precise distances vary by each report. A report by Iraq's information minister calls the coalition drive -- and I'm quoting now -- "an illusion." He's saying further, "They hold no place in Iraq."
Exclusive pictures from CNN's Walter Rodgers, however, tell of a very, very different story. That of U.S. Army units sprinting northward under moderate, yet so far manageable resistance. Walt is with the Army's 3rd Squadron 7th Cavalry. And just about two hours ago, Secretary of State Colin Powell disclosed that coalition troops were neither Saddam International Airport, which is only 12 miles, give or take, from downtown Baghdad.
Let's go back to Walter Rodgers now. He's well inside that much talked about red line ringing the capital.
(BEGIN AUDIOTAPE)
WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The 3rd Squadron 7th Cavalry remains on the distant outskirts of Baghdad. And, again, what we're seeing is small groups of Iraqi resistance fighters, 10 to 20, forming up in foxholes or taking shelter behind buildings, and sticking their heads up occasionally, firing in the direction of the convoy. Almost as soon as they do, certainly as soon as the soldiers aboard the tanks -- and you can see the tanks elevated position up there -- as soon as you can see -- as soon as they see where the fire is coming from, they provide covering fire and overwhelmingly wipe out anything that's in the field.
We have seen, as I've said, upwards of 20 dead Iraqi soldiers in the field. We believe most of those have been taken out by the 3rd Infantry Division as it passed through, albeit in a different direction earlier in the day. Troubling news, of course, that each of those Iraqi soldiers had a gas mask on at the time. And that, of course, portends, perhaps, greater difficulty as these U.S. Army units get closer to Baghdad.
Again, as we pass through, some agricultural villages in the Mesopotamian Delta. We did find some of the Iraqis were more than a little enthusiastic to see the 7th Cavalry and the other U.S. Army soldiers coming through.
The men would very guardedly flash us a thumbs up or give us a "V" for victory sign. But that being the case, it was very guarded until we got further and further away. The further away we got from the Euphrates River, and closer to Baghdad, ironically, the more enthusiasm we've encountered among some of the Iraqi farm families, particularly the children and some of the women. I remember one woman who was waving very enthusiastically at the 7th Cavalry moving through, and she was 400 yards back from the road.
(END AUDIOTAPE)
BLITZER: Walter Rodgers on the road to Baghdad only a short while ago. U.S. troops, maybe 15 or so miles from the Iraqi capital. You are looking now at live pictures of Baghdad.
You are seeing something you have not yet seen during the first two weeks of this war. Electricity, power to huge parts of the Iraqi capital no longer in business. They turned off the lights. That was preceded by about 15 minutes of heavy explosions in various parts of this city of some five million residents. The power is off in Baghdad.
Let's go to CNN's Renay San Miguel. He's in the CNN newsroom in Atlanta with Major General Don Shepperd, retired U.S. Air Force. So what's going on as far as you guys can tell, Renay?
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Wolf, after 15 days of bombing and Shock and Awe and all that, the electricity never went out in Baghdad, but now it looks like indeed this could be the case. And I'm going to ask General Shepperd, before we start talking about what the coalition may be doing, it may not be the coalition that's knocked out the electricity.
MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: That's true. It may not be the coalition. We're only guessing right now. The coalition has the means to take it out. On the other hand, electricity is the key to life. Electricity pumps water. Without water, life doesn't exist. It can create a huge humanitarian crisis.
It could be that the coalition did this, and it could be that the Iraqis themselves did it. Now we have the means to turn it out for hours, days, weeks, months and years, if we want to turn off electricity.
SAN MIGUEL: Let's talk about that. There is a way for the coalition to knock out the electricity without damaging the overall infrastructure of the city.
SHEPPERD: That's true. We did it during the first Gulf War, and it's also been done during the Kosovo campaign. It's called -- it was dropped earlier by the 117th Stealth fighter. It's a CBU, cluster bomb unit, and it's a cluster bomb unit 94 (ph), with bomblets in it that are called a BLU, bomb live unit 114.
It drops carbon fiber wires and shorts out. And it will cause problems for a short period of time, but you don't have to reconstruct the entire electrical grid when you do this.
SAN MIGUEL: Because that's going to cost the coalition and whoever comes in post-Saddam.
SHEPPERD: Not only that. If you bomb the transformers, you can be out for years.
SAN MIGUEL: OK. Let's go right to an aerial map that we have from satellite imagery from earthviewer.com and digitalglobe.com of Baghdad, because if this is indeed the start of a push into the city itself, we want to give folks an idea of what we're talking about here.
Here is Saddam Airport. Secretary of State Colin Powell saying earlier today that troops were advancing on that. That is obviously a target, General.
SHEPPERD: You need to seize that airport.
SAN MIGUEL: OK. Talk about some of the other major roadways that could be targets as well.
SHEPPERD: You want to seize major roadways to and from the city. Here's the Abu Garayb Expressway going out this way. You would want to cut that, establish checkpoints all along that to control traffic.
This is Airport Road. This is the Hillah Road going down this way. You'd also want to cut that.
This is the -- I'm trying to remember -- Kadasiyah (ph) Expressway that goes into the palace area. You would want to cut that. All of these key bridges along the Tigris River here, you would want to control all of those to make sure. And you want to cut the roads that are leading out of the country that go to Jordan and to Syria and south, of course, so that you can control traffic and perhaps capture the regime people that are trying to flee.
SAN MIGUEL: We're talking about a modern city here, 4.5 million, like any other city you might find in America or North America. There's also another airport I believe on the east as well.
SHEPPERD: Right. Al Rashid (ph) Airport, right.
SAN MIGUEL: But an awful lot of places for not only Republican Guard, Special Republican Guard, but the Fedayeen paramilitary to hide as well.
SHEPPERD: Yes. You've got the Republican Guard that has not been allowed in Baghdad before. They stay outside.
Now you got the Special Republican Guard in Baghdad itself, and then you have these inner circle, the Saddam Fedayeen, et cetera. So it could really get ugly with some bad people inside this city, even though they can't command the irregular military forces outside the city.
SAN MIGUEL: And just to give some idea, the very first night of the campaign was all around here.
SHEPPERD: Indeed it was.
SAN MIGUEL: Shock and Awe. General Shepperd, thank you for your time -- Wolf, back on over to you.
BLITZER: Thanks, Renay. Let me ask General Shepperd one question before I let both of you guys continue your research over there. General Shepperd, since the U.S. could basically take out the power of Baghdad any time they want, would it make sense to do it, though, on the eve of an actual assault into the city, given the night vision, night-fighting capabilities that the U.S. troops would have?
SHEPPERD: Indeed it would. It gives the U.S. troops the advantage with their night vision capability when the other side cannot see in the dark. So if you've lost all electricity, that would be an advantage.
It can also be turned back on very quickly. It also can be used psychologically to say that coalition forces are in control of your life, power, water, et cetera, and therefore the regime has lost control -- Wolf.
BLITZER: It would have that kind of potential shattering impact. Once again, we don't know why there is no electricity, no lights in Baghdad, at least big chunks of Baghdad tonight. We do know that for about 15 minutes before the lights went off, before that switch was turned off, there were heavy explosions. Presumably more bombardment going on in and around the Iraqi capital.
We're watching all of these developments. General Shepperd, thanks very much. Renay San Miguel -- we'll be getting back to both of you very soon. The closer U.S. troops do get to Baghdad, the stronger there are fears of some chemical attack against them. Let's go to our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. Barbara, first of all, before we get to the chemical issue, any word from the Pentagon on why the lights are off in Baghdad?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: No, no one is talking about that here at this point. They probably know, but they are just not saying yet. We may hear more about that from the defense secretary when he has a news briefing in about a half an hour.
BLITZER: All right. Let's go on to the nightmare scenario that the Iraqis do have chemical, biological weapons, they've been waiting to use them once the U.S. and coalition forces moved across this imaginary red line on the outskirts of the Iraqi capital. What's the word that you are hearing over there?
STARR: What's going on, Wolf, here, is a look at the big picture. What U.S. officials say is, right now, they believe there are elements of regular Iraqi army units, perhaps as many as four -- elements of four or five divisions around Saddam International Airport. This is shaping up as the last defensive line along the southern edge of the city that U.S. forces are currently now working their way through.
They can't put an exact number to it, but they do believe elements of at least four regular army divisions are at the airport. Now what officials say is they are working their way through the so- called second ring around the city. They've already been through the first ring of Republican Guards.
Right now the action we're seeing is the second ring. And who knows, they say, if there will even be a third ring by the time they get to Baghdad although there are Special Republican Guard and security services still inside the city.
The key issue for U.S. officials is just how dangerous it is getting right now, how desperate the regime is getting. General Brooks earlier today at the Central Command briefing has this to say about the current status of the Republican Guard and the Iraqi military.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIG. GEN. VINCENT BROOKS, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: It's difficult to determine exactly what decisions are being made, whether these are low-level commanders that are moving to the sound of the guns, whether they are moving on the regime themselves, or whether they are responding to the damages that have been inflicted on front line forces by coalition action. Impossible to speculate on exactly what that means. What we do, though, is we read these...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: But sources here tell us there are two indicators that have the U.S. military very concerned today. They say that the recent information that confirms the potential use of chemical weapons is very high. Haven't been used yet, but there's no information on that. And there is also intelligence information that, as U.S. forces begin to approach Baghdad even more closely, Saddam Hussein's regime may launch attacks against civilians in the country and blame the United States -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Those are both nightmare scenarios, Barbara. The expectation, though, is that the actual assault on Baghdad is imminent, or will they pause a little bit, regroup, bring up the supplies and then eventually make that kind of move? Is there any indication you are getting?
STARR: Well, this doesn't appear to be a campaign that's really into operational pauses. Even when forces paused, so to speak, further south while they awaited re-supply, very heavy air strikes were going on at the same time. So it is extremely unlikely with forces so close to Baghdad, so vulnerable to the possibility of chemical weapons that Tommy Franks is going to order any kind of operational pause.
But what they will be watching for is, as the regime begins to see what the U.S. believes is the inevitability of their situation, whether there is any evidence of a coup forming, any evidence of an Iraqi leaders beginning to turn away from Saddam Hussein. And the U.S. military will try and exploit that if it begins to emerge -- Wolf.
BLITZER: And Barbara, while I have you, what's the latest on that Hornet, that warplane that apparently went down? What was behind that?
STARR: There are a couple of potentially very tragic stories here today. F-18 Hornet off the USS Kitty Hawk went down over Iraq. Combat search and rescue remains ongoing for the pilot, but there are growing indications, officials say, that that F-18 may have accidentally been shot down by a U.S. Patriot missile in Iraq.
That investigation remains ongoing. Nothing is certain about that just yet. But we also, within the last few minutes, received additional word of another friendly fire incident today. U.S. Central Command says they are investigating an incident in which a U.S. Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle apparently mistakenly launched weapon against a U.S. position on the ground.
One U.S. Army soldier killed. Several others reported injured or missing. That investigation is now underway as well -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Thanks, Barbara. If that went down because of a U.S.-made Patriot missile, it wouldn't be the first coalition to go down that way. A British tornado plane was shot down by a U.S. Patriot as well.
So we'll continue to watch both of those stories. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon.
And this reminder. We're standing by for a Pentagon briefing that's coming up at 12:45 p.m. Eastern, 9:45 p.m. here in Kuwait City. About, oh, a little bit less than a half an hour or so from now. CNN, of course, will have live coverage. The Pentagon briefing coming up in about a half an hour.
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