Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=03-22-03

TYPE=INTERVIEW

NUMBER=3-601

TITLE=RYU-IRAQ-MILITARY

BYLINE=DAVID CHADWICK

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

CONTENT=

INTRO: Journalists covering the U-S-led war with Iraq have unprecedented access to military operations because they are embedded with U-S forces. This means the reporters are accompanying forces on the front lines after receiving special permission from the Defense Department. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu is embedded with U-S forces. She tells VOA News Now's David Chadwick about the unique nature of her assignment.

TEXT:

MS. RYU: I think it's worthwhile that people back home are able to see this in real time; I think they are rather stunned by what they're seeing on television. Everything is beamed as they're happening on the battlefield and in various places, and this has never been done before. And so, in that respect, it's getting viewers and everyone else just incredible amounts of information and things that they would normally not be able to get until hours or sometimes days after the fact.

I think the Pentagon also gets a lot out of having the journalists here, because we can also be eyewitnesses for the Pentagon. On the other hand, if the U.S. military personnel do make mistakes, if they do make some sort of error in judgment, then they're also there to record that. So, it is, I think, a fairly fair and balanced way, and I don't see any military stepping in to try to stop that from being recorded or being broadcast out. So, like I said, so far, so good.

I think that the war is going rather according to plan, if not a little bit faster. So, maybe that's why the relationship is so good. Had it not gone so well, it may not have been as good. There might have been quite a bit of problems. But right now it seems to be going quite well.

I've confirmed that the 3rd Infantry Division has captured the City of An-Nassariyah. That is about a third of the way from the Kuwait border into Baghdad, which was one of the key areas that they wanted to take. They have cleared an airfield there, called Khalil Airfield. Apparently there are lots of ditches, levies, water tanks, old, abandoned buildings in the area. They haven't cleared it completely. There are still some pockets of resistance, from what I'm being told. And the resistance is coming in the forms of AK-47 fire, some rocket-propelled grenade fire, that is posing some threat to U.S. forces there. I'm not sure exactly how big the threat is right now, but the 3rd Infantry Division has come under some fire from these pockets, from what I'm told.

There apparently has also been a very high-ranking senior Iraqi officer who has been taken prisoner. He actually, I believe, had surrendered. I can't tell you who it is, but he is being interrogated by U.S. troops. And apparently this official [officer] has been telling U.S. troops that the Iraqis' capability to defend air-wise has basically been reduced to about 10 percent of what it was back in 1991, during the first Gulf War. So, a lot of the Iraqi defenses have been degraded and it is not in good functioning order.

(End of interview.)

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