Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=3/23/03

TYPE=INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

TITLE=WILKISON GROUND WAR

NUMBER=3-606

BYLINE=KENT KLEIN

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

INTERNET=

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HOST: Coalition forces are battling Iraqi troops on the ground in southern Iraq, as they advance towards Baghdad. Some of the most intense fighting has taken place near the southern Iraq port city of Umm Qasr. V-O-A News Now's Kent Klein spoke to correspondent Roger Wilkison who is at the U-S Central Command's forward headquarters in Qatar:

MR. WILKISON: It apparently is something that Is going back and forth. Saturday General Tommy Franks expressed optimism that his forces had captured most of Umm Qasr, then we heard that they had run into a lot of resistance. In the early of hours of Sunday, they were saying that there were pockets of resistance, but now apparently there have been heavy firefights. The importance of Umm Qasr is that it is Iraq's southernmost port. It's the port through which most of Iraq's oil exports go. And it would also be the place where the coalition forces would want to disembark humanitarian aid. So, it's a very strategic place.

MR. KLEIN: In Kuwait, a U-S soldier is in custody, suspected of carrying out a grenade attack that killed one soldier and wounded at least 12-others. Do the authorities have any idea why the soldier might have attacked his own forces?

MR. WILKISON: If they do, they are not telling us, Kent. They are just saying that the man has been arrested, he has been placed in custody, that he was a member of the 101st Airborne Division. There was a Time magazine reporter on the scene, though, who witnessed the attack, and he says the man had been accused or had been disciplined for insubordination in the past days and that might have been the reason for his anger, for his throwing these grenades into this command tent.

MR. KLEIN: Now, if he is found guilty, what will happen to him?

MR. WILKISON: Well, under the military justice [system], he will be tried. He will be court-martialed, of course, and a panel of judges will decide his fate.

MR. KLEIN: Now, finally, there have been reports near you of an explosion, near the Central Command's forward headquarters right there in Qatar. What have you heard about that?

MR. WILKISON: Well, I actually witnessed the explosion, and it looked to me as if it was a mortar being fired. There was sort of a thud and a cloud of black smoke went up for about six or seven seconds. But the last reports I have heard is that it was possibly a gas cylinder at a small industrial plant not too far from the base, meaning about a kilometer or so away.

HOST: Correspondent Roger Wilkison, spoke with V-O-A News Now's Kent Klein from the U-S Central Command forward headquarters in Qatar.

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