John Corn
04-05-03, 08:17 AM
(CBS) U.S. forces are in the process of capturing Baghdad's international airport, about four miles from the city’s gates, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Axelrod, traveling with the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry Division.
Artillery fire could be heard near the Saddam International Airport at the edge of the capital. Tracer rounds raced through the blackened sky and artillery shells exploded in the air.
Axelrod reports the assault on the airport caps a remarkable march over the last 44 hours by the 3rd Infantry. They have traversed some 50 miles north from Karbala to the airport.
For the first time, Iraqis came out on the street to cheer the American troops as they came by. But as U.S. forces got closer to the airport, people stopped waving and cheering and more gunfire and mortar blasts could be heard – but there was remarkably little opposition as the 3rd Infantry rolled into the airport.
At a Pentagon briefing, Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Richard Myers would not confirm whether an attack on the airport was under way.
This might cause problems with that guy in the beret on Iraqi TV who keeps saying it's all lies about allies' progress towards Baghdad, and I'm curious how the residents of Iraq will respond because at four miles they should be able to hear fighting with weapons that aren't heavy artillery and have a good sense of us saying "knock knock" at Baghdad's door.
Artillery fire could be heard near the Saddam International Airport at the edge of the capital. Tracer rounds raced through the blackened sky and artillery shells exploded in the air.
Axelrod reports the assault on the airport caps a remarkable march over the last 44 hours by the 3rd Infantry. They have traversed some 50 miles north from Karbala to the airport.
For the first time, Iraqis came out on the street to cheer the American troops as they came by. But as U.S. forces got closer to the airport, people stopped waving and cheering and more gunfire and mortar blasts could be heard – but there was remarkably little opposition as the 3rd Infantry rolled into the airport.
At a Pentagon briefing, Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Richard Myers would not confirm whether an attack on the airport was under way.
This might cause problems with that guy in the beret on Iraqi TV who keeps saying it's all lies about allies' progress towards Baghdad, and I'm curious how the residents of Iraq will respond because at four miles they should be able to hear fighting with weapons that aren't heavy artillery and have a good sense of us saying "knock knock" at Baghdad's door.