Lisa Rose Weaver: Dangerous drive into Iraq
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CNN's Lisa Rose Weaver
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CENTRAL IRAQ (CNN) -- CNN Correspondent Lisa Rose Weaver is embedded with a Patriot antimissile unit with the U.S. Army's V Corps.
She filed the following report about a convoy's five-day drive into central Iraq.
WEAVER: It was a harrowing drive for soldiers in the long convoy.
It took five days to travel from the Iraq-Kuwait border to central Iraq, where coalition forces were consolidating.
Mortar shells fell near the road along the way. Capt. Lisa Northups recalled hearing the shelling as her vehicle made its way through the desert.
"We could just hear them going off," she said.
There was a point where all the roads led to a four-lane paved highway, but the convoy couldn't travel on it because the military was concerned the route was not secure.
As a result, the trip had to be made on sandy roads that trapped the heavier vehicles. The dust disoriented most and caused a few others to go off the road.
In contrast to the warm welcome that Iraqis displayed at the roadside, at least two units heading north were caught in firefights in small towns.
"The worst part of the drive is coming up to the built-up areas," said Sgt. Cara Williams. "I think we felt a little anxious, just trying to make sure nobody went out where they weren't supposed to."
There is reason for security concerns. According to one military source privy to reports about security in Iraq, the biggest threat to soldiers seems to come from small teams of fighters loyal to a paramilitary group called Saddam Fedayeen.
Saddam Fedayeen is more active in northern Iraq, but it is beginning to branch out in central Iraq as well. It is described as extremely loyal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and fanatically opposed to U.S. forces in Iraq.
The group operates in sport utility vehicles or other civilian vehicles, and its weapons of choice are mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns, according to reports.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This report was written in accordance with Pentagon ground rules allowing so-called embedded reporting, in which journalists join deployed troops. Among the rules accepted by all participating news organizations is an agreement not to disclose sensitive operational details.
