On The Scene: Suicide Bombers
CBS News Correspondent Lara Logan is in Baghdad, where she filed this report.
The suicide attacker struck at around 8 p.m. Thursday. A man walked up to a Marine checkpoint in central Baghdad and detonated explosives which were attached to his body. It's not the first suicide bombing of the war, but it is the first attack of its kind in the capital, and it could mark a change in the Fedayeens fighting tactics.
The streets of Baghdad are extremely dangerous right now. If a car comes too close to U.S. Marines when it fails to pull back, they open fire.
The threat of suicide bombers has made U.S. forces wary of everyone and has raised security levels. At checkpoints throughout the city, Iraqi civilians are kept at bay until the soldiers have made sure that they are not wearing suicide vests packed with explosives. A U.S. Marine source tells CBS News that around 50 of these vests were found in a school in Baghdad today.
Troops from the Third Infantry Division fought in one of the most intense battles for Baghdad, coming under fire for 72 hours straight from Iraqi Republican Guard and Syrian volunteer fighters.
They put up a good fight, "but there's no fight too big for the U.S.," said one Marine.
But it was not only soldiers who died here. Baghdad's main airport road had turned into a highway of death littered with the bodies of those who fought against the Americans and civilians caught in the wrong place at the worst possible time.
Captain Dan Hiebard is one of the men who gave the orders to shoot.
"Warning shots were fired. 90 percent of the vehicles were turning away seeing that there was a military operation under way and those that didn't were suspected of being hostile," he said.
With the battle won, they are now trying to wind hearts and minds.
But Marines may also have to become Iraq's policeman. The city is rapidly descending into chaos. Even hospitals were being looted. Any building associated with Saddam's regime has been ransacked.
It got personal at the home of the deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. His fondness for cigars and fine wine were well known and one Iraqi decided to help himself to the goods.
U.S. Marines were reluctant to get involved, but they stepped in when a vengeful crowd turned on a man, accusing him of being an informant.
It's not the role they wanted, but it's one they may have to take on to prevent all out anarchy. In the words of one Marine commander, it's turning into the Wild West out there.
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. The suicide attacker struck at around 8 p.m. Thursday. A man walked up to a Marine checkpoint in central Baghdad and detonated explosives which were attached to his body. It's not the first suicide bombing of the war, but it is the first attack of its kind in the capital, and it could mark a change in the Fedayeens fighting tactics.
The streets of Baghdad are extremely dangerous right now. If a car comes too close to U.S. Marines when it fails to pull back, they open fire.
The threat of suicide bombers has made U.S. forces wary of everyone and has raised security levels. At checkpoints throughout the city, Iraqi civilians are kept at bay until the soldiers have made sure that they are not wearing suicide vests packed with explosives. A U.S. Marine source tells CBS News that around 50 of these vests were found in a school in Baghdad today.
Troops from the Third Infantry Division fought in one of the most intense battles for Baghdad, coming under fire for 72 hours straight from Iraqi Republican Guard and Syrian volunteer fighters.
They put up a good fight, "but there's no fight too big for the U.S.," said one Marine.
But it was not only soldiers who died here. Baghdad's main airport road had turned into a highway of death littered with the bodies of those who fought against the Americans and civilians caught in the wrong place at the worst possible time.
Captain Dan Hiebard is one of the men who gave the orders to shoot.
"Warning shots were fired. 90 percent of the vehicles were turning away seeing that there was a military operation under way and those that didn't were suspected of being hostile," he said.
With the battle won, they are now trying to wind hearts and minds.
But Marines may also have to become Iraq's policeman. The city is rapidly descending into chaos. Even hospitals were being looted. Any building associated with Saddam's regime has been ransacked.
It got personal at the home of the deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. His fondness for cigars and fine wine were well known and one Iraqi decided to help himself to the goods.
U.S. Marines were reluctant to get involved, but they stepped in when a vengeful crowd turned on a man, accusing him of being an informant.
It's not the role they wanted, but it's one they may have to take on to prevent all out anarchy. In the words of one Marine commander, it's turning into the Wild West out there.
