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Independent Television News Report by Jeremy Thompson for UK, 1991

00:05:00 Color Bars and Tone with ITN Keyed.

00:05:10 Slate. -- "ITN. UNILATERAL. NO ACCESS TO . . . ."

00:05:16 Countdown with caption. -- "Remote edit SP-Beta, Ch 1 Final Audio"

00:05:21 Various medium close and long shots of U.S. soldiers. One in MCU has small American flag on helmet. -- At the cutting edge of the Allied land force, an American infantry unit, dug in almost within sight of the Kuwait border. Their task to prove ahead of the front line as the liberation army moved forward.

00:05:35 Fire trucks moving down road with troops in foreground. Zoom out to long shot showing long line of fire trucks and other governmental vehicles. -- Straddling the main road to Kuwait, they set up a check point. The sudden stream of vehicles came towards them, fleeing to the south.

00:05:43 Smoke column dominates frame. -- On the horizon the reason why. A hugh black trail of smoke, betraying where incoming Iraqi artillery had struck an oil refinery inside Saudi Arabia.

00:05:54 Various shots of vehicles and troops checking IDs. -- It seems that everyone from the town of Khafji had decided it was time to leave, including the police and the fire service.

00:06:00 OS of soldier with machine gun. -- Above all, the soldiers were waiting for the possibility of spies.

00:06:05 Armored vehicle with manned, anti-personnel gun on top. -- A team from KILO 33 platoon set off to check the state of the communities the Saudis had left behind.

00:06:11 Plume of smoke rises over community buildings. -- On the outskirts of Khafji , a clear sight of fire raging in the damaged oil plant.

00:06:17 American soldier peers through binoculars. -- We were now just six miles from the Kuwait border.

00:06:20 Troops scan horizon before two are shown stepping into a Hummer. -- The serjeant and his team stop to survey the ground ahead. They had had reports of figures seen on roof tops, possibily enemy artillery spotters helping to guide in the Iraqi shells.

00:06:32 Helicopter overhead. -- Overhead, American helicopters kept a brotherly watch on their comrades below.

00:06:37 Armored vehicle moves through town arch over road. -- We are entering the bad lands now, the soldier told his men, as they drove through the archway into a deserted town. Khafji had been known as a safe hideout for Iraqi terrorists.

00:06:48 Moving camera shot of deserted city street. -- But now, it appeared no more than a ghost town. Two hours of Iraqi shelling early this morning had left few obvious marks of damage. But every shop was shut, not a soul was on the street. In the eerie silence,

00:07:04 Car sits still in intersection. -- evidence of a panic stricken evacuation. We came upon this car abandoned in the middle of a crossroads.

00:07:09 Military truck moves down highway with heavy, dark plume of smoke on horizon. -- Team KILO 33 found no sign of hostile forces though and no reports of injuries in Khafji.

00:07:15 Waist shot of ITN journalist. -- For the moment, the Iraqi artillery has stopped raining down on the deserted town of Khafji. They have had several hits, although the only serious damage is to the oil refinery. What the Iraqis really seemed to have achieved is just to drive away the local people.

00:07:32 MS of rising column of black smoke. -- As the oil blaze blackens the border skies the allied forces still had not chosen to return fire. Jeremy Thompson, ITN, close to the Kuwaiti border.





Webmaster's Comments: Contents were captured "on the fly" by Eddie Foote, Chotank.com producer, using loaner Sony BetaCam decks from Sony, Atlanta. No representation of accuracy is being made.

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