1.
SV ZOOM IN President of Iraq Saddam Hussein sitting at table in Baghdad with military commanders and Arab representatives (3 shots)
0.16

2.
SV PAN Wreckage of Iranian aircraft, Baghdad with Russian writing on some pieces (3 shots)
0.37

3.
SV TRACKING SHOT Body of Iranian pilot shot down (3 shots)
0.54

4.
GV PAN Damaged building with pool of blood nearby, at Baghdad (2 shots)
1.05

5.
SV INTERIOR Wounded victims lying in hospital beds (5 shots)
1.38

6.
GV Iraqi soldier giving orders to mortar team who fire shells from bunkers
2.26

7.
SV Soldier firing machine-gun
2.34

8.
GV Tanks moving across desert (2 shots)
2.40




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TELERECORDING

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: As the war between Iran and Iraq went into its third day on Wednesday the leaders of both countries continued to ignore international pleas for a ceasefire. The President of Iran, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, said his government would defend Iran to the last drop of blood. But the President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein showed no signs of pulling his troops out of Iran.

SYNOPSIS: Most reports out of the war zone, like this film, have come from Iraq. President Hussein appeared on television with his military leaders reviewing what was called the great victory by the Iraqi forces. The Iraqi military claimed to have shot down this Iranian aircraft but strangely some of the wreckage had Russian writing on it. The Iranian Air Force is equipped with American weapons bought by the former Shah. Iranian planes have inflicted heavy damage on Baghdad and other parts of the country. The Iraqi capital was hit by at least five air attacks and residents say the night sky was lit by anti-aircraft fire. Nevertheless the Iraqis appeared to have the appear hand. They have crossed the Shatt Al-Arab waterway and attacked oil installations vital to Iran's economy.

Iraq said Iranian targets have been civilian and not military and that most of the victims have been civilians. This Baghdad suburb was badly damaged during an Iranian raid. Eyewitnesses said the Iranians lost at least six aircraft to ground fire during the attack. May civilians were wounded, some sustaining terrible injuries. Iran's Pars News Agency said the first two days of the war had cost the lives of one hundred and forty Iranian civilians with more than three hundred injured. The oil province in Khuzestan took the brunt of the Iraqi offensive. These eighty-two millimetre mortal have a range of about one-and-three quarter miles (3 kilometres). They seem to be shooting at a specific target but the cameraman does not show what. Iraq said its forces were pushing forward on three fronts and had sunk five Iranian ships which attacked ann oil port on the Shatt Al-Arab waterway, Iraqi troops crossed the waterway on Tuesday (23 september) and were said to be attacking the Iranian cargo port Khorramshahr. On Wednesday (24 September) Iraqi planes launched seven raids into Iran including Kharg Island, Iran's major oil exporting port. The island is at the northern end of the Gulf whose entrance, the Strait of Hormuz, is the channel through which half of OPEC's oil passes.

These tanks were said to have pushed across the border somewhere??? in the Kermanshah region. Governments in both the east and west have called for a ceasefire but most experts agree that the undeclared war will probably intensify.