BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Long before this conflict began, a lot of people got concerned about as we grew later in the year, into the months of late April, into May and even June that the weather temperatures in this part of the world would be entirely too hot for the U.S. military to work effectively on the ground and in the air over Iraq. Well, now we are seeing the impact not only of hot weather, but of sandstorms right now. Mother Nature took a very bad turn today, and Walt Rogers was in the thick of it. He is with the 7th Cav somewhere in south central Iraq. Here's Walt's latest report now.</s>WALTER RODGERS, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A choking sandstorm has once again slowed coalition forces' progress north all across a wide front along the Euphrates River. However, the U.S. Army's 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry did send back good news for the Pentagon earlier, that good news being that they had outflanked the city of Al Samala (ph), and the elements of the 7th Cavalry had indeed crossed a bridge and were now moving northward in Iraq. That bridge, incidentally, had been heavily mined, that is to say explosives were all along the bridge, and fortunately the Army's engineers detected them quickly. They had not been wired, but the Iraqis clearly intended to blow that bridge and prevent the Army's passage northward. Still, it was not an easy passage for the Army. Last night approaching the bridge, there was an enormous fire fight. It looked like the Fourth of July, with tracers shooting across the sky. Enormous fireworks display, except this one was lethal. We're told 300 to 400 Iraqi soldiers were killed in that as the 7th Cavalry battled towards the bridge, and then, after crossing the bridge, the army encountered mortars falling all around its convoy, small arms fire, snipers picking away at the Army for 45 minutes to an hour before it pushed away from that small concentration of snipers and mortars. Walter Rodgers, CNN, with the U.S. 7th Cavalry in Iraq.
7th Cavalry Crosses Bridge Under Fire