joining us to talk about their experiences and the wider libyan battlefront are anthony shadid, and lynseyario. welcome to you both. tony shadid, beginning with you, you went through an incredible ordeal. tell us, give us a flavor of it and what it told you really about the nature of this conflict right now. >> well, i think, you know, we were taken by surprise somewhat that libyan forces had ensierk-- encircled the town. after we were leaving, in a battle we thought might be seminal in this town called ajdabiyah, we ran into a check point that i think lynsey identify first as a government check point. we were captured. we were bound, blindfolded later and then, you know, set off on a long odyssey across the country until we arved in tripoli. i think what we saw as we went across that country and this tech from ajdabiyah to tripoli was the wreckage of a state, a state struggling to kind of maintain its legitimacy, maintain its control over the country, and having a difficult time doing so. >> warner: and lynsey i don't want to make you revisit all the horrors but tell us, give a flavor of

it's very hard to describe those initial moments of terror there were four of us in the car, anthony shadid, tyler hicks-- and our driver. and the fighting was going on to the best of ajdabiyah. and we were in the city at the hospital looking for civilian casualties, looking for people fleeing, families fleeing. and tyler hicks and hi spent quite a bit of time at the front line going actually past ajdabiyah to brega, rass lanuf, all those cities and photographed as they fell into government hands and out of government hands into rebel hands. and so when we were covering ajdabiyah we assumed it would be the same pattern. that the government would come in from the west side. they would hit with tank fire, mortars and air strikes. and it would take a few days before the rebels sort of fled the city and retreated to the east. so we were there on a particular morning when the fighting stopped, very heavy on the western gate. and we cover the western gate and then pull back. and when we made a decision to leave the city we were flanked by government troops. that means they cut the road and caught

here, anthony shadid remembers what happened in the first minutes at a libyan government checkpoint. on our knees first and a lot of slapping. empty our pockets. and i remember one of the shoulders was yelling at me, you're the translator, you're the spy. and then soon after that, they forced us on our stomachs. i think we all this that very sinking feeling this was it. i remember looking up from my stomach him being a tall shoulder and saying shoot them. it felt like a lot of time elapsed but i think probably a matter of seconds and another soldier said to him, you can't, they are americans. >> tune in tonight for part two of anderson's exclusive interview with the journalists at 10:00 eastern only on cnn. >>> a tv news photographer en route to cover a sports story pulls a woman from a burning car. >> the people inside were kicking the doors. they couldn't get them open. they were screaming for help. >> more of his story of courage next. >>> also ahead, a snowy start to baseball season for the cleveland indians! april fool's snow is the real deal at cleveland's progressive field. st