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CNN Live Today

Reporting With 101st Airborne Division in Najaf

Aired April 03, 2003 - 10:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We want to get to Ryan Chilcote. He's embedded with the 101st Airborne Division, southern part of this country, in the town of Najaf, and I know, Ryan, you've had some very interesting sights there that you've witnessed today. And as I toss it to you, we just want to give you a heads up, we may have to interrupt if the president starts in North Carolina.
Good evening there.

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, well, the day began with what was supposed to be a very routine patrol for the troops. The goal of this patrol was for the soldiers' commander to meet with the Grand Ayatollah Sustani. He is the chief leader of the Shi'a people in this city and throughout the world.

On the way there, the soldiers stopped and were told via radio by the Grand Ayatollah that he would like them to first secure his compound, which is located about halfway down the road from where the troops were at that time to the Imam Ali Mosque, which you see over my shoulder. The Imam Ali Mosque, one of the holiest shrines to Shi'a Muslims in the world.

Well, the troops were intending to do just that, simply to go to the ayatollah's home, but no one told the crowd about that. Chaos ensued. The crowd apparently thinking that the troops planned to go all of the way up to the mosque.

Now the ayatollah's representatives that were on hand and the commander of the troops took some very commendable, very immediate steps to try and diffuse the situation. The commander told his troops to take a knee, to point their weapons at the ground and to appear as little hostile as possible as a soldier can, to try and diffuse the situation, but really, at that point, it was already too loud and it already had gone too far, so the commander told his troops to pull back. He decided to wait until cooler heads prevailed.

Back to you.

HARRIS: Ryan, ultimately what came of that? Did the troops go back in? Did they continue mingling with the locals? And if so, what was the reaction at that point?

CHILCOTE: Well, you know, I've got to hand it again to the commander and the ayatollah's representatives, because that situation had all the potential to turn out very ugly.

What happened was when the soldiers took a knee, which means they got down on one of their knees in a relaxed sort of position, relaxed formation, a lot of the people in the crowd, particularly in the front, not all of them, but a lot of the people did the very same. A lot of the Iraqis that were there and had been demonstrating trying to block that road to the mosque and to the ayatollah's home actually sat down themselves. The troops returned to their compound, and I have to say that if it wasn't for the miscommunication about the troops' intention, this would be a surprise because the troops have gotten a very warm reception here in the city of Najaf.

Obviously, here in the city of Najaf, the main population are Shi'a Muslims, and they have no love loss for the Iraqi leader President Saddam Hussein. They were very happy to see the troops particularly when they understood that the troops are here to say and secure this area for them, to try and root out the Fedayeen paramilitaries that really took sanctuary in here and were using this area to launch or stage attacks against U.S. troops.

All at this point, as you can see, the sun is now setting, is back to normal, and back to a pretty calm situation.

HARRIS: All right. Ryan Chilcote, again, embedded with the 101st Airborne Division.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired April 3, 2003 - 10:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We want to get to Ryan Chilcote. He's embedded with the 101st Airborne Division, southern part of this country, in the town of Najaf, and I know, Ryan, you've had some very interesting sights there that you've witnessed today. And as I toss it to you, we just want to give you a heads up, we may have to interrupt if the president starts in North Carolina.
Good evening there.

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, well, the day began with what was supposed to be a very routine patrol for the troops. The goal of this patrol was for the soldiers' commander to meet with the Grand Ayatollah Sustani. He is the chief leader of the Shi'a people in this city and throughout the world.

On the way there, the soldiers stopped and were told via radio by the Grand Ayatollah that he would like them to first secure his compound, which is located about halfway down the road from where the troops were at that time to the Imam Ali Mosque, which you see over my shoulder. The Imam Ali Mosque, one of the holiest shrines to Shi'a Muslims in the world.

Well, the troops were intending to do just that, simply to go to the ayatollah's home, but no one told the crowd about that. Chaos ensued. The crowd apparently thinking that the troops planned to go all of the way up to the mosque.

Now the ayatollah's representatives that were on hand and the commander of the troops took some very commendable, very immediate steps to try and diffuse the situation. The commander told his troops to take a knee, to point their weapons at the ground and to appear as little hostile as possible as a soldier can, to try and diffuse the situation, but really, at that point, it was already too loud and it already had gone too far, so the commander told his troops to pull back. He decided to wait until cooler heads prevailed.

Back to you.

HARRIS: Ryan, ultimately what came of that? Did the troops go back in? Did they continue mingling with the locals? And if so, what was the reaction at that point?

CHILCOTE: Well, you know, I've got to hand it again to the commander and the ayatollah's representatives, because that situation had all the potential to turn out very ugly.

What happened was when the soldiers took a knee, which means they got down on one of their knees in a relaxed sort of position, relaxed formation, a lot of the people in the crowd, particularly in the front, not all of them, but a lot of the people did the very same. A lot of the Iraqis that were there and had been demonstrating trying to block that road to the mosque and to the ayatollah's home actually sat down themselves. The troops returned to their compound, and I have to say that if it wasn't for the miscommunication about the troops' intention, this would be a surprise because the troops have gotten a very warm reception here in the city of Najaf.

Obviously, here in the city of Najaf, the main population are Shi'a Muslims, and they have no love loss for the Iraqi leader President Saddam Hussein. They were very happy to see the troops particularly when they understood that the troops are here to say and secure this area for them, to try and root out the Fedayeen paramilitaries that really took sanctuary in here and were using this area to launch or stage attacks against U.S. troops.

All at this point, as you can see, the sun is now setting, is back to normal, and back to a pretty calm situation.

HARRIS: All right. Ryan Chilcote, again, embedded with the 101st Airborne Division.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com