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CNN Live At Daybreak
Baghdad Today
Aired April 11, 2003 - 06:39 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I want to go ahead and move south to Baghdad now. It is a city of civil structure -- needing a lot of civil structure and security.
Our Martin Savidge joins us live now from the Iraqi capital.
Marty -- hello.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn. It may sound like a jet taking off in the background. It's actually an M1A1 Abrams tank firing off, so that's why I'm having a hard time hearing you.
Talking about the security situation in this town, it is quieter today. Baghdad is not quiet. It would be too far to go to that extreme. There is still the crackle of gunfire that can be heard in the city, the occasional explosion, and certainly there is smoke rising at some places on the Baghdad skyline.
With that being said, though, things are said to be definitely more calm than they have been over the past couple of days.
Now, today is Friday. That's a Muslim day of prayer, not only here in Iraq, but across the Muslim world, so that may account for some of that as well.
Here is what the military is saying. The presence of U.S. forces inside of Baghdad has grown, grown dramatically. There are now more patrols than ever out on the street, and they are running it 24 hours, 7 days a week. So that is not the problem when it comes to having the military on the street, but there's still a sense amongst the population that there is no law here, and that's what the military is trying to deal with.
And the way they are dealing with that is two-fold. Switching the mode at which they came into this city, first as a fighting force, now taking up as a security force. It's not necessarily a role that a lot of the military has been trained in, but nevertheless that's the role they've got right now.
The next role they are taking on is trying to encourage the people of Baghdad, especially those that were involved with jobs with civil authority, to come back to their jobs, those that were involved with electricity, come back, those that were involved with water distribution, they need them as well, police officers -- all of that.
They are working and meeting with officials right now to determine the best way to get the city back on its feet. The military knows if you restore normal life, then life will begin to return to normal.
Back to you -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Martin, it sounds like they have a lot of work ahead of them. Martin Savidge in Baghdad, thank you.
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 11, 2003 - 06:39 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I want to go ahead and move south to Baghdad now. It is a city of civil structure -- needing a lot of civil structure and security.
Our Martin Savidge joins us live now from the Iraqi capital.
Marty -- hello.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn. It may sound like a jet taking off in the background. It's actually an M1A1 Abrams tank firing off, so that's why I'm having a hard time hearing you.
Talking about the security situation in this town, it is quieter today. Baghdad is not quiet. It would be too far to go to that extreme. There is still the crackle of gunfire that can be heard in the city, the occasional explosion, and certainly there is smoke rising at some places on the Baghdad skyline.
With that being said, though, things are said to be definitely more calm than they have been over the past couple of days.
Now, today is Friday. That's a Muslim day of prayer, not only here in Iraq, but across the Muslim world, so that may account for some of that as well.
Here is what the military is saying. The presence of U.S. forces inside of Baghdad has grown, grown dramatically. There are now more patrols than ever out on the street, and they are running it 24 hours, 7 days a week. So that is not the problem when it comes to having the military on the street, but there's still a sense amongst the population that there is no law here, and that's what the military is trying to deal with.
And the way they are dealing with that is two-fold. Switching the mode at which they came into this city, first as a fighting force, now taking up as a security force. It's not necessarily a role that a lot of the military has been trained in, but nevertheless that's the role they've got right now.
The next role they are taking on is trying to encourage the people of Baghdad, especially those that were involved with jobs with civil authority, to come back to their jobs, those that were involved with electricity, come back, those that were involved with water distribution, they need them as well, police officers -- all of that.
They are working and meeting with officials right now to determine the best way to get the city back on its feet. The military knows if you restore normal life, then life will begin to return to normal.
Back to you -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Martin, it sounds like they have a lot of work ahead of them. Martin Savidge in Baghdad, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
