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Would-Be Suicide Bomber Stopped in Capital

Aired April 11, 2003 - 11:03   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; We're going to begin this hour, Leon, in Baghdad. That is where a would-be suicide bomber was stopped without incident at a military checkpoint in the capital. That's also where Walter Rodgers is now traveling. He, of course, is now on his own after spending weeks embedded with the U.S. Army's 3-7th.
Walter, what can you tell us about this latest incident, which was somehow avoided?

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, it was just about two hours ago that we learned that an Iraqi citizen, dressed as a civilian, approached a U.S. Marine checkpoint. He was carrying a black briefcase, a black leather bag at the time. And when he approached the checkpoint, the Marines became suspicious, stopped him before he could detonate the explosives which were said to be in that black briefcase.

It was just 24 hours ago that four other U.S. servicemen, three Marines and a sailor were injured in a would-be suicide attempt. An Iraqi came up with what turned out to be a hand grenade. That was fortunate for the Marines and the sailor, because it meant their damages -- their injuries were less than what would have happened, of course, if they had been packing a heavier explosive.

It has been another day of looting throughout most of the major cities in Iraq here in capital, Baghdad. I personally saw a man walk right behind our television camera with what appeared to be nothing less than a hospital operating room table. It was on wheels, and there was another man who obviously was pushing another piece of hospital equipment down the street.

It's very difficult for the U.S. Marines to do anything about these looters here in the city. There simply are not enough U.S. soldiers in the city to stop this kind of looting, although there are demands that the U.S. forces do something about it. I asked one Marine colonel, Colonel Steven Hummer of the 7th Regimental Marine task force here, what his view of the looting situation was, and how soon it would stop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. STEVEN HUMMER, U.S. MARINE CORPS: Today we had our first meeting with some of the public officials. And it was very, what I felt was very successful, not all of them were there, obviously. People are home and afraid to come to work. As we get the security piece put in, I think people will be more willing to come to work and get things established. (END VIDEO CLIP)

RODGERS: Now, certain shopkeepers in the city are not waiting on the Marines to help them stop looters. There has been at least one looter shot by a shopkeeper. But the Marines say within the next 24 hours, with the cooperation of the local Iraqi officials, they think they can wind down the looting.

One thing the Marines are doing is winding down their own presence in the city. That is to say they were at many major intersections just a few hours ago for their own safety reasons, fear of suicide bombers, as well as to keep a lower military presence in the city, the Marines have pulled back from many checkpoints in the city of Baghdad, and back from the traffic circles -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Walter, is that just because of the nighttime hours, or is that all around the clock?

RODGERS: It's all around the clock. And again, I asked the Marines specifically why. They're trying to keep a lower profile in the city. It's a bit of a grievance for the citizens of Baghdad to try to drive their cars to a major intersection and have to simply be turned back, and that's been the situation for more than a few days now. They know this is not engendering good community relations. So the Marines have, for two reasons, to improve public relations and for their own safety, to avoid bombers, pulled back on many of those checkpoints -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Walter Rodgers, reporting to us from Baghdad. Want to keep the security theme going here and move into southern Iraq.

Our Mike Boettcher is traveling with special operation forces, north of an area of Nasiriyah. Mike, what do you have?

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I just returned from the city of Al Shakra (ph), which is 40 miles north of Nasiriyah, more like south central Iraq, where, for the first time in this conflict, an area of Iraqi force has deployed on a mission in support of the coalition. It is called the Free Iraqi Forces. We've been following them for several days. They've been trained and assessed by U.S. special forces, green berets, who have helped equip them. And they are seen as perhaps the seeds of an element of new Iraq and a new Iraq security force.

They went to the town to Shakra (ph) today to great applause and cheers from the local residents, who were very surprised to see a force of Iraqis fighting on this side of the coalition. They didn't even know it existed. They were hugged. They were kissed. And this celebration went on for hours. There are many cities along the way, from Kuwait to Baghdad, that have not been touched by the coalition, and this is one of those cities, and the first soldiers they saw were Iraqi soldiers.

So this is a first, and these soldiers, most of them were from the Baghdad region, expect to be deployed soon. They'd like to be sent to Baghdad, but that remains to be seen here. KAGAN: Mike, it seems like a fine line that the special-ops forces are walking here. Of course eventually you want the Iraqis to be dealing with their own security, but by arming them and training them, how do you keep civil war from breaking out across the country?

RODGERS: Well, right now, they believe that this is classic unconventional warfare. This is what the special forces do. They find indigenous forces who support the policy of the United States, who will side with the United States, and they trained them and equip them in that war.

Now, there have been instances in several conflicts in the past where these same forces have become an enemy. But Dr. Ahmad Chalabi, as the leader of the FIF, the former leader of the Iraqi National Congress. He expects Iraq to be run by rule of law. He is one of the people mentioned as a potential leader of Iraq. And he thinks that a force like this is needed, not a U.S. force interim administration, but an Iraqi force, an indigenous force. These men, 150 today, went on this mission, are exiles who left during the Iran/Iraq war, the Persian Gulf War and other conflicts intervening, and they come from places like Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and they're coming back home.

And they say they want to liberate their country, and they are not a force that's going to fight in a civil war. They say they're sick of war.

KAGAN: Understandable in that country. Mike Boettcher, near Nasiriyah, thank you very much.

We're going to focus now on one of the military hot spots, and that is the ancestral home of Saddam Hussein, the city of Tikrit. U.S. military says that coalition of planes right now are pounding Tikrit. It is the tribal home of Saddam Hussein, as I mentioned.

"Time" magazine's Michael Ware has just left that city, and says there is chaos breaking out there now. He is on the phone now. He has moved from Tikrit to the neighboring city of Kirkuk.

Michael, what can you tell us about what's taking place in Tikrit right now?

Do we have Michael Ware on the phone?

All right, well, not that easy sometimes to get the phone calls out of Iraq. We'll work on getting him back on the phone. A very important story to track out of Tikrit. Right, now we'll move on going north of there, to northern Iraq, where the front lines have largely disenigrated. There is a flood of former soldiers that's moving southward. They've simply given up.

Our Brent Sadler's on the phone with more than that.

Brent, I understand you've seen some incredible sites today, as the soldiers have just basically given up their arms and they're trying to walk home. BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Daryn. Thousands of Iraqi soldiers who were formerly manning front lines around cities, Kirkuk, Mosul, simply heading for home. A long trek from these areas to the southern part of Iraq. These were Muslim Shiites who have been constricted, many of them for years they've said, with the Iraqi army here in the north of the country.

And many of them, incredible to see, Daryn, were not wearing boots, no footwear whatsoever. Some had sandals, some had pretty shabby shoes. But many of them were working along a tarmac road in the heat of the day with bare feet. Some of them complained about cracks and blisters. The overriding sense I got from these men was one of satisfaction, if not relief, of course, that they were alive, that they had survived the onslaught, and against the forces of the regime. Although these were members of a defeated army, these conscripts were happy to be going home.

A seven-day trek would take them a long time to get there, an arduous journey. What I'm also seeing in the same areas that some of these men were waling through, really tremendously shocking scenes of looting and I saw U.S. special forces with Humvees quickly taking positions in front of some of Kirkuk's oil facilities, where there was widespread looting of offices, vehicles, equipment being carried away by the truckload.

The Americans really trying to stop this kind of thing from happening. But really being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of looters. Perhaps one of the telling moments of the day, I think, was a lot of talk about where Saddam Hussein and his top brass might be hiding out, possibly for a last stand in Tikrit.

But I spoke to a power plant manager, who was trying to get food to his work areas to put power back on to city of Kirkuk. Americans said he couldn't get through yet with his team, his utility team, because it wasn't safe. I spoke to this very well-educated manager. I said, look, it's been 20 years since you've been working here. You worked for Saddam Hussein. You can now speak freely to a western reporter from CNN. What is going through your mind now about the years you spent under Saddam Hussein? This man looked at me and said, my friend, until he is gone, until I see that he is dead, I can't say anything to you about Saddam Hussein, and he walked away shaking his head. That was the most telling moment I had of this day, about the future, about the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein.

Back to you, Daryn.

KAGAN: Absolutely fascinating story from the mind of just one man, trying to walk his way home to southern Iraq.

Brent Sadler, thank you for that report.

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 - 11:03   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR; We're going to begin this hour, Leon, in Baghdad. That is where a would-be suicide bomber was stopped without incident at a military checkpoint in the capital. That's also where Walter Rodgers is now traveling. He, of course, is now on his own after spending weeks embedded with the U.S. Army's 3-7th.
Walter, what can you tell us about this latest incident, which was somehow avoided?

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, it was just about two hours ago that we learned that an Iraqi citizen, dressed as a civilian, approached a U.S. Marine checkpoint. He was carrying a black briefcase, a black leather bag at the time. And when he approached the checkpoint, the Marines became suspicious, stopped him before he could detonate the explosives which were said to be in that black briefcase.

It was just 24 hours ago that four other U.S. servicemen, three Marines and a sailor were injured in a would-be suicide attempt. An Iraqi came up with what turned out to be a hand grenade. That was fortunate for the Marines and the sailor, because it meant their damages -- their injuries were less than what would have happened, of course, if they had been packing a heavier explosive.

It has been another day of looting throughout most of the major cities in Iraq here in capital, Baghdad. I personally saw a man walk right behind our television camera with what appeared to be nothing less than a hospital operating room table. It was on wheels, and there was another man who obviously was pushing another piece of hospital equipment down the street.

It's very difficult for the U.S. Marines to do anything about these looters here in the city. There simply are not enough U.S. soldiers in the city to stop this kind of looting, although there are demands that the U.S. forces do something about it. I asked one Marine colonel, Colonel Steven Hummer of the 7th Regimental Marine task force here, what his view of the looting situation was, and how soon it would stop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. STEVEN HUMMER, U.S. MARINE CORPS: Today we had our first meeting with some of the public officials. And it was very, what I felt was very successful, not all of them were there, obviously. People are home and afraid to come to work. As we get the security piece put in, I think people will be more willing to come to work and get things established. (END VIDEO CLIP)

RODGERS: Now, certain shopkeepers in the city are not waiting on the Marines to help them stop looters. There has been at least one looter shot by a shopkeeper. But the Marines say within the next 24 hours, with the cooperation of the local Iraqi officials, they think they can wind down the looting.

One thing the Marines are doing is winding down their own presence in the city. That is to say they were at many major intersections just a few hours ago for their own safety reasons, fear of suicide bombers, as well as to keep a lower military presence in the city, the Marines have pulled back from many checkpoints in the city of Baghdad, and back from the traffic circles -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Walter, is that just because of the nighttime hours, or is that all around the clock?

RODGERS: It's all around the clock. And again, I asked the Marines specifically why. They're trying to keep a lower profile in the city. It's a bit of a grievance for the citizens of Baghdad to try to drive their cars to a major intersection and have to simply be turned back, and that's been the situation for more than a few days now. They know this is not engendering good community relations. So the Marines have, for two reasons, to improve public relations and for their own safety, to avoid bombers, pulled back on many of those checkpoints -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Walter Rodgers, reporting to us from Baghdad. Want to keep the security theme going here and move into southern Iraq.

Our Mike Boettcher is traveling with special operation forces, north of an area of Nasiriyah. Mike, what do you have?

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I just returned from the city of Al Shakra (ph), which is 40 miles north of Nasiriyah, more like south central Iraq, where, for the first time in this conflict, an area of Iraqi force has deployed on a mission in support of the coalition. It is called the Free Iraqi Forces. We've been following them for several days. They've been trained and assessed by U.S. special forces, green berets, who have helped equip them. And they are seen as perhaps the seeds of an element of new Iraq and a new Iraq security force.

They went to the town to Shakra (ph) today to great applause and cheers from the local residents, who were very surprised to see a force of Iraqis fighting on this side of the coalition. They didn't even know it existed. They were hugged. They were kissed. And this celebration went on for hours. There are many cities along the way, from Kuwait to Baghdad, that have not been touched by the coalition, and this is one of those cities, and the first soldiers they saw were Iraqi soldiers.

So this is a first, and these soldiers, most of them were from the Baghdad region, expect to be deployed soon. They'd like to be sent to Baghdad, but that remains to be seen here. KAGAN: Mike, it seems like a fine line that the special-ops forces are walking here. Of course eventually you want the Iraqis to be dealing with their own security, but by arming them and training them, how do you keep civil war from breaking out across the country?

RODGERS: Well, right now, they believe that this is classic unconventional warfare. This is what the special forces do. They find indigenous forces who support the policy of the United States, who will side with the United States, and they trained them and equip them in that war.

Now, there have been instances in several conflicts in the past where these same forces have become an enemy. But Dr. Ahmad Chalabi, as the leader of the FIF, the former leader of the Iraqi National Congress. He expects Iraq to be run by rule of law. He is one of the people mentioned as a potential leader of Iraq. And he thinks that a force like this is needed, not a U.S. force interim administration, but an Iraqi force, an indigenous force. These men, 150 today, went on this mission, are exiles who left during the Iran/Iraq war, the Persian Gulf War and other conflicts intervening, and they come from places like Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and they're coming back home.

And they say they want to liberate their country, and they are not a force that's going to fight in a civil war. They say they're sick of war.

KAGAN: Understandable in that country. Mike Boettcher, near Nasiriyah, thank you very much.

We're going to focus now on one of the military hot spots, and that is the ancestral home of Saddam Hussein, the city of Tikrit. U.S. military says that coalition of planes right now are pounding Tikrit. It is the tribal home of Saddam Hussein, as I mentioned.

"Time" magazine's Michael Ware has just left that city, and says there is chaos breaking out there now. He is on the phone now. He has moved from Tikrit to the neighboring city of Kirkuk.

Michael, what can you tell us about what's taking place in Tikrit right now?

Do we have Michael Ware on the phone?

All right, well, not that easy sometimes to get the phone calls out of Iraq. We'll work on getting him back on the phone. A very important story to track out of Tikrit. Right, now we'll move on going north of there, to northern Iraq, where the front lines have largely disenigrated. There is a flood of former soldiers that's moving southward. They've simply given up.

Our Brent Sadler's on the phone with more than that.

Brent, I understand you've seen some incredible sites today, as the soldiers have just basically given up their arms and they're trying to walk home. BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Daryn. Thousands of Iraqi soldiers who were formerly manning front lines around cities, Kirkuk, Mosul, simply heading for home. A long trek from these areas to the southern part of Iraq. These were Muslim Shiites who have been constricted, many of them for years they've said, with the Iraqi army here in the north of the country.

And many of them, incredible to see, Daryn, were not wearing boots, no footwear whatsoever. Some had sandals, some had pretty shabby shoes. But many of them were working along a tarmac road in the heat of the day with bare feet. Some of them complained about cracks and blisters. The overriding sense I got from these men was one of satisfaction, if not relief, of course, that they were alive, that they had survived the onslaught, and against the forces of the regime. Although these were members of a defeated army, these conscripts were happy to be going home.

A seven-day trek would take them a long time to get there, an arduous journey. What I'm also seeing in the same areas that some of these men were waling through, really tremendously shocking scenes of looting and I saw U.S. special forces with Humvees quickly taking positions in front of some of Kirkuk's oil facilities, where there was widespread looting of offices, vehicles, equipment being carried away by the truckload.

The Americans really trying to stop this kind of thing from happening. But really being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of looters. Perhaps one of the telling moments of the day, I think, was a lot of talk about where Saddam Hussein and his top brass might be hiding out, possibly for a last stand in Tikrit.

But I spoke to a power plant manager, who was trying to get food to his work areas to put power back on to city of Kirkuk. Americans said he couldn't get through yet with his team, his utility team, because it wasn't safe. I spoke to this very well-educated manager. I said, look, it's been 20 years since you've been working here. You worked for Saddam Hussein. You can now speak freely to a western reporter from CNN. What is going through your mind now about the years you spent under Saddam Hussein? This man looked at me and said, my friend, until he is gone, until I see that he is dead, I can't say anything to you about Saddam Hussein, and he walked away shaking his head. That was the most telling moment I had of this day, about the future, about the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein.

Back to you, Daryn.

KAGAN: Absolutely fascinating story from the mind of just one man, trying to walk his way home to southern Iraq.

Brent Sadler, thank you for that report.

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