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CNN Live At Daybreak

Bomb Factory Found in Baghdad

Aired April 17, 2003 - 06:36   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Three U.S. soldiers and two Iraqis were wounded yesterday when an Iraqi man picked up an unexploded ordnance to show them. The man who picked up the ordnance was killed.
CNN's Ryan Chilcote is in southern Baghdad. He joins us live to talk about a bomb factory found by U.S. troops.

Ryan -- tell us about it.

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, sure. Most of what the troops do nowadays in their police work, if you could call it that, in Baghdad relies on tips from the Iraqi civilians, the Iraqi population themselves. And most of what they're asking of the troops really is to clear their neighborhoods of unexploded ordnance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHILCOTE (voice-over): Acting on a tip from an Iraqi farmer, the troops moved in. His neighbors, the farmer had told them, disappeared three days ago, but left their bomb-making production line behind.

STAFF SGT. MIKE TAYLOR, U.S. ARMY: We've got bags, which I haven't been able to look at inside of them yet, because they're laced up with blasting caps already.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They noticed...

(CROSSTALK)

TAYLOR: This is all terror stuff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

TAYLOR: This is terror stuff going on, so...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do we do with it? How do we transport it?

TAYLOR: We can't. We can't, sir. This stuff...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't blow it here (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

TAYLOR: We're going to have to do it here, sir.

CHILCOTE: The troops say they found enough to blow three city blocks.

TAYLOR: Basically, you put up the nine-volt battery, and they will go.

CHILCOTE: The explosives, individually packaged, possibly for use, the soldier said, by suicide bombers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this was where all of the bags of explosives were here?

CHILCOTE: There was also plenty of shrapnel.

TAYLOR: As you can see here, this is just bags and bags of shrapnel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shrapnel around here.

TAYLOR: This is a terrorist camp.

CHILCOTE: And detonators, from alarm clocks to phones. They even found a miniature model for practicing sneak attacks on highways.

TAYLOR: It has your sensor. It senses the first vehicle. Once the line is broken for your sensor, it drops a device. It creates a roadblock hazard, stopping your convoy, and then your whole convoy is susceptible to attack at that point.

CHILCOTE: Sophisticated tools for unconventional tactics.

TAYLOR: This is made for covert operations, terrorist attacks, where it's unexpected, it's not aimed at just killing, you know, soldier to soldier. It's made for everything that you can go at, instill fear -- terrorist actions just like World Trade Center.

CHILCOTE: Still unclear who was building these bombs and who was the target.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

There is a team onsite right now from the U.S. Army's V Corps examining those explosives, looking for possible ties to international terrorism. As for the explosives themselves, as you heard in that story, they are simply too unstable, too dangerous to move. The soldiers today, the engineers will be burning them, because you can burn C4 plastic explosive, and blowing them in place.

One of the biggest threats that the soldiers face right now in Iraq, short of, you know, an Iraqi enemy, is unexploded ordnance. Like you mentioned earlier in the program, just yesterday, three soldiers from the 101st Airborne were wounded when they went up to -- they were following an Iraqi man, who said that he had located some unexploded ordnance he wanted to show them. Well, he picked it up and it blew up in his face and killed him, and wounded two other Iraqis and wounded three other soldiers from the 101st. But I am told that they are going to be OK -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, we're glad to hear that. You know, it just continually surprises some of us that so many weapons are being found in Iraq, and they're everywhere -- in schools and on farms like you just showed us.

CHILCOTE: Yes. Yes, the soldiers from the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade, with whom I am embedded, were also in Afghanistan. They did a six-month tour there. And they say that Afghanistan had no -- there was no comparison to the amount of weapons that are here in Iraq. They are literally everywhere -- in residential buildings, in schools, in hospitals, in mosques. They have been put everywhere where one wouldn't expect to find them, and that is exactly where the troops are looking day by day right now in the city of Baghdad.

COSTELLO: Even buried underground. Ryan Chilcote, many thanks to you -- still 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 17, 2003 - 06:36   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Three U.S. soldiers and two Iraqis were wounded yesterday when an Iraqi man picked up an unexploded ordnance to show them. The man who picked up the ordnance was killed.
CNN's Ryan Chilcote is in southern Baghdad. He joins us live to talk about a bomb factory found by U.S. troops.

Ryan -- tell us about it.

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, sure. Most of what the troops do nowadays in their police work, if you could call it that, in Baghdad relies on tips from the Iraqi civilians, the Iraqi population themselves. And most of what they're asking of the troops really is to clear their neighborhoods of unexploded ordnance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHILCOTE (voice-over): Acting on a tip from an Iraqi farmer, the troops moved in. His neighbors, the farmer had told them, disappeared three days ago, but left their bomb-making production line behind.

STAFF SGT. MIKE TAYLOR, U.S. ARMY: We've got bags, which I haven't been able to look at inside of them yet, because they're laced up with blasting caps already.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They noticed...

(CROSSTALK)

TAYLOR: This is all terror stuff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

TAYLOR: This is terror stuff going on, so...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do we do with it? How do we transport it?

TAYLOR: We can't. We can't, sir. This stuff...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't blow it here (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

TAYLOR: We're going to have to do it here, sir.

CHILCOTE: The troops say they found enough to blow three city blocks.

TAYLOR: Basically, you put up the nine-volt battery, and they will go.

CHILCOTE: The explosives, individually packaged, possibly for use, the soldier said, by suicide bombers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this was where all of the bags of explosives were here?

CHILCOTE: There was also plenty of shrapnel.

TAYLOR: As you can see here, this is just bags and bags of shrapnel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shrapnel around here.

TAYLOR: This is a terrorist camp.

CHILCOTE: And detonators, from alarm clocks to phones. They even found a miniature model for practicing sneak attacks on highways.

TAYLOR: It has your sensor. It senses the first vehicle. Once the line is broken for your sensor, it drops a device. It creates a roadblock hazard, stopping your convoy, and then your whole convoy is susceptible to attack at that point.

CHILCOTE: Sophisticated tools for unconventional tactics.

TAYLOR: This is made for covert operations, terrorist attacks, where it's unexpected, it's not aimed at just killing, you know, soldier to soldier. It's made for everything that you can go at, instill fear -- terrorist actions just like World Trade Center.

CHILCOTE: Still unclear who was building these bombs and who was the target.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

There is a team onsite right now from the U.S. Army's V Corps examining those explosives, looking for possible ties to international terrorism. As for the explosives themselves, as you heard in that story, they are simply too unstable, too dangerous to move. The soldiers today, the engineers will be burning them, because you can burn C4 plastic explosive, and blowing them in place.

One of the biggest threats that the soldiers face right now in Iraq, short of, you know, an Iraqi enemy, is unexploded ordnance. Like you mentioned earlier in the program, just yesterday, three soldiers from the 101st Airborne were wounded when they went up to -- they were following an Iraqi man, who said that he had located some unexploded ordnance he wanted to show them. Well, he picked it up and it blew up in his face and killed him, and wounded two other Iraqis and wounded three other soldiers from the 101st. But I am told that they are going to be OK -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, we're glad to hear that. You know, it just continually surprises some of us that so many weapons are being found in Iraq, and they're everywhere -- in schools and on farms like you just showed us.

CHILCOTE: Yes. Yes, the soldiers from the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade, with whom I am embedded, were also in Afghanistan. They did a six-month tour there. And they say that Afghanistan had no -- there was no comparison to the amount of weapons that are here in Iraq. They are literally everywhere -- in residential buildings, in schools, in hospitals, in mosques. They have been put everywhere where one wouldn't expect to find them, and that is exactly where the troops are looking day by day right now in the city of Baghdad.

COSTELLO: Even buried underground. Ryan Chilcote, many thanks to you -- still 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.