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CNN Live At Daybreak
Twelve Iraqis Killed in Protest Shootout With U.S.
Aired April 29, 2003 - 05:03 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's get the latest on that shootout between U.S. troops and Iraqi demonstrators west of Baghdad.
CNN's Karl Penhaul joins us live on the phone from Falluja -- Karl, what happened?
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.
According to local residents here who live just opposite, in a house just opposite where the incident took place, they say that 12 people were killed, 12 Iraqis were killed and up to 50 were wounded in the incident. That took place after dark last night as a group of Iraqi demonstrators moved to a school where a unit of the 82nd Airborne Division are camped out. They've been using the school for a base for about the last 10 days. The Iraqis were going to the school to ask for them to vacate the school so that the pupils and teachers could go back today. And then, according to the resident that I spoke to, all hell broke loose.
A sergeant, an Army sergeant that I've spoken to, said the demonstrators opened fire first. A resident I spoke to said he doesn't know who opened fire, all he knows is that this morning he's lost a cousin and his brother is still seriously ill in a hospital. His leg's been amputated -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Karl Penhaul, thank you for bringing us up to date. We'll let you gather more information and you'll join us in the next half hour.
Let's go to Baghdad now and check in with Rym Brahimi to get the latest from there -- good morning, Rym.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol.
Well, that incident takes places just as the U.S. military are announcing that they're going to boost the number of U.S. troops on the ground here in the Iraqi capital. The deputy U.S. commander of ground troops here in Iraq says that in the next seven to 10 days up to 4,000 troops will be coming in. They include infantry and military policemen.
Now this, of course, comes just as one of the main concerns here in Iraq is security. The Baghdad police force is slowly being revived, but people still complain about security. There's still sporadic gunfire in the streets here and there. Another interesting development, Carol, the surrender of Iraq's oil minister. Amer Rashid was the oil minister for the past six years. Now, he had resigned in January but then was reinstated a couple of weeks before the war began in March. The oil minister will be of great use to the U.S. troops, I imagine, because before being oil minister, he was involved in Iraq's missile programs. He was the main interlocutor with the U.N. weapons inspectors during the first round of inspections. And even as oil minister, he's likely to have a lot of information on contracts regarding oil and maybe oil smuggling and how maybe that money, as suspected, would have been channeled to allow Iraq to buy weapons.
Finally, his wife is the famous Dr. Germ, Dr. Rihab Taha. So, there again, there might be more information. She was in charge of biological weapons programs. A lot of information in that one man that was, that surrendered last night to U.S. coalition forces -- Carol.
COSTELLO: So that begs the question, Rym, where is his wife?
BRAHIMI: Well, that's a very good question. It was one of the first things that many of us wondered when we heard he'd surrendered. Clearly, she doesn't seem ready to surrender for the moment. Maybe they're trying to work out some other deal in regard to -- with regards to her. We know that she was for years in charge of the biological weapons programs and definitely she would be of great use in terms of providing information to the U.S. military if she's prepared to come forward.
Then again, the situation here on the ground is such, there's a lot of Iraqis do know who the U.S. coalition forces are looking for and some of them actually help the U.S. forces. There's a lot of anger among a lot of Iraqis with regard to some of the people who were in charge, or among the closest circles of President Saddam Hussein. And so it wouldn't be surprising if she emerged some time soon, too -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Understand.
Rym Brahimi live from Baghdad.
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 29, 2003 - 05:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's get the latest on that shootout between U.S. troops and Iraqi demonstrators west of Baghdad.
CNN's Karl Penhaul joins us live on the phone from Falluja -- Karl, what happened?
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.
According to local residents here who live just opposite, in a house just opposite where the incident took place, they say that 12 people were killed, 12 Iraqis were killed and up to 50 were wounded in the incident. That took place after dark last night as a group of Iraqi demonstrators moved to a school where a unit of the 82nd Airborne Division are camped out. They've been using the school for a base for about the last 10 days. The Iraqis were going to the school to ask for them to vacate the school so that the pupils and teachers could go back today. And then, according to the resident that I spoke to, all hell broke loose.
A sergeant, an Army sergeant that I've spoken to, said the demonstrators opened fire first. A resident I spoke to said he doesn't know who opened fire, all he knows is that this morning he's lost a cousin and his brother is still seriously ill in a hospital. His leg's been amputated -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Karl Penhaul, thank you for bringing us up to date. We'll let you gather more information and you'll join us in the next half hour.
Let's go to Baghdad now and check in with Rym Brahimi to get the latest from there -- good morning, Rym.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol.
Well, that incident takes places just as the U.S. military are announcing that they're going to boost the number of U.S. troops on the ground here in the Iraqi capital. The deputy U.S. commander of ground troops here in Iraq says that in the next seven to 10 days up to 4,000 troops will be coming in. They include infantry and military policemen.
Now this, of course, comes just as one of the main concerns here in Iraq is security. The Baghdad police force is slowly being revived, but people still complain about security. There's still sporadic gunfire in the streets here and there. Another interesting development, Carol, the surrender of Iraq's oil minister. Amer Rashid was the oil minister for the past six years. Now, he had resigned in January but then was reinstated a couple of weeks before the war began in March. The oil minister will be of great use to the U.S. troops, I imagine, because before being oil minister, he was involved in Iraq's missile programs. He was the main interlocutor with the U.N. weapons inspectors during the first round of inspections. And even as oil minister, he's likely to have a lot of information on contracts regarding oil and maybe oil smuggling and how maybe that money, as suspected, would have been channeled to allow Iraq to buy weapons.
Finally, his wife is the famous Dr. Germ, Dr. Rihab Taha. So, there again, there might be more information. She was in charge of biological weapons programs. A lot of information in that one man that was, that surrendered last night to U.S. coalition forces -- Carol.
COSTELLO: So that begs the question, Rym, where is his wife?
BRAHIMI: Well, that's a very good question. It was one of the first things that many of us wondered when we heard he'd surrendered. Clearly, she doesn't seem ready to surrender for the moment. Maybe they're trying to work out some other deal in regard to -- with regards to her. We know that she was for years in charge of the biological weapons programs and definitely she would be of great use in terms of providing information to the U.S. military if she's prepared to come forward.
Then again, the situation here on the ground is such, there's a lot of Iraqis do know who the U.S. coalition forces are looking for and some of them actually help the U.S. forces. There's a lot of anger among a lot of Iraqis with regard to some of the people who were in charge, or among the closest circles of President Saddam Hussein. And so it wouldn't be surprising if she emerged some time soon, too -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Understand.
Rym Brahimi live from Baghdad.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
