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CNN Saturday Morning News

Iraq to be Divided into Three Military Sectors

Aired May 03, 2003 - 08:06   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.


ROBIN MEADE, CNN ANCHOR: Anderson, let's get right now an update on the new Iraq. We've learned that the country will be divided into three military sectors as part of the future stabilization efforts.
Right now we're going to take you live to Baghdad and CNN's Rym Brahimi, who has more details on that -- Rym, good morning to you.

How is it proposed that this will work?

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's an interesting proposal. It also comes, interestingly enough, at a moment when the interim police chief has resigned. Now, he was appointed by the U.S., retired U.S. General Jay Garner's team, the interim administrators here, and he has just decided to resign, he says to spend more time with his family, that he has worked for 36 years for the police force and it's time for new faces to come up.

That said, it does leave, again, in a place where there's already a vacuum, a lot of questions about the security situation. And that's probably why this stabilization force is being put together. We understand that that means the country will be divided into three sectors. We've been told roughly north, center and south, but that is to be determined further, at a further state. Roughly the three sectors will be led by the U.S., British and Polish forces, and other countries have also asked to participate.

Now, this, of course, indicates how much security and stability is still a major concern here in Iraq. And one example that would highlight that is when we went to check on the schools this morning that were reopening. Now, classes were to resume today in the morning and out of the hundred of students that usually should be there, well, only a handful showed up in one of the schools that usually has some 400 pupils, only 10 of them were there.

And when we asked parents why they weren't sending their children to school, the answer was inevitably well, we are still afraid. The security situation is not, there's still a lot of insecurity and I'm afraid to send my children to school -- Robin.

MEADE: Rym Brahimi live in Baghdad.

Again, those three sectors will be run by the U.S., Britain and Poland.

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 May 3, 2003 - 08:06   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ROBIN MEADE, CNN ANCHOR: Anderson, let's get right now an update on the new Iraq. We've learned that the country will be divided into three military sectors as part of the future stabilization efforts.
Right now we're going to take you live to Baghdad and CNN's Rym Brahimi, who has more details on that -- Rym, good morning to you.

How is it proposed that this will work?

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's an interesting proposal. It also comes, interestingly enough, at a moment when the interim police chief has resigned. Now, he was appointed by the U.S., retired U.S. General Jay Garner's team, the interim administrators here, and he has just decided to resign, he says to spend more time with his family, that he has worked for 36 years for the police force and it's time for new faces to come up.

That said, it does leave, again, in a place where there's already a vacuum, a lot of questions about the security situation. And that's probably why this stabilization force is being put together. We understand that that means the country will be divided into three sectors. We've been told roughly north, center and south, but that is to be determined further, at a further state. Roughly the three sectors will be led by the U.S., British and Polish forces, and other countries have also asked to participate.

Now, this, of course, indicates how much security and stability is still a major concern here in Iraq. And one example that would highlight that is when we went to check on the schools this morning that were reopening. Now, classes were to resume today in the morning and out of the hundred of students that usually should be there, well, only a handful showed up in one of the schools that usually has some 400 pupils, only 10 of them were there.

And when we asked parents why they weren't sending their children to school, the answer was inevitably well, we are still afraid. The security situation is not, there's still a lot of insecurity and I'm afraid to send my children to school -- Robin.

MEADE: Rym Brahimi live in Baghdad.

Again, those three sectors will be run by the U.S., Britain and Poland.

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