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U.S. Army Unit Attacked in Iraq, One Soldier Killed
Aired May 27, 2003 - 06:02 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: We take you to Iraq now, where a U.S. Army unit has come under attack. At least one American has been killed. It happened in Fallujah, a city 30 miles west of Baghdad.
CNN's Matthew Chance is live in Baghdad.
Matthew -- tell us what happened.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's been an upsurge in attacks, Carol, over the past 24 hours or so against various U.S. units across various areas of Iraq. And there are a number of incidents we want to report, but we'll start in Fallujah, the one you just mentioned, the town about 70 kilometers, about 40 or 50 miles or so, west of Baghdad, where the U.S. military officials say a hostile force of unknown size engaged a U.S. patrol in the city. They say fire was coming from a mosque in the center of Fallujah. Initial reports say that the attackers fired from inside a mosque in the center of that town. That hasn't been independently confirmed, though.
What we do know from U.S. officials is that at least one of their soldiers and a number of others, in fact seven others, were injured as a result of that firefight. In the firefight, U.S. forces say they killed two of the attackers and took six further attackers into custody.
Now, the reports circulating earlier this morning here local time about a helicopter that had been damaged in the same kind of area, we've now had confirmation from U.S. military officials here in Baghdad that during this incident a U.S. military helicopter that was being used to Medivac those injured away from the scene was damaged, but it wasn't as a result of hostile fire. As you mentioned, it was, they say, injured -- struck, rather, by a Bradley Fighting Vehicle as it maneuvered to engage the attackers.
This latest incident, though, only the latest in a series, as I mentioned, over the course of the past 24 hours.
Just hours earlier on the road out of Baghdad towards the airport a short distance away on the outskirts of the city, we're told by U.S. officials, an attacker jumped in front of a Humvee armored jeep and threw what they call a satchel bomb underneath. It exploded, killing at least one U.S. soldier inside, injuring several others.
Before that -- on top of that, rather, that came on top of a further incident in the north of this country, in the town of Haditha, where a number of attackers opened fire on a U.S. Army convoy with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons.
So, a very uncertain situation here, and the U.S. Army spokesman in Baghdad is David Connolly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPT. DAVID CONNOLLY, U.S. ARMY: It's a point to remember that we had two main objectives when we came to Iraq. One was to remove the regime. Another was to search for and destroy weapons of mass destruction. Neither of those two tasks are complete. There are many signs out there on a daily basis that show that things are improving, but we know that through these incidents yesterday that there are still some things to be done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHANCE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) things may be improving, but as that military spokesman quite rightly said, it is still a very dangerous place, Baghdad.
COSTELLO: Certainly so. Matthew Chance live from Baghdad this morning.
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 27, 2003 - 06:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We take you to Iraq now, where a U.S. Army unit has come under attack. At least one American has been killed. It happened in Fallujah, a city 30 miles west of Baghdad.
CNN's Matthew Chance is live in Baghdad.
Matthew -- tell us what happened.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's been an upsurge in attacks, Carol, over the past 24 hours or so against various U.S. units across various areas of Iraq. And there are a number of incidents we want to report, but we'll start in Fallujah, the one you just mentioned, the town about 70 kilometers, about 40 or 50 miles or so, west of Baghdad, where the U.S. military officials say a hostile force of unknown size engaged a U.S. patrol in the city. They say fire was coming from a mosque in the center of Fallujah. Initial reports say that the attackers fired from inside a mosque in the center of that town. That hasn't been independently confirmed, though.
What we do know from U.S. officials is that at least one of their soldiers and a number of others, in fact seven others, were injured as a result of that firefight. In the firefight, U.S. forces say they killed two of the attackers and took six further attackers into custody.
Now, the reports circulating earlier this morning here local time about a helicopter that had been damaged in the same kind of area, we've now had confirmation from U.S. military officials here in Baghdad that during this incident a U.S. military helicopter that was being used to Medivac those injured away from the scene was damaged, but it wasn't as a result of hostile fire. As you mentioned, it was, they say, injured -- struck, rather, by a Bradley Fighting Vehicle as it maneuvered to engage the attackers.
This latest incident, though, only the latest in a series, as I mentioned, over the course of the past 24 hours.
Just hours earlier on the road out of Baghdad towards the airport a short distance away on the outskirts of the city, we're told by U.S. officials, an attacker jumped in front of a Humvee armored jeep and threw what they call a satchel bomb underneath. It exploded, killing at least one U.S. soldier inside, injuring several others.
Before that -- on top of that, rather, that came on top of a further incident in the north of this country, in the town of Haditha, where a number of attackers opened fire on a U.S. Army convoy with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons.
So, a very uncertain situation here, and the U.S. Army spokesman in Baghdad is David Connolly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPT. DAVID CONNOLLY, U.S. ARMY: It's a point to remember that we had two main objectives when we came to Iraq. One was to remove the regime. Another was to search for and destroy weapons of mass destruction. Neither of those two tasks are complete. There are many signs out there on a daily basis that show that things are improving, but we know that through these incidents yesterday that there are still some things to be done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHANCE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) things may be improving, but as that military spokesman quite rightly said, it is still a very dangerous place, Baghdad.
COSTELLO: Certainly so. Matthew Chance live from Baghdad this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
