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American Morning
British Troops Killed in Southern Iraq
Aired June 25, 2003 - 07:03 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back to Iraq right now, the deadliest incident for coalition forces since the U.S. declared back on May 1 that major combat was over. Six British troops killed yesterday in the southern part of the country. Some say they may have been attacked by residents living there.
Ben Wedeman is near the scene in southeastern Iraq.
Ben -- we're still piecing this together. What have you learned there?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Bill, it appears what happened was there was some sort of incident in the main marketplace of this town. British military police entered with their guns out as usual, in fact. And there was, as I said, some sort of friction that occurred there and fire -- shots were fired. The British military police retreated from there and came to here, which is the main police station for this town. It's a very tribal town, a very heavily-armed town.
A large crowd gathered outside. Shots were fired from the police station into the crowd, and back as well. And in the course of this firing, four Iraqis were killed, 17 wounded, in addition to six British military police.
Now, we had a chance to speak with a local senior British officer, however, who says that this is not -- was not an incident in which there was anything carefully planned. He said he described it as impromptu.
And it appears that there is no real connection, Bill, between what happened yesterday here and the spate of daily attacks that has been going on in Baghdad and to the north of there -- Bill.
HEMMER: Ben, quickly here, they patrol without Cavalier vests, they patrol without helmets. Will that change for the British?
WEDEMAN: Well, we saw British patrols out in other parts of the south, and, in fact, they still weren't wearing Cavalier or helmets or anything along those lines. And they're certainly not driving around in the very large armored vehicles that we see the Americans going around Baghdad and other areas. So, they do -- they are on obviously a heightened state of alert, but both the British and the Iraqi police are treating this as something of an isolated incident. Both sides expressing regret and both sides saying they hope it doesn't happen again.
HEMMER: Ben Wedeman in southeastern Iraq.
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 June 25, 2003 - 07:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back to Iraq right now, the deadliest incident for coalition forces since the U.S. declared back on May 1 that major combat was over. Six British troops killed yesterday in the southern part of the country. Some say they may have been attacked by residents living there.
Ben Wedeman is near the scene in southeastern Iraq.
Ben -- we're still piecing this together. What have you learned there?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Bill, it appears what happened was there was some sort of incident in the main marketplace of this town. British military police entered with their guns out as usual, in fact. And there was, as I said, some sort of friction that occurred there and fire -- shots were fired. The British military police retreated from there and came to here, which is the main police station for this town. It's a very tribal town, a very heavily-armed town.
A large crowd gathered outside. Shots were fired from the police station into the crowd, and back as well. And in the course of this firing, four Iraqis were killed, 17 wounded, in addition to six British military police.
Now, we had a chance to speak with a local senior British officer, however, who says that this is not -- was not an incident in which there was anything carefully planned. He said he described it as impromptu.
And it appears that there is no real connection, Bill, between what happened yesterday here and the spate of daily attacks that has been going on in Baghdad and to the north of there -- Bill.
HEMMER: Ben, quickly here, they patrol without Cavalier vests, they patrol without helmets. Will that change for the British?
WEDEMAN: Well, we saw British patrols out in other parts of the south, and, in fact, they still weren't wearing Cavalier or helmets or anything along those lines. And they're certainly not driving around in the very large armored vehicles that we see the Americans going around Baghdad and other areas. So, they do -- they are on obviously a heightened state of alert, but both the British and the Iraqi police are treating this as something of an isolated incident. Both sides expressing regret and both sides saying they hope it doesn't happen again.
HEMMER: Ben Wedeman in southeastern Iraq.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
