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CNN Live At Daybreak
Three More Soldiers Killed in Iraq
Aired July 24, 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: Deadly retaliation? Maybe. What we do know is that three more U.S. troops have been ambushed and killed, and they are members of the 101st, the same division that carried out the attack on Uday and Qusay Hussein.
Live to Baghdad now and Rym Brahimi.
Rym -- what happened this time?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what happened this time, Carol, was these three soldiers were part of a convoy that was heading to an area southeast of the town -- the city of Mosul, where the raid was conducted by the 101st Airborne a couple of days ago in the raid that killed the two sons of Saddam Hussein.
Now, as they were driving there, they fell under fire, apparently small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire, and three of the soldiers were killed.
That, of course, comes -- the timing is interesting. And, of course, it comes as many people fear that there will be a series of revenge attacks.
And, as you know also, Carol, there was another incident in Baghdad involving U.S. troops, but this time the accounts are a little bit more blurry. What's involved is a car that tried to pass a checkpoint. Eyewitnesses say that U.S. soldiers may have shot at the car. Whatever happened, the car appears to have caught fire, and both the passenger and the driver are reported to have been killed -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Rym, I want to talk some about the photos of Uday and Qusay. The U.S. government will release them at some point. And Donald Rumsfeld says they're still deciding whether to clean up the bodies before showing the pictures to the Iraqi people, because if they show the bodies in their present state that might create more violence. Is that your sense?
BRAHIMI: Well, it's very difficult to tell. The fact that people want to see the bodies, knowing full well that it's probably not going to be a very nice picture altogether, is just that people maybe see it as more important for them to be reassured to know that this era, if you will, of the lives of the history of their country is well in the past.
And it's something that's actually happened before. When the monarchy was overthrown, the body of the regent at the time was dragged through the streets of Baghdad. When the next leader came in 1958, he was overthrown in 1963 a few years later, and his execution was videotaped and shown on TV.
So, it could be that people just have this habit now, in a way, and need to see to believe -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Tell us about some of the rumors going around Iraq right now.
BRAHIMI: Well, Carol, this place has always been ripe with rumors, and especially in the build-up to the war, during the war and now. And I think a lot of it has to do with maybe the perception that is here with regard to the United States. There's a lot of suspicion with regard to the United States, and mainly that's because a lot of people, Carol, you know, see the U.S. as the superpower, the most technologically-advanced country. And people don't really understand how it is that they never were able to get Saddam Hussein and they haven't caught him until now. People don't understand that the main superpower can't restore electricity.
And so, from then on you have all of these rumors that stem. For instance, people think that Saddam Hussein is being maintained deliberately by the Americans to make sure that the Iraqis are still afraid and would ask the U.S. to remain in Iraq. Other rumors involve the fact that they believe that Uday and Qusay are still alive, and the U.S. is hiding that somehow -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Rym Brahimi 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 July 24, 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: Deadly retaliation? Maybe. What we do know is that three more U.S. troops have been ambushed and killed, and they are members of the 101st, the same division that carried out the attack on Uday and Qusay Hussein.
Live to Baghdad now and Rym Brahimi.
Rym -- what happened this time?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what happened this time, Carol, was these three soldiers were part of a convoy that was heading to an area southeast of the town -- the city of Mosul, where the raid was conducted by the 101st Airborne a couple of days ago in the raid that killed the two sons of Saddam Hussein.
Now, as they were driving there, they fell under fire, apparently small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire, and three of the soldiers were killed.
That, of course, comes -- the timing is interesting. And, of course, it comes as many people fear that there will be a series of revenge attacks.
And, as you know also, Carol, there was another incident in Baghdad involving U.S. troops, but this time the accounts are a little bit more blurry. What's involved is a car that tried to pass a checkpoint. Eyewitnesses say that U.S. soldiers may have shot at the car. Whatever happened, the car appears to have caught fire, and both the passenger and the driver are reported to have been killed -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Rym, I want to talk some about the photos of Uday and Qusay. The U.S. government will release them at some point. And Donald Rumsfeld says they're still deciding whether to clean up the bodies before showing the pictures to the Iraqi people, because if they show the bodies in their present state that might create more violence. Is that your sense?
BRAHIMI: Well, it's very difficult to tell. The fact that people want to see the bodies, knowing full well that it's probably not going to be a very nice picture altogether, is just that people maybe see it as more important for them to be reassured to know that this era, if you will, of the lives of the history of their country is well in the past.
And it's something that's actually happened before. When the monarchy was overthrown, the body of the regent at the time was dragged through the streets of Baghdad. When the next leader came in 1958, he was overthrown in 1963 a few years later, and his execution was videotaped and shown on TV.
So, it could be that people just have this habit now, in a way, and need to see to believe -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Tell us about some of the rumors going around Iraq right now.
BRAHIMI: Well, Carol, this place has always been ripe with rumors, and especially in the build-up to the war, during the war and now. And I think a lot of it has to do with maybe the perception that is here with regard to the United States. There's a lot of suspicion with regard to the United States, and mainly that's because a lot of people, Carol, you know, see the U.S. as the superpower, the most technologically-advanced country. And people don't really understand how it is that they never were able to get Saddam Hussein and they haven't caught him until now. People don't understand that the main superpower can't restore electricity.
And so, from then on you have all of these rumors that stem. For instance, people think that Saddam Hussein is being maintained deliberately by the Americans to make sure that the Iraqis are still afraid and would ask the U.S. to remain in Iraq. Other rumors involve the fact that they believe that Uday and Qusay are still alive, and the U.S. is hiding that somehow -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Rym Brahimi 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.
