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CNN Live At Daybreak

One American Soldier Dead, Two Others Wounded

Aired July 31, 2003 - 05:01   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: Oh, it's happened again in the so- called Sunni Triangle northeast of Baghdad, an attack on a forward base. One American soldier dead, two others wounded.
Live to Baghdad now and Rym Brahimi -- hello, Rym.

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol. Indeed, it was an attack by small arms fire. One U.S. soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division died. Six other people were wounded, two of them U.S. soldiers from the 4th I.D. and four of them Iraqis.

Now, this happened near the town of Ba'qubah, which is, if you remember, Carol, a few days ago where two other U.S. soldiers were killed in a grenade attack when they were guarding a children's hospital. And if you look at it, basically since the death of Uday and Qusay Hussein, the two sons of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, well, there's been an attack against U.S. soldiers every single day -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Tell us some more about the Iraqi elections coming up.

BRAHIMI: Well, basically what's happening now is Paul Bremmer, who is the U.S. administrator here in Iraq, was touring the foreign ministry this morning, talking to diplomats. He was accompanied by reporters and now he told them that it would be totally -- it would not be unrealistic, in his words, to see elections take place here in Iraq by the middle of next year, by the middle of 2004.

Now, all that hinges on how quickly Iraqis can write and have a constitution approved. So it's all basically going to depend on that constitution. And the body in charge of writing that constitution or putting it together, if you will, is the governing council. That governing council was hand-picked by U.S. authorities just a couple of weeks ago and they've just selected nine members among 25 to be part of its presidency, the first one that will rotate in this presidency. They're going to rotate one of these nine members every month. And the first one on that list is Ibrahim Al-Jafari. He's from the Shia Islamic Al-Daawa Party.

Now, we spoke to him and we asked him what he thought of what's going to happen now and how his body, the governing council in search of legitimacy, if you will, can work with the U.S. authorities here in Iraq.

And here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) IBRAHIM AL-JAFARI, IRAQI COUNCIL PRESIDENT: The governing council submits its power from the agreement and the unity that it gets from working together. Ever since the coalition forces found out from their first meetings with us that the Iraqis have one voice, they are in agreement. And we are responsible to the Iraqi people. We believe that the Iraqi people look forward to leading themselves by their own people and we would expect the coalition forces to stand by their promises to our people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRAHIMI: So, meanwhile, just to cut a long story short, when the elections take place, there will be a representative government and that's going to mean that the U.S. can probably leave Iraq, according to Paul Bremmer.

In the meantime, this governing council is what Iraq has to represent it, and that's important because a lot of international aid organizations say to be able to help rebuild Iraq, they need to have an Iraqi interlocutor -- 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 31, 2003 - 05:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, it's happened again in the so- called Sunni Triangle northeast of Baghdad, an attack on a forward base. One American soldier dead, two others wounded.
Live to Baghdad now and Rym Brahimi -- hello, Rym.

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol. Indeed, it was an attack by small arms fire. One U.S. soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division died. Six other people were wounded, two of them U.S. soldiers from the 4th I.D. and four of them Iraqis.

Now, this happened near the town of Ba'qubah, which is, if you remember, Carol, a few days ago where two other U.S. soldiers were killed in a grenade attack when they were guarding a children's hospital. And if you look at it, basically since the death of Uday and Qusay Hussein, the two sons of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, well, there's been an attack against U.S. soldiers every single day -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Tell us some more about the Iraqi elections coming up.

BRAHIMI: Well, basically what's happening now is Paul Bremmer, who is the U.S. administrator here in Iraq, was touring the foreign ministry this morning, talking to diplomats. He was accompanied by reporters and now he told them that it would be totally -- it would not be unrealistic, in his words, to see elections take place here in Iraq by the middle of next year, by the middle of 2004.

Now, all that hinges on how quickly Iraqis can write and have a constitution approved. So it's all basically going to depend on that constitution. And the body in charge of writing that constitution or putting it together, if you will, is the governing council. That governing council was hand-picked by U.S. authorities just a couple of weeks ago and they've just selected nine members among 25 to be part of its presidency, the first one that will rotate in this presidency. They're going to rotate one of these nine members every month. And the first one on that list is Ibrahim Al-Jafari. He's from the Shia Islamic Al-Daawa Party.

Now, we spoke to him and we asked him what he thought of what's going to happen now and how his body, the governing council in search of legitimacy, if you will, can work with the U.S. authorities here in Iraq.

And here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) IBRAHIM AL-JAFARI, IRAQI COUNCIL PRESIDENT: The governing council submits its power from the agreement and the unity that it gets from working together. Ever since the coalition forces found out from their first meetings with us that the Iraqis have one voice, they are in agreement. And we are responsible to the Iraqi people. We believe that the Iraqi people look forward to leading themselves by their own people and we would expect the coalition forces to stand by their promises to our people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRAHIMI: So, meanwhile, just to cut a long story short, when the elections take place, there will be a representative government and that's going to mean that the U.S. can probably leave Iraq, according to Paul Bremmer.

In the meantime, this governing council is what Iraq has to represent it, and that's important because a lot of international aid organizations say to be able to help rebuild Iraq, they need to have an Iraqi interlocutor -- 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