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CNN Live At Daybreak

Series of Raids in Tikrit, Saddam's Hometown

Aired August 04, 2003 - 06:36   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: Lingering tensions in Tikrit, as U.S. troops continue to raid homes, looking for Saddam Hussein. No sign of him yet, but they believe he's hiding among friends. Now a new tactic.
Live to Baghdad now and Rym Brahimi.

Hello -- Rym.

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello again, Carol.

Indeed, a certain number of raids, more than two dozen carried out just in the past 24 hours. Now, these raids, of course, have been allowing the U.S. coalition forces to seize a lot of weapons, to seize money, and also to capture men. More than 46 people have been seized. Among them, three of them, they say, one a target leader, two others key mid-level officials from the formerly ruling Baath Party regime.

But I think what's important here is that these relentless raids, Carol, are not only aimed, of course, at trying to close in on Saddam Hussein, but maybe more directly at trying to deny him any access to safe houses, deny him access to weapons, to money, to people who would want to hide him. So, that's why mainly, although that country-wide, well, they're really focusing on the area around Tikrit and in Tikrit, which is the hometown of Saddam Hussein, where there are still quite a few loyalists, people who still support the former Iraqi president.

And then the next question will be if, indeed, U.S. coalition forces do capture Saddam Hussein alive, if they don't kill him in the process of capturing him, well, what do they do with him? And, of course, there are a lot of questions that this is going to be a debate that will emerge soon, and they're hoping that if they do that, well, the Iraqis will be able to take him to justice -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Rym Brahimi reporting 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 August 4, 2003 - 06:36   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Lingering tensions in Tikrit, as U.S. troops continue to raid homes, looking for Saddam Hussein. No sign of him yet, but they believe he's hiding among friends. Now a new tactic.
Live to Baghdad now and Rym Brahimi.

Hello -- Rym.

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello again, Carol.

Indeed, a certain number of raids, more than two dozen carried out just in the past 24 hours. Now, these raids, of course, have been allowing the U.S. coalition forces to seize a lot of weapons, to seize money, and also to capture men. More than 46 people have been seized. Among them, three of them, they say, one a target leader, two others key mid-level officials from the formerly ruling Baath Party regime.

But I think what's important here is that these relentless raids, Carol, are not only aimed, of course, at trying to close in on Saddam Hussein, but maybe more directly at trying to deny him any access to safe houses, deny him access to weapons, to money, to people who would want to hide him. So, that's why mainly, although that country-wide, well, they're really focusing on the area around Tikrit and in Tikrit, which is the hometown of Saddam Hussein, where there are still quite a few loyalists, people who still support the former Iraqi president.

And then the next question will be if, indeed, U.S. coalition forces do capture Saddam Hussein alive, if they don't kill him in the process of capturing him, well, what do they do with him? And, of course, there are a lot of questions that this is going to be a debate that will emerge soon, and they're hoping that if they do that, well, the Iraqis will be able to take him to justice -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Rym Brahimi reporting 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.