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CNN Live At Daybreak
American in Charge of Iraq's Reconstruction Vowing to Stop Sabotage
Aired August 19, 2003 - 05:30 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: The American in charge of Iraq's reconstruction is vowing to stop the sabotage of Iraq's infrastructure, the water and the oil pipelines there. He spoke with Paula Zahn on "Live From the Headlines."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
L. PAUL BREMER, U.S./IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATOR: We are taking a number of steps. One of them is to obviously put more protection on the key nodes, the places where attacks would have a major, major impact. We have made a major step to put more Iraqi security forces at play here. We've got an Iraqi civil defense force that we're calling into being that has -- is going to have eight battalions working on site security and pipeline security, convoy security in the next month or so. We have got almost 40,000 Iraqi police now on duty. There were, by the way, none when I arrived here. And all of these Iraqi forces will help us with the security, securing these Iraqi assets against these kinds of attacks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: OK, let's check on the situation in Iraq right now. It's early afternoon there.
Our Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf joins us live from Baghdad -- good morning, Jane.
Is it quiet now?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Afraid not, Carol. It's hard to find a quiet morning in Baghdad. And, in fact, reports are still coming in from yesterday's violence, I'm afraid, reports of an American soldier killed when an explosive device went off in a major neighborhood, a neighborhood called Karata (ph), a busy, bustling neighborhood. A U.S. soldier killed by that explosion yesterday.
Now, that report has just come in and U.S. military spokesmen say that they've just heard of it. Unclear why. So very few details as to what exactly happened, but another American soldier dead in Baghdad.
Near Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, lots of things going off there, as well. The U.S. Army there says it opened fire on what it believed were attackers last night. The attackers apparently were in the vicinity of an Iraqi ambulance. Now, when the Iraqi -- when the U.S. Army returned fire, they wounded a man in the ambulance. Also, what appears to be at least six other Iraqis dead when an ammunition dump exploded. They appear to have been looting this ammunition dump. This is what they do. People are still incredibly poor in this country and they do things as dangerous as going to ammunition dumps to strip off the copper and other metals so they can sell them. Apparently this exploded and six Iraqis have been killed and more possibly wounded near Tikrit -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Jane Arraf live from Baghdad this morning.
Of course, you can get the latest from Iraq on our Web site when you get to your office and you go online. The address, cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Sabotage>
Aired August 19, 2003 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The American in charge of Iraq's reconstruction is vowing to stop the sabotage of Iraq's infrastructure, the water and the oil pipelines there. He spoke with Paula Zahn on "Live From the Headlines."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
L. PAUL BREMER, U.S./IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATOR: We are taking a number of steps. One of them is to obviously put more protection on the key nodes, the places where attacks would have a major, major impact. We have made a major step to put more Iraqi security forces at play here. We've got an Iraqi civil defense force that we're calling into being that has -- is going to have eight battalions working on site security and pipeline security, convoy security in the next month or so. We have got almost 40,000 Iraqi police now on duty. There were, by the way, none when I arrived here. And all of these Iraqi forces will help us with the security, securing these Iraqi assets against these kinds of attacks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: OK, let's check on the situation in Iraq right now. It's early afternoon there.
Our Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf joins us live from Baghdad -- good morning, Jane.
Is it quiet now?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Afraid not, Carol. It's hard to find a quiet morning in Baghdad. And, in fact, reports are still coming in from yesterday's violence, I'm afraid, reports of an American soldier killed when an explosive device went off in a major neighborhood, a neighborhood called Karata (ph), a busy, bustling neighborhood. A U.S. soldier killed by that explosion yesterday.
Now, that report has just come in and U.S. military spokesmen say that they've just heard of it. Unclear why. So very few details as to what exactly happened, but another American soldier dead in Baghdad.
Near Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, lots of things going off there, as well. The U.S. Army there says it opened fire on what it believed were attackers last night. The attackers apparently were in the vicinity of an Iraqi ambulance. Now, when the Iraqi -- when the U.S. Army returned fire, they wounded a man in the ambulance. Also, what appears to be at least six other Iraqis dead when an ammunition dump exploded. They appear to have been looting this ammunition dump. This is what they do. People are still incredibly poor in this country and they do things as dangerous as going to ammunition dumps to strip off the copper and other metals so they can sell them. Apparently this exploded and six Iraqis have been killed and more possibly wounded near Tikrit -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Jane Arraf live from Baghdad this morning.
Of course, you can get the latest from Iraq on our Web site when you get to your office and you go online. The address, cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Sabotage>
