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CNN Live At Daybreak

International News Desk

Aired September 12, 2003 - 05:37   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: We want to talk more about international news.
Eli Flournoy joining us now.

And there's a breaking story going on in Iraq right now involving Iraqi police officers and U.S. troops.

What's happening?

ELI FLOURNOY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Well, we're getting wire reports in and, of course, from witnesses on the scene. And Falluja is just west of Baghdad, where apparently it appears that the Iraqi police officers were chasing suspects in a vehicle. They headed towards a U.S. checkpoint. U.S. soldiers opened fire and it appears that a number of Iraqi police and some of these suspects may have been killed in that incident.

Now, the details are still very sketchy. We haven't seen...

COSTELLO: So the U.S. troops inadvertently opened fire on Iraqi police officers who were chasing the bad guys?

FLOURNOY: It appears, that appears to be the case, according to the eyewitness accounts that are coming in so far. We're still getting information there. We have a team. Nic Robertson is on his way there and we should be hearing from him live very soon. Also, Walt Rodgers in Baghdad is keeping an eye on this. We'll hear a live report.

COSTELLO: Yes. We don't know if anyone has died?

FLOURNOY: We don't know for sure. There are reports of casualties among the Iraqi police who were in the chase. But we have not, we have not got our own confirmation of that yet. There are reports that there are bodies, possibly, that have been taken to the U.S. military base there in Falluja. So we're getting details on that literally minute by minute.

COSTELLO: All right, so we'll wait for more details.

Let's talk about Sweden and this bizarre incident where, was it the foreign minister was stabbed to death?

FLOURNOY: That's right. That's right. The foreign minister, Anna Lindh, a very, very popular, beloved figure in Sweden, was stabbed to death while shopping not far from the foreign ministry in Stockholm.

COSTELLO: How does that happen? She's the number three person in the government there.

FLOURNOY: Yes, it's bizarre. There, it's, there really are not a lot of answers still. This actually happened two days ago. She died early yesterday and the police came out this morning to say that they still have not found the culprit. The attacker is still at large. They do apparently have the murder weapon, though, the knife, and they're still doing tests on the knife to see what they can find out from that.

COSTELLO: Well, and I had read reports it might be because Sweden wants to change over to the euro, which is kind of a -- I mean it sounds at face value like a weak reason.

FLOURNOY: Well, there have been, you know, there have -- it is a controversial issue in Sweden in this -- on Sunday, they're going to vote as to whether to accept the euro as the common currency, along with other European nations. And it is a controversial issue. You wouldn't think that it would be an issue of such intensity that would lead to an assassination, but police are looking at, you know, the possibility that it was someone who was mentally unstable...

COSTELLO: Oh, yes.

FLOURNOY: This, you know, it does appear that she was targeted directly, that it's not random.

COSTELLO: And I shouldn't have said that, because we had an attempted assassination because of Jody Foster. So you just don't know.

FLOURNOY: That's true. That's true. You never -- yes, you never know. You never know. But police are just saying so far that they really don't know yet what's the motivation behind this and who it was that attacked her. They have, apparently they have a description from eyewitnesses of who this person was and they're trying to get more information about them. But they still do not have the suspect in custody. So it's a tragic and bizarre case.

COSTELLO: Definitely.

FLOURNOY: Later today we're going to see pictures. The Swedish, people in Stockholm are going to be holding a rally to mourn. The prime minister is going to be leading them out in the streets. So...

COSTELLO: And hopefully we'll have some live pictures of that.

FLOURNOY: Yes.

COSTELLO: Eli Flournoy, many thanks.

FLOURNOY: Yes.

COSTELLO: We appreciate it. 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 September 12, 2003 - 05:37   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We want to talk more about international news.
Eli Flournoy joining us now.

And there's a breaking story going on in Iraq right now involving Iraqi police officers and U.S. troops.

What's happening?

ELI FLOURNOY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Well, we're getting wire reports in and, of course, from witnesses on the scene. And Falluja is just west of Baghdad, where apparently it appears that the Iraqi police officers were chasing suspects in a vehicle. They headed towards a U.S. checkpoint. U.S. soldiers opened fire and it appears that a number of Iraqi police and some of these suspects may have been killed in that incident.

Now, the details are still very sketchy. We haven't seen...

COSTELLO: So the U.S. troops inadvertently opened fire on Iraqi police officers who were chasing the bad guys?

FLOURNOY: It appears, that appears to be the case, according to the eyewitness accounts that are coming in so far. We're still getting information there. We have a team. Nic Robertson is on his way there and we should be hearing from him live very soon. Also, Walt Rodgers in Baghdad is keeping an eye on this. We'll hear a live report.

COSTELLO: Yes. We don't know if anyone has died?

FLOURNOY: We don't know for sure. There are reports of casualties among the Iraqi police who were in the chase. But we have not, we have not got our own confirmation of that yet. There are reports that there are bodies, possibly, that have been taken to the U.S. military base there in Falluja. So we're getting details on that literally minute by minute.

COSTELLO: All right, so we'll wait for more details.

Let's talk about Sweden and this bizarre incident where, was it the foreign minister was stabbed to death?

FLOURNOY: That's right. That's right. The foreign minister, Anna Lindh, a very, very popular, beloved figure in Sweden, was stabbed to death while shopping not far from the foreign ministry in Stockholm.

COSTELLO: How does that happen? She's the number three person in the government there.

FLOURNOY: Yes, it's bizarre. There, it's, there really are not a lot of answers still. This actually happened two days ago. She died early yesterday and the police came out this morning to say that they still have not found the culprit. The attacker is still at large. They do apparently have the murder weapon, though, the knife, and they're still doing tests on the knife to see what they can find out from that.

COSTELLO: Well, and I had read reports it might be because Sweden wants to change over to the euro, which is kind of a -- I mean it sounds at face value like a weak reason.

FLOURNOY: Well, there have been, you know, there have -- it is a controversial issue in Sweden in this -- on Sunday, they're going to vote as to whether to accept the euro as the common currency, along with other European nations. And it is a controversial issue. You wouldn't think that it would be an issue of such intensity that would lead to an assassination, but police are looking at, you know, the possibility that it was someone who was mentally unstable...

COSTELLO: Oh, yes.

FLOURNOY: This, you know, it does appear that she was targeted directly, that it's not random.

COSTELLO: And I shouldn't have said that, because we had an attempted assassination because of Jody Foster. So you just don't know.

FLOURNOY: That's true. That's true. You never -- yes, you never know. You never know. But police are just saying so far that they really don't know yet what's the motivation behind this and who it was that attacked her. They have, apparently they have a description from eyewitnesses of who this person was and they're trying to get more information about them. But they still do not have the suspect in custody. So it's a tragic and bizarre case.

COSTELLO: Definitely.

FLOURNOY: Later today we're going to see pictures. The Swedish, people in Stockholm are going to be holding a rally to mourn. The prime minister is going to be leading them out in the streets. So...

COSTELLO: And hopefully we'll have some live pictures of that.

FLOURNOY: Yes.

COSTELLO: Eli Flournoy, many thanks.

FLOURNOY: Yes.

COSTELLO: We appreciate it. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com