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CNN Live At Daybreak

Chaos in Iraqi Capital

Aired October 01, 2003 - 06:05   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: On to Iraq now. They wanted to be police officers but were turned away, and then things got violent. It happened this morning in Baghdad.
Live to the capital city now and Harris Whitbeck.

Hello -- Harris.

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol.

Several hundred former military and police officers showed up at a police station here, hoping to get jobs. They say that they had been promised jobs in the new Iraqi police force last July, and since then they've been showing up at this police station once a week to try to be reinstated.

They say that police officers there asked them for bribes, and that is when they became frustrated. They started throwing stones at the police station. They also put two -- set fire to two vehicles, one of them inside that police station.

Police officers responded by firing gunshots into the air. Some demonstrators say that shots were actually fired into the crowd, and there is a report of at least one person having been injured.

The whole demonstration lasted for about half an hour. After the gunshots ended, there were fistfights. The situation now is quite calm.

Still a lot of frustration, however, Carol. One person I spoke to said that he'd been out of a job since last March, and he has to feed 13 members of his family -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Harris Whitbeck 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 October 1, 2003 - 06:05   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: On to Iraq now. They wanted to be police officers but were turned away, and then things got violent. It happened this morning in Baghdad.
Live to the capital city now and Harris Whitbeck.

Hello -- Harris.

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol.

Several hundred former military and police officers showed up at a police station here, hoping to get jobs. They say that they had been promised jobs in the new Iraqi police force last July, and since then they've been showing up at this police station once a week to try to be reinstated.

They say that police officers there asked them for bribes, and that is when they became frustrated. They started throwing stones at the police station. They also put two -- set fire to two vehicles, one of them inside that police station.

Police officers responded by firing gunshots into the air. Some demonstrators say that shots were actually fired into the crowd, and there is a report of at least one person having been injured.

The whole demonstration lasted for about half an hour. After the gunshots ended, there were fistfights. The situation now is quite calm.

Still a lot of frustration, however, Carol. One person I spoke to said that he'd been out of a job since last March, and he has to feed 13 members of his family -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Harris Whitbeck 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.