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CNN Live Sunday

19 Americans Die In Helicopter Crash, Ambush In Iraq

Aired November 02, 2003 - 16:01   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.


ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: Now back to Iraq, 19 Americans are dead on what's become the second deadliest day since the start of the war in March. An army helicopter crashed near the city of Amira, killing 16 soldiers and attacks on two convoys killed a U.S. soldier in Baghdad and two civilian contractors in Fallujah.
CNN baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf joins us there live. Jane, is this not a coincidence, but rather timed to coincide with the day of violence, the day of resistance?

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Andrea, it's hard to tell where this comes from, because it was so unexpected. You know, in a city that has come used to suicide bombings, to bombs being thrown, to bombs being laid, this, as you pointed out, deadliest day for U.S. troops since the week after the invasion, came from perhaps was least expected.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARRAF (voice-over): In this idealic landscape, death from the sky. Helicopters circled for hours after the crash. On the ground, soldiers kept everyone away. Witnesses described seeing heat-seeking missiles tracking the helicopters. The downed helicopter had been on its way to Baghdad. In the middle of an extended and difficult mission, some of the soldiers were headed for R&R.

(on camera): Attacks on American soldiers in this area aren't new, but using a missile to down a helicopter is. And along with the recent waves of suicide bombings, this could be a new phase in what no one is now disputing is a guerrilla war.

PAUL BREMER, U.S. ADMINISTRATOR IN IRAQ: The enemies of freedom there are using more sophisticated techniques to attack our forces.

ARRAF (voice-over): Near the crash site in this farming area four miles southwest of Fallujah, none of the residents seemed unhappy about the attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Frankly, we don't like Saddam nor American. When they first came here they were liberators but now turned to occupiers. Our children and women are scared and it still doesn't make sense to us. This shouldn't happen this way.

ARRAF (voice-over): In Fallujah Sunday morning, a bomb exploded on a major street as a vehicle passed killing at least two American contractors. Some bystanders celebrated, posing with the victim's helmets and hats. Near the helicopter crash site, we asked why there were so many attacks in Fallujah.

Fallujah is mainly a tribal town, said this long time resident. they're protective of their women, religion, pride and homes. If your country is occupied, you should move and strike. You'd only be defending yourself.

Those strikes finding fertile support on the ground, seem to be widening to the air.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARRAF: Now it was just yesterday that General Sanchez, the top U.S. military commander here was saying these attacks we've seen over the last six months are statistically and operationally insignificant, but with the way the tactics keep changing, it certainly doesn't seem like that here on the ground -- Andrea.

KOPPEL: Jane, is there anything that you've been able to pick up on the ground there that the U.S. military, the U.S. occupation forces could be doing to win over the people in Fallujah?

ARRAF: That is such a huge and vital question, and it's really big things all the way to little things. The big things are perhaps the lack of understanding, that this was a country that was not dying to be liberated by the Americans. Indeed was a very proud country, still is. When you talk to people on the ground invariably they say they want their country back. Perhaps there is an underestimation of the nationalism that's here.

Now, as for the little things, it's what we here over and over particularly in places like Fallujah, that Americans do things necessarily they feel, on the American side, for their own safety and to secure the country which really does grate on the way things on done here on the culture. All the way from how they treat women, asking women to step out of cars to search them, the way they enter homes, breaking down doors, bringing in dogs into Muslim homes when dogs are seen as unclean, things that really go against the grain culturally and religiously, and even though the American soldiers are learning and they're trying very hard, it's still a very big gap there -- Andrea.

KOPPEL: A complicated matter on many fronts. Jane Arraf joining us from Baghdad, thank you.

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 November 2, 2003 - 16:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: Now back to Iraq, 19 Americans are dead on what's become the second deadliest day since the start of the war in March. An army helicopter crashed near the city of Amira, killing 16 soldiers and attacks on two convoys killed a U.S. soldier in Baghdad and two civilian contractors in Fallujah.
CNN baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf joins us there live. Jane, is this not a coincidence, but rather timed to coincide with the day of violence, the day of resistance?

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Andrea, it's hard to tell where this comes from, because it was so unexpected. You know, in a city that has come used to suicide bombings, to bombs being thrown, to bombs being laid, this, as you pointed out, deadliest day for U.S. troops since the week after the invasion, came from perhaps was least expected.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARRAF (voice-over): In this idealic landscape, death from the sky. Helicopters circled for hours after the crash. On the ground, soldiers kept everyone away. Witnesses described seeing heat-seeking missiles tracking the helicopters. The downed helicopter had been on its way to Baghdad. In the middle of an extended and difficult mission, some of the soldiers were headed for R&R.

(on camera): Attacks on American soldiers in this area aren't new, but using a missile to down a helicopter is. And along with the recent waves of suicide bombings, this could be a new phase in what no one is now disputing is a guerrilla war.

PAUL BREMER, U.S. ADMINISTRATOR IN IRAQ: The enemies of freedom there are using more sophisticated techniques to attack our forces.

ARRAF (voice-over): Near the crash site in this farming area four miles southwest of Fallujah, none of the residents seemed unhappy about the attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Frankly, we don't like Saddam nor American. When they first came here they were liberators but now turned to occupiers. Our children and women are scared and it still doesn't make sense to us. This shouldn't happen this way.

ARRAF (voice-over): In Fallujah Sunday morning, a bomb exploded on a major street as a vehicle passed killing at least two American contractors. Some bystanders celebrated, posing with the victim's helmets and hats. Near the helicopter crash site, we asked why there were so many attacks in Fallujah.

Fallujah is mainly a tribal town, said this long time resident. they're protective of their women, religion, pride and homes. If your country is occupied, you should move and strike. You'd only be defending yourself.

Those strikes finding fertile support on the ground, seem to be widening to the air.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARRAF: Now it was just yesterday that General Sanchez, the top U.S. military commander here was saying these attacks we've seen over the last six months are statistically and operationally insignificant, but with the way the tactics keep changing, it certainly doesn't seem like that here on the ground -- Andrea.

KOPPEL: Jane, is there anything that you've been able to pick up on the ground there that the U.S. military, the U.S. occupation forces could be doing to win over the people in Fallujah?

ARRAF: That is such a huge and vital question, and it's really big things all the way to little things. The big things are perhaps the lack of understanding, that this was a country that was not dying to be liberated by the Americans. Indeed was a very proud country, still is. When you talk to people on the ground invariably they say they want their country back. Perhaps there is an underestimation of the nationalism that's here.

Now, as for the little things, it's what we here over and over particularly in places like Fallujah, that Americans do things necessarily they feel, on the American side, for their own safety and to secure the country which really does grate on the way things on done here on the culture. All the way from how they treat women, asking women to step out of cars to search them, the way they enter homes, breaking down doors, bringing in dogs into Muslim homes when dogs are seen as unclean, things that really go against the grain culturally and religiously, and even though the American soldiers are learning and they're trying very hard, it's still a very big gap there -- Andrea.

KOPPEL: A complicated matter on many fronts. Jane Arraf joining us from Baghdad, thank you.

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