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CNN Live At Daybreak
Attacks on Green Zone
Aired November 05, 2003 - 06:01 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The Green Zone, a safe zone for Americans, comes under attack. At least three mortar shells land in one day -- important, because the U.S. civil administration is there, as in Paul Bremer and his people.
Let's take you live to Baghdad and Matthew Chance.
Matthew -- I want to talk about this Green Zone for just a second, so that people understand exactly what it is. This is where Paul Bremer has his offices, where his people have their offices. Were they the targets of these mortar attacks?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think they clearly were. The Green Zone is what the U.S. military calls the compound in the middle of Baghdad on the west banks of the Tigris River that was formerly the compound used by Saddam Hussein, his presidential palace there in the city, the National Convention Center, as well as other buildings key to that Saddam administration -- buildings that have now been taken over and placed under heavy U.S. guard by the coalition forces.
So, I think it's clear that the fact that this area has been attacked now twice in as many nights is an illustration of just how confident and how able these insurgents fighting the U.S. presence have become -- Carol.
COSTELLO: What buildings exactly were hit, do we know?
CHANCE: We don't know at this stage. The coalition authorities haven't told us exactly the location where the rockets or the mortars, whatever they were, three or four of them, hit as they landed inside that compound. We do know that it was an area, though, where there were some personnel.
We understand that at least four people were injured. Three of them were moved immediately to a medical facility in the Green Zone, another one was actually treated on the scene. But in terms of what buildings were damaged, if any, we've got no idea of that at the moment.
COSTELLO: Is Paul Bremer's office in one of Saddam's presidential palaces within that Green Zone?
CHANCE: Yes, it is. It's in the presidential palace itself. It's a big, huge complex in the middle of this compound, the palace with four heads of Saddam Hussein, one on each corner. And so, it was an icon of the Saddam regime, and it's been adopted now by the coalition.
And it's behind a similar kind of security as well. It was always a very intensely secure place, a heavily-guarded place in the Saddam years, because Saddam obviously wanted to keep himself at distance from the people at-large in Iraq and elsewhere in the country.
That's what's happened as well under the coalition. They've simply moved into these buildings and placed their own security forces around the perimeter to try and prevent these kinds of attacks from happening, but obviously in the last two nights they've been unsuccessful in preventing those.
COSTELLO: Matthew Chance 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 November 5, 2003 - 06:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The Green Zone, a safe zone for Americans, comes under attack. At least three mortar shells land in one day -- important, because the U.S. civil administration is there, as in Paul Bremer and his people.
Let's take you live to Baghdad and Matthew Chance.
Matthew -- I want to talk about this Green Zone for just a second, so that people understand exactly what it is. This is where Paul Bremer has his offices, where his people have their offices. Were they the targets of these mortar attacks?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think they clearly were. The Green Zone is what the U.S. military calls the compound in the middle of Baghdad on the west banks of the Tigris River that was formerly the compound used by Saddam Hussein, his presidential palace there in the city, the National Convention Center, as well as other buildings key to that Saddam administration -- buildings that have now been taken over and placed under heavy U.S. guard by the coalition forces.
So, I think it's clear that the fact that this area has been attacked now twice in as many nights is an illustration of just how confident and how able these insurgents fighting the U.S. presence have become -- Carol.
COSTELLO: What buildings exactly were hit, do we know?
CHANCE: We don't know at this stage. The coalition authorities haven't told us exactly the location where the rockets or the mortars, whatever they were, three or four of them, hit as they landed inside that compound. We do know that it was an area, though, where there were some personnel.
We understand that at least four people were injured. Three of them were moved immediately to a medical facility in the Green Zone, another one was actually treated on the scene. But in terms of what buildings were damaged, if any, we've got no idea of that at the moment.
COSTELLO: Is Paul Bremer's office in one of Saddam's presidential palaces within that Green Zone?
CHANCE: Yes, it is. It's in the presidential palace itself. It's a big, huge complex in the middle of this compound, the palace with four heads of Saddam Hussein, one on each corner. And so, it was an icon of the Saddam regime, and it's been adopted now by the coalition.
And it's behind a similar kind of security as well. It was always a very intensely secure place, a heavily-guarded place in the Saddam years, because Saddam obviously wanted to keep himself at distance from the people at-large in Iraq and elsewhere in the country.
That's what's happened as well under the coalition. They've simply moved into these buildings and placed their own security forces around the perimeter to try and prevent these kinds of attacks from happening, but obviously in the last two nights they've been unsuccessful in preventing those.
COSTELLO: Matthew Chance 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.
