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CNN Live At Daybreak
Rocket Attack on Western Interests in Baghdad
Aired November 21, 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 LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Once again, a rocket attack on Western interests in Baghdad. Overnight, two heavily guarded hotels were hit, including the hotel where many Western journalists and contractors stay. Iraq's oil ministry was also a target.
Our Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf was inside one of the hotels and she joins us live from there with some of the damage behind you -- Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good, Carol.
You can see the damage around me. Now this, fortunately, was an empty room. Otherwise the results would have been a lot more drastic. But one of the rockets, two of the rockets, actually, slammed straight through here. First of all, I wanted to show you what these rockets look like. This is the nose cone of what would have been a Russian made Iraqi military rocket. And there are an awful lot of these around.
Now, the way they were delivered was novel. These were on the back of a wagon pulled by a donkey at numerous points in the city.
Here in Palestine Hotel there was one injury, one man pulled out on a stretcher attached to an I.V. drip. He's believed to work for a U.S. firm contracted to the American military.
But just to give you a small idea of the kind of damage that this can do, you can see around us holes all the way through the wall, the plaster, the concrete, everything gone, open to the street. There's shattered glass, broken furniture. Half the wall actually disappeared. This used to be a big glass and steel window, totally gone.
The injuries, of course, could have been much, much worse. Apart from the person injured in this hotel, across the street, where rockets also hit, a bellboy was injured. And across town at the oil ministry, what appeared to be a coordinated attack, according to military officials.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COL. BRAD MAY, 2ND ARMORED CALVARY REGIMENT: At 7:20 this morning, the Ministry of Oil was attacked by rockets. And what we know right now is it appears that there were eight rockets that penetrated the building.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ARRAF: No injuries in that attack, but hours after the rockets hit, part of the oil ministry was still burning. Clearly, a message. The oil ministry is perhaps the most protected civil building in Baghdad. It was, as you remember, protected by U.S. tanks during the war. But this obviously a clear indication that whether they're pulled by donkeys or pulled by vehicles, they are going to find a way to attack these buildings, including this hotel -- Carol.
LIN: All right, thank you very much.
Jane Arraf live in Baghdad.
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 21, 2003 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Once again, a rocket attack on Western interests in Baghdad. Overnight, two heavily guarded hotels were hit, including the hotel where many Western journalists and contractors stay. Iraq's oil ministry was also a target.
Our Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf was inside one of the hotels and she joins us live from there with some of the damage behind you -- Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good, Carol.
You can see the damage around me. Now this, fortunately, was an empty room. Otherwise the results would have been a lot more drastic. But one of the rockets, two of the rockets, actually, slammed straight through here. First of all, I wanted to show you what these rockets look like. This is the nose cone of what would have been a Russian made Iraqi military rocket. And there are an awful lot of these around.
Now, the way they were delivered was novel. These were on the back of a wagon pulled by a donkey at numerous points in the city.
Here in Palestine Hotel there was one injury, one man pulled out on a stretcher attached to an I.V. drip. He's believed to work for a U.S. firm contracted to the American military.
But just to give you a small idea of the kind of damage that this can do, you can see around us holes all the way through the wall, the plaster, the concrete, everything gone, open to the street. There's shattered glass, broken furniture. Half the wall actually disappeared. This used to be a big glass and steel window, totally gone.
The injuries, of course, could have been much, much worse. Apart from the person injured in this hotel, across the street, where rockets also hit, a bellboy was injured. And across town at the oil ministry, what appeared to be a coordinated attack, according to military officials.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COL. BRAD MAY, 2ND ARMORED CALVARY REGIMENT: At 7:20 this morning, the Ministry of Oil was attacked by rockets. And what we know right now is it appears that there were eight rockets that penetrated the building.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ARRAF: No injuries in that attack, but hours after the rockets hit, part of the oil ministry was still burning. Clearly, a message. The oil ministry is perhaps the most protected civil building in Baghdad. It was, as you remember, protected by U.S. tanks during the war. But this obviously a clear indication that whether they're pulled by donkeys or pulled by vehicles, they are going to find a way to attack these buildings, including this hotel -- Carol.
LIN: All right, thank you very much.
Jane Arraf live in Baghdad.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
