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CNN Live At Daybreak

The Fight For Iraq; Condoleezza Rice to Testify; Web Terror; Troops Killed

Aired April 08, 2004 - 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 COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, pictures from the front lines in Fallujah. Operation Vigilant Resolve enters its fourth day today, Thursday, April 8, 2004.
Good morning, and welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. So glad you are joining us this morning. From CNN's Global Headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.

Let me bring you up to date now.

We have gotten new pictures of American troops wounded during the fighting in Fallujah. We have not been given a casualty count. You are looking at wounded Marines here. We're going to explain further in just a moment with David Clinch. They are OK this morning, don't worry.

Countdown to testimony, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice speaks this morning before the bipartisan commission investigating the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Pope John Paul II is observing Holy Thursday mass at the Vatican. Security there is pumped up due to fears of a possible Easter week terrorist attack.

And a shark attack in Hawaii kills a surfer. He was about 300 yards off the coast of Maui when the shark bit him in the leg.

To the Forecast Center and, Chad, good morning.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Let's talk about Iraq now. The body count adding up as the insurgency gains momentum there. This is day four of the uprising. Here is the current situation. Military officials report 30 enemy combatants killed in Fallujah and 18 killed in Ramadi. Some of the fiercest fighting is centered around a mosque in Fallujah.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says some U.S. troops could stay longer in Iraq because of the renewed fighting. He calls the battles a test of will.

In the meantime, the most senior Shi'a cleric in Iraq, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is condemning the recent coalition attacks. He is calling for an end to further chaos and bloodshed. Let's take you right now to Baghdad and Jim Clancy to find out what's going on in the Iraqi capital and beyond.

Hello -- Jim.

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello again, Carol.

And don't underestimate the words of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and the effect that they may have here on the coalition and on the insurgents as well. Some insurgents are going to interpret that as encouragement. The coalition is going to have to interpret that probably as a call for some kind of negotiations to end the bloodshed.

But the bloodshed did continue, particularly in the heart of the Sunni Triangle in Fallujah where U.S. Marines are up against insurgents firing rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at them. We got an indication from some of this latest video you have been talking about that there have been Marine casualties. There was one Marine death yesterday, several others reported wounded.

But it is tough going for the Marines. They have control now of an estimated fourth of a city, but they are making steady progress, engaging those insurgents all along the way. Heavy casualties on the Iraqi side to be sure. We are getting word through wire agencies, we've talked to the hospital director there in Fallujah, some 280 Iraqis have been killed, 400 others have been wounded.

Now as the fighting continues, those numbers are certain to rise. That has sparked concern in here in Baghdad. Calls from the mosques for aid to Fallujah were responded to. Hundreds of Iraqis in vehicles, in trucks and cars brought in tons of supplies in a convoy that was headed for Fallujah.

Don't let anyone underestimate the importance of all of this. This was put together in just a matter of hours. An indication, I think, of the strong support people feel for the people of Fallujah. In the eyes of many Iraqis, yes, it was terrible what happened to four U.S. contractors there when their charred bodies were dragged through the streets, but they see 400,000 Iraqis now under siege. Those numbers don't add up to them. They are rushing in aid. They say it is from Shi'a, Sunni, Kurds, all of the people in Iraq with a -- for solidarity with the people of Fallujah. We have to keep an eye on this one. This is a ground swell that could have serious implications for strategy for the coalition.

Meantime, let's look to the south and the situation there. If we put up a map here you can see the town of Karbala. This is a holy city where this weekend there are supposed to be rallies. It was expected millions would turn out because of the unstable security situation. That's not likely.

Polish and Bulgarian troops in Karbala fought through the night. It is said that the al Mehdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr, the rebellious, radical Shi'a leader, is now in control. That militia now in control of some of the shrines and mosques there, while the coalition headquarters, et cetera, are in the -- in the control of coalition troops there. So we have an unstable situation in the south and we have a situation really developing again on two fronts -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Jim, one last question for you, where is al-Sadr now? Is he still holed up in Najaf?

CLANCY: He has sought sanctuary in Najaf. He is in his office, it is believed, which is just a few footsteps from the holiest of Shi'a Muslim shrines the Imam Ali Mosque there in Najaf. It is said his militia is in control of that city. Coalition troops are on the outskirts of it. Whether or not the coalition goes in is a very touchy situation, as you can imagine -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Certainly can. Jim Clancy live in Baghdad.

As we have been telling you, we've been getting some dramatic pictures into the CNN newsroom of the heavy fighting inside of Iraq.

Our senior international editor David Clinch is here to show us more.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, well we saw the very interesting sequence earlier of these U.S. Marines. Now this was late yesterday in Fallujah where this tank is hit by an RPG. And we know that because that's what the commander tells headquarters on the radio after this incident. We see, as you said earlier, the heroic efforts of this and the other Marines to get their colleagues out of this damaged tank, to get them onto vehicles to get them transported out of the area immediately. Some bad injuries.

We haven't had any reports confirmed to this point of any Marines being killed on the Fallujah side of this operation. We had 12 Marines killed in Ramadi the other day. We're two, three days into the major fighting portion of this Fallujah and there are no reports of any U.S. deaths in this so far. So we're watching closely.

COSTELLO: Can we concentrate just for another second on Fallujah and exactly what...

CLINCH: Yes.

COSTELLO: ... Jim Clancy says is the U.S. Marines have control of about a fourth of the city. Is all electricity shut down to all of the city?

CLINCH: We know that it is cut off to the center of the city. We know that telephone service is cut off to the entire city. We saw some illustrations from the U.S. military yesterday which indicated that they had sort of gone on a piercing movement in on one side of the city and then taken a flat approach on the other side, a sort of a pincer movement if you want.

But as we are hearing today, and again this is coming in very slowly to us today, they seem to be holding their positions today, trying to identify the location of the insurgents they are looking for and calling in air support when it's needed.

COSTELLO: And we also -- we also saw pictures of Marines on top of buildings around Fallujah, right?

CLINCH: Right, they're...

COSTELLO: And this convoy of the Sunnis and Shi'a, just townspeople coming together to supposedly help the people of Fallujah with a blood drive and food drive. Do you really think they will get into the city?

CLINCH: Well this is interesting, this is -- we saw these people in Baghdad yesterday giving blood, collecting food aid, medical aid and other things. We saw them this morning heading off towards Fallujah. It's not that far. We expect them to arrive in the area at some point. Whether or not they would be allowed through U.S. coordinates is a very different question. But of course, as we were talking about earlier, illustrates the problem of wider growing sympathy for the insurgents from all areas of Iraqi society.

COSTELLO: Because the figures that the Iraqi people are hearing is that, what, 280 Iraqis have been killed in Fallujah?

CLINCH: And not just Iraqis. I mean we are hearing directly from hospital sources in Fallujah, and this is Fallujah alone, that anywhere from 100 to nearly 300 Iraqis have been killed. Now undoubtedly that will include insurgents, undoubtedly given the tight street and the proximity of the civilian population.

COSTELLO: Well, and the other thing is nobody is in a uniform. They are all dressed in civilian clothes.

CLINCH: Yes, this is the difficulty. We heard the Marines talking about this in Ramadi when they were attacked the other day. People pick up guns, fire at them, put the guns back down and get out, back into their...

COSTELLO: Yes, it's like they go back in their cab and continue their route.

CLINCH: ... back into their taxis, get back -- go back to school. Some of these people are children. A very difficult situation for the Marines.

And we saw some video just coming in, I don't know if we have it cut yet, but we're getting it cut, of the insurgents side of it. Again, the Arab networks are in Fallujah on the insurgents side and they have RPGs, they have heavy weapons. They are not just using pistols. The Marines have been making this clear to us from the start that people there fighting are trained and heavily armed.

COSTELLO: All right, David, thank you very much.

CLINCH: OK.

COSTELLO: Go gather more pictures for us.

CLINCH: Yes.

COSTELLO: And we'll see you at 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

Almost time for National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to take the hot seat. She testifies under oath before the 9/11 Commission just three-and-a-half hours from now.

Our White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux tells us what we can expect.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I'm looking forward to Condy testifying.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And Thursday she will. After initial objections from the president over executive privilege and tremendous pressure from Republicans and Democrats alike, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice will become the face of the Bush administration besieged by questions over September 11. Aides say Rice has been preparing for days in mock testimony sessions with her staff firing questions at her.

Officials say Thursday she will make a 20-minute opening statement, address the survivors of September 11, and will not make a formal apology for the terrorist attacks. Instead, she will say while the country still grieves the best way to honor the victims is to pursue the terrorists and bring them to justice.

Rice's top priority is to answer the charges made by her deputy Richard Clarke that had the Bush administration taking al Qaeda seriously, perhaps the September 11 attacks could have been prevented.

RICHARD CLARKE, FMR. COUNTERTERRORISM ADVISER: It would have been shaken out in the summer of 2001 if she had been doing her job.

MALVEAUX: Rice will argue that the administration did see al Qaeda as a serious threat and had a plan to eliminate it among their priorities but that the September 11 attacks brought that threat to the forefront but Bush and Clinton administration officials who have testified say they couldn't have imagined the gravity of the threat.

RICHARD ARMITAGE, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: I just don't think we had the imagination required to consider a tragedy of this magnitude.

MALVEAUX (on camera): Whatever the outcome of Rice's testimony, the Bush campaign would like the American people to judge the president more on his actions in the three years following September 11 than the eight months before.

Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, Crawford, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And you can watch Condoleezza Rice's entire testimony live right here on CNN. It begins at 9:00 Eastern this morning. And if you are on the job and away from your television, you can stay on top of developments by clicking on to our Web site. You know the address, CNN.com.

Coming up next on DAYBREAK, dramatic new pictures of Marines under fire near Fallujah. We just got these pictures in this morning. We're going to show you more later. This is DAYBREAK for Thursday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: As we have been telling you, we've been getting in new pictures out of Iraq. We have some new ones from Ramadi. We believe these pictures were taken yesterday, so let's go to the video right now.

This is the first time I am seeing them as well. And what it shows, if you can see there, are Iraqi civilians. And that is a child. You can hear gunfire in the air.

What's happening in a lot of these towns is that civilians or what looked like civilians picking up guns and firing, putting the guns down and then returning to everyday life. For example, you could have a taxi driver get out of his taxi, take off a couple of shots and go back in.

We're hearing of lots of Iraqi casualties this morning and Iraqi dead. We know overall about 280 Iraqis have been killed, 400 injured. We're getting word of that from the hospitals in Fallujah, actually. Ramadi is just west of Fallujah or 40 to 50 miles west of Baghdad.

The Marines have, as you know, have surrounded the city of Fallujah not far away. They now have control of about a fourth of the city. You can see the bullet holes in the cars here, because you know it's just hard to know who the enemy is, and we heard that so many times during the active combat portion of this war.

As we get in new pictures out of Iraq, of course we'll bring them to you. We'll have much more to come on DAYBREAK.

Your news, money, weather and sports, it is 5:46 Eastern Time. Here is what's all new this morning.

High stakes political drama in the nation's capital. Condoleezza Rice testifies in front of the 9/11 Commission at 9:00 Eastern this morning in public and under oath.

Dramatic new pictures of Marines under fire near Fallujah. Here are some more pictures we got in this morning. At least four Marines that you're seeing right here were wounded when their tank was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. No deaths here. No U.S. deaths here.

U.S. regulators have been looking into the soaring price of gasoline. And they say they have found no evidence that oil companies conspired to raise prices.

In sports, where were you 30 years ago today? Hank Aaron was right here in Atlanta belting his 715 home run to break Babe Ruth's career record.

In culture, are you feeling old this morning, especially after that story, well how do you think Times Square feels? It turns 100 years old today.

MYERS: Good morning -- Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you.

Al Qaeda on the Web, the worldwide terror organization is using the Internet as a base of operations and no one seems to know what to do about it.

CNN's Diana Muriel has a report for you from London.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)


Aired April 8, 2004 - 05:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, pictures from the front lines in Fallujah. Operation Vigilant Resolve enters its fourth day today, Thursday, April 8, 2004.
Good morning, and welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. So glad you are joining us this morning. From CNN's Global Headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.

Let me bring you up to date now.

We have gotten new pictures of American troops wounded during the fighting in Fallujah. We have not been given a casualty count. You are looking at wounded Marines here. We're going to explain further in just a moment with David Clinch. They are OK this morning, don't worry.

Countdown to testimony, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice speaks this morning before the bipartisan commission investigating the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Pope John Paul II is observing Holy Thursday mass at the Vatican. Security there is pumped up due to fears of a possible Easter week terrorist attack.

And a shark attack in Hawaii kills a surfer. He was about 300 yards off the coast of Maui when the shark bit him in the leg.

To the Forecast Center and, Chad, good morning.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Let's talk about Iraq now. The body count adding up as the insurgency gains momentum there. This is day four of the uprising. Here is the current situation. Military officials report 30 enemy combatants killed in Fallujah and 18 killed in Ramadi. Some of the fiercest fighting is centered around a mosque in Fallujah.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says some U.S. troops could stay longer in Iraq because of the renewed fighting. He calls the battles a test of will.

In the meantime, the most senior Shi'a cleric in Iraq, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is condemning the recent coalition attacks. He is calling for an end to further chaos and bloodshed. Let's take you right now to Baghdad and Jim Clancy to find out what's going on in the Iraqi capital and beyond.

Hello -- Jim.

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello again, Carol.

And don't underestimate the words of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and the effect that they may have here on the coalition and on the insurgents as well. Some insurgents are going to interpret that as encouragement. The coalition is going to have to interpret that probably as a call for some kind of negotiations to end the bloodshed.

But the bloodshed did continue, particularly in the heart of the Sunni Triangle in Fallujah where U.S. Marines are up against insurgents firing rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at them. We got an indication from some of this latest video you have been talking about that there have been Marine casualties. There was one Marine death yesterday, several others reported wounded.

But it is tough going for the Marines. They have control now of an estimated fourth of a city, but they are making steady progress, engaging those insurgents all along the way. Heavy casualties on the Iraqi side to be sure. We are getting word through wire agencies, we've talked to the hospital director there in Fallujah, some 280 Iraqis have been killed, 400 others have been wounded.

Now as the fighting continues, those numbers are certain to rise. That has sparked concern in here in Baghdad. Calls from the mosques for aid to Fallujah were responded to. Hundreds of Iraqis in vehicles, in trucks and cars brought in tons of supplies in a convoy that was headed for Fallujah.

Don't let anyone underestimate the importance of all of this. This was put together in just a matter of hours. An indication, I think, of the strong support people feel for the people of Fallujah. In the eyes of many Iraqis, yes, it was terrible what happened to four U.S. contractors there when their charred bodies were dragged through the streets, but they see 400,000 Iraqis now under siege. Those numbers don't add up to them. They are rushing in aid. They say it is from Shi'a, Sunni, Kurds, all of the people in Iraq with a -- for solidarity with the people of Fallujah. We have to keep an eye on this one. This is a ground swell that could have serious implications for strategy for the coalition.

Meantime, let's look to the south and the situation there. If we put up a map here you can see the town of Karbala. This is a holy city where this weekend there are supposed to be rallies. It was expected millions would turn out because of the unstable security situation. That's not likely.

Polish and Bulgarian troops in Karbala fought through the night. It is said that the al Mehdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr, the rebellious, radical Shi'a leader, is now in control. That militia now in control of some of the shrines and mosques there, while the coalition headquarters, et cetera, are in the -- in the control of coalition troops there. So we have an unstable situation in the south and we have a situation really developing again on two fronts -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Jim, one last question for you, where is al-Sadr now? Is he still holed up in Najaf?

CLANCY: He has sought sanctuary in Najaf. He is in his office, it is believed, which is just a few footsteps from the holiest of Shi'a Muslim shrines the Imam Ali Mosque there in Najaf. It is said his militia is in control of that city. Coalition troops are on the outskirts of it. Whether or not the coalition goes in is a very touchy situation, as you can imagine -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Certainly can. Jim Clancy live in Baghdad.

As we have been telling you, we've been getting some dramatic pictures into the CNN newsroom of the heavy fighting inside of Iraq.

Our senior international editor David Clinch is here to show us more.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, well we saw the very interesting sequence earlier of these U.S. Marines. Now this was late yesterday in Fallujah where this tank is hit by an RPG. And we know that because that's what the commander tells headquarters on the radio after this incident. We see, as you said earlier, the heroic efforts of this and the other Marines to get their colleagues out of this damaged tank, to get them onto vehicles to get them transported out of the area immediately. Some bad injuries.

We haven't had any reports confirmed to this point of any Marines being killed on the Fallujah side of this operation. We had 12 Marines killed in Ramadi the other day. We're two, three days into the major fighting portion of this Fallujah and there are no reports of any U.S. deaths in this so far. So we're watching closely.

COSTELLO: Can we concentrate just for another second on Fallujah and exactly what...

CLINCH: Yes.

COSTELLO: ... Jim Clancy says is the U.S. Marines have control of about a fourth of the city. Is all electricity shut down to all of the city?

CLINCH: We know that it is cut off to the center of the city. We know that telephone service is cut off to the entire city. We saw some illustrations from the U.S. military yesterday which indicated that they had sort of gone on a piercing movement in on one side of the city and then taken a flat approach on the other side, a sort of a pincer movement if you want.

But as we are hearing today, and again this is coming in very slowly to us today, they seem to be holding their positions today, trying to identify the location of the insurgents they are looking for and calling in air support when it's needed.

COSTELLO: And we also -- we also saw pictures of Marines on top of buildings around Fallujah, right?

CLINCH: Right, they're...

COSTELLO: And this convoy of the Sunnis and Shi'a, just townspeople coming together to supposedly help the people of Fallujah with a blood drive and food drive. Do you really think they will get into the city?

CLINCH: Well this is interesting, this is -- we saw these people in Baghdad yesterday giving blood, collecting food aid, medical aid and other things. We saw them this morning heading off towards Fallujah. It's not that far. We expect them to arrive in the area at some point. Whether or not they would be allowed through U.S. coordinates is a very different question. But of course, as we were talking about earlier, illustrates the problem of wider growing sympathy for the insurgents from all areas of Iraqi society.

COSTELLO: Because the figures that the Iraqi people are hearing is that, what, 280 Iraqis have been killed in Fallujah?

CLINCH: And not just Iraqis. I mean we are hearing directly from hospital sources in Fallujah, and this is Fallujah alone, that anywhere from 100 to nearly 300 Iraqis have been killed. Now undoubtedly that will include insurgents, undoubtedly given the tight street and the proximity of the civilian population.

COSTELLO: Well, and the other thing is nobody is in a uniform. They are all dressed in civilian clothes.

CLINCH: Yes, this is the difficulty. We heard the Marines talking about this in Ramadi when they were attacked the other day. People pick up guns, fire at them, put the guns back down and get out, back into their...

COSTELLO: Yes, it's like they go back in their cab and continue their route.

CLINCH: ... back into their taxis, get back -- go back to school. Some of these people are children. A very difficult situation for the Marines.

And we saw some video just coming in, I don't know if we have it cut yet, but we're getting it cut, of the insurgents side of it. Again, the Arab networks are in Fallujah on the insurgents side and they have RPGs, they have heavy weapons. They are not just using pistols. The Marines have been making this clear to us from the start that people there fighting are trained and heavily armed.

COSTELLO: All right, David, thank you very much.

CLINCH: OK.

COSTELLO: Go gather more pictures for us.

CLINCH: Yes.

COSTELLO: And we'll see you at 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

Almost time for National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to take the hot seat. She testifies under oath before the 9/11 Commission just three-and-a-half hours from now.

Our White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux tells us what we can expect.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I'm looking forward to Condy testifying.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And Thursday she will. After initial objections from the president over executive privilege and tremendous pressure from Republicans and Democrats alike, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice will become the face of the Bush administration besieged by questions over September 11. Aides say Rice has been preparing for days in mock testimony sessions with her staff firing questions at her.

Officials say Thursday she will make a 20-minute opening statement, address the survivors of September 11, and will not make a formal apology for the terrorist attacks. Instead, she will say while the country still grieves the best way to honor the victims is to pursue the terrorists and bring them to justice.

Rice's top priority is to answer the charges made by her deputy Richard Clarke that had the Bush administration taking al Qaeda seriously, perhaps the September 11 attacks could have been prevented.

RICHARD CLARKE, FMR. COUNTERTERRORISM ADVISER: It would have been shaken out in the summer of 2001 if she had been doing her job.

MALVEAUX: Rice will argue that the administration did see al Qaeda as a serious threat and had a plan to eliminate it among their priorities but that the September 11 attacks brought that threat to the forefront but Bush and Clinton administration officials who have testified say they couldn't have imagined the gravity of the threat.

RICHARD ARMITAGE, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: I just don't think we had the imagination required to consider a tragedy of this magnitude.

MALVEAUX (on camera): Whatever the outcome of Rice's testimony, the Bush campaign would like the American people to judge the president more on his actions in the three years following September 11 than the eight months before.

Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, Crawford, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And you can watch Condoleezza Rice's entire testimony live right here on CNN. It begins at 9:00 Eastern this morning. And if you are on the job and away from your television, you can stay on top of developments by clicking on to our Web site. You know the address, CNN.com.

Coming up next on DAYBREAK, dramatic new pictures of Marines under fire near Fallujah. We just got these pictures in this morning. We're going to show you more later. This is DAYBREAK for Thursday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: As we have been telling you, we've been getting in new pictures out of Iraq. We have some new ones from Ramadi. We believe these pictures were taken yesterday, so let's go to the video right now.

This is the first time I am seeing them as well. And what it shows, if you can see there, are Iraqi civilians. And that is a child. You can hear gunfire in the air.

What's happening in a lot of these towns is that civilians or what looked like civilians picking up guns and firing, putting the guns down and then returning to everyday life. For example, you could have a taxi driver get out of his taxi, take off a couple of shots and go back in.

We're hearing of lots of Iraqi casualties this morning and Iraqi dead. We know overall about 280 Iraqis have been killed, 400 injured. We're getting word of that from the hospitals in Fallujah, actually. Ramadi is just west of Fallujah or 40 to 50 miles west of Baghdad.

The Marines have, as you know, have surrounded the city of Fallujah not far away. They now have control of about a fourth of the city. You can see the bullet holes in the cars here, because you know it's just hard to know who the enemy is, and we heard that so many times during the active combat portion of this war.

As we get in new pictures out of Iraq, of course we'll bring them to you. We'll have much more to come on DAYBREAK.

Your news, money, weather and sports, it is 5:46 Eastern Time. Here is what's all new this morning.

High stakes political drama in the nation's capital. Condoleezza Rice testifies in front of the 9/11 Commission at 9:00 Eastern this morning in public and under oath.

Dramatic new pictures of Marines under fire near Fallujah. Here are some more pictures we got in this morning. At least four Marines that you're seeing right here were wounded when their tank was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. No deaths here. No U.S. deaths here.

U.S. regulators have been looking into the soaring price of gasoline. And they say they have found no evidence that oil companies conspired to raise prices.

In sports, where were you 30 years ago today? Hank Aaron was right here in Atlanta belting his 715 home run to break Babe Ruth's career record.

In culture, are you feeling old this morning, especially after that story, well how do you think Times Square feels? It turns 100 years old today.

MYERS: Good morning -- Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you.

Al Qaeda on the Web, the worldwide terror organization is using the Internet as a base of operations and no one seems to know what to do about it.

CNN's Diana Muriel has a report for you from London.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)