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CNN Live At Daybreak

Tsunami Disaster; Fight for Iraq; The War Room; Orange Revolution

Aired December 27, 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.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers.

Now in the News.

More violence this morning in Baghdad, a suicide bomber blew up his car outside the headquarters of a major Shiite Muslim political party. He killed 6 people and wounded 33.

The death toll keeps climbing, 20,000 now are believed dead and thousands more missing after a massive earthquake triggers tsunamis in Southeast Asia. Hardest hit were Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, the Maltese and Malaysia.

A victory for the opposition in the presidential election re-run in the Ukraine. With nearly all the votes counted, opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko appears to have an insurmountable lead.

It's back to work day for most of you, but some of you may not make it. Airport aggravation persists and a winter storm in the Carolinas and Virginia has slowed traffic to a crawl on I-95, not to mention the leftover airport delays from the weekend. It's ugly.

Happy holidays -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, to you, too. People still trying to get to their relatives for Christmas.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

MYERS: Yes, and now it's time to go home. All those people that are sitting at the airports, you know you just have to feel for them because they had such great plans. And then all of a sudden the weather threw a big curve and then obviously some workers threw a big curve and then weather threw another one, so.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MYERS: Carol, back to you.

COSTELLO: All right, thank you -- Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome. COSTELLO: Today we're getting our first look at the enormity of the devastation in Asia following the deadly earthquake and tsunamis over the weekend, more than 20,000 now dead. The giant waves have also left hundreds of thousands of people homeless throughout the region. The quake itself was a magnitude 9.0. That is the largest quake in the last 40 years and the fourth strongest ever measured.

Are these pictures from Thailand, by the way, Angie (ph), that we're seeing here? I believe it is. At a resort town in Thailand, hundreds are dead here. And you can see the huge waves that just suddenly washed up on the shore, wiping out the beach, hotels, trees, et cetera. Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka also hard it. The death toll in India alone stands at nearly 6,000.

CNN has correspondents covering this disaster story throughout the area affected by the earthquake and the tsunamis. We have two reporters in Thailand, one in Sri Lanka, one in Indonesia, three in India.

We're going live now to Thailand's resort island of Phuket and correspondent Aneesh Raman.

Hello -- Aneesh.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning to you.

The death toll here in southern Thailand just about doubling in the past half-hour. It now stands at 835 people presumed dead after these devastating waves racked this southern area.

That video you were saying really shows the force of what took place now over 24 hours ago when a wall of water, as one eye witness described them, some were upwards of 30 feet high, simply devoured the coastline in a matter of mere moments.

Phuket Island, where we are, is one of the most desirable tourist locations in the region and this its peak season. So as you can imagine, it's unlikely any other time would have had more people on this island. The majority of those here were Western tourists, as well as from neighboring Japan, New Zealand, Australia. So really getting to these people and getting them out of this area and back home, it's the Thai government's top priority right now. A hundred people presumed dead in Phuket alone -- Carol.

COSTELLO: We were seeing some pictures, Aneesh, of the waves washing on to the shore. Explain to us how this happened and how it caught people by surprise.

RAMAN: Sure. The Indian Ocean is not known to have these sort of huge earthquakes and tsunamis and so there really aren't a lot of early warning systems set up as you would find in the counterparts in the Pacific Ocean the countries there. So countries like Sri Lanka, countries like Thailand, impoverished countries really didn't have the money to make that a priority, so they didn't have a system in place to really send the signal that this was coming. And here on the island, these were tourists from a foreign land here, not speaking the native language, and so it was utter chaos as these huge waves just descended upon this beach. Eyewitnesses we spoke to describe scenes just in a matter of moments going from tranquility, these are pristine beaches, and then becoming just hellish fights for survival. A lot of the people who were out in the water at the time, people that were on the beachfront immediately were engulfed by this water.

And also keep in mind these tsunami waves, they come with a 50- mile-an-hour force, they are some 30 feet high. But they are also equally strong as they retreat, pulling everything with them. And so elderly and children particularly in that situation, people not strong enough to hold on, are brought out -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Aneesh Raman, live in Thailand this morning, thank you.

We'll have much more on the tsunamis to come on DAYBREAK.

Now we want to head to Iraq, though. A suicide car bomb explodes in Baghdad outside the headquarters of one of the main political parties. It comes weeks before the January election.

So let's head live to Baghdad for an update and CNN's Jeff Koinange.

Hello -- Jeff.

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello there, Carol.

And officials here on the ground are telling us that, just like you said, 6 dead, 33 wounded as a suicide car bomber detonated his car right outside the country's largest political party that called itself the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Now the bomb tore off a big chunk of the building. And officials here say it may have weighed as much as 500 kilograms. So the death toll in that is expected to rise.

Now presumably, Carol, the target for that was the head of SCIRI, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim who wasn't in the building at the time.

And a separate incident, an insurgent group has just released a video on the Internet, which seems to appear to show the planning and execution stages of the suicide bombing at Camp Marez, the U.S. military base in Mosul in northern Iraq, that killed 18 Americans and 3 Iraqi national guardsmen nearly a week ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOINANGE (voice-over): CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of the video that purportedly shows a bone-chilling prelude to what would become the deadliest attack on a U.S. military base in Iraq. In the video, three members claiming to belong to the radical Islamic group Ansar al-Sunnah, clad in black, wearing face masks and carrying automatic weapons, are discussing an attack on Camp Marez in Mosul. Among them, the would-be suicide bomber, identified here as Abu Omar Al-Mosuli.

ABU OMAR AL-MOSULI (through translator): We, the army of Ansar al-Sunnah, are carrying out a destructive attack which will terrorize the hearts of Americans, crusaders and their helpers.

KOINANGE: The same man even includes the time of day the attack would take place.

AL-MOSULI (through translator): Our lion will wait until the lunch area is crowded with the crusader and then he will execute the operation.

KOINANGE: The people making the take then purportedly make their way to an undetermined vantage point, somewhere near what appears to be the cafeteria at Camp Marez, seen here in the foreground. They continue to film. While CNN cannot validate the time on the tape as authentic, it does coincide with the time the attack took place.

Seconds pass, then the explosion that appeared to rip the mess hall's roof off, killing 22 and wounding scores.

The members then drive off while still filming the devastating outcome.

The attack on Camp Marez is a hugely embarrassing security breach for the U.S. military, but the video does appear to confirm what the U.S. said earlier this week, that the attack was a coordinated and premeditated strike.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Now, Carol, U.S. military officials in Camp Marez tell us that they'll be holding a memorial service Tuesday for the 13 U.S. servicemen killed in that attack -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Jeff Koinange, live in Baghdad this morning, thank you.

Let's head into The War Room now for more on the Mosul video and some new information on troop strength in that Iraqi city.

CNN's senior international editor David Clinch joins us live in Atlanta.

And I understand they are asking for more troops for Mosul, at least, right?

DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Well that's true. The general, General Abizaid, who runs the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, telling our Barbara Starr and officials in the region, telling our Barbara Starr, who's traveling in that region at the moment, that the U.S. will increase its troops numbers in and around Mosul.

But interestingly, that increase will also include a lot of Iraqi troops as well. So no precise numbers on how many troops will be moving in. But interestingly, when they talk about lifting the numbers in that area, they're talking about U.S. troops but also Iraqi troops. And of course a big question as to whether Iraqi troops in and around Mosul can do anything to prevent attacks like this when clearly U.S. troops were unable to in this case.

And you know we've run this video. It's very interesting when you look at the package that Jeff Koinange has put together from Baghdad there, we think long and hard before we run this kind of insurgent video where they are putting stuff on Web sites, which they do all the time, saying look what we did, look how good we are, we killed Americans.

And we at CNN and other networks have to really think about when and if we use video like this. This Mosul attack was a significant event and we decided that it was important enough to really put in this context and talk about it. These militants have found the Internet to be one of their most powerful weapons.

COSTELLO: They certainly have. David Clinch, reporting live from Atlanta this morning, thank you.

CLINCH: All right -- Carol.

COSTELLO: The polls are closed, a new president is chosen, so which Viktor is the victor? In five minutes, we'll take you live to Kiev for the results.

Also, our Question of the Day, what was your holiday travel experience? We want to hear about your nightmare. Please send them to us. We're getting good ones so far. DAYBREAK@CNN.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: After today, everything is going to change in Ukraine. That's the word from Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition candidate and apparent winner of Ukraine's rerun presidential election.

CNN Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty has been covering this tumultuous campaign. She joins us live now from Kiev.

Good morning -- Jill.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Carol.

Well, you know, last night down here on Independence Square in Kiev there was a gigantic party, and that was even before the official vote was tallied. And right now there are still people on the main street and they are watching TV monitors. And on those screens they can see pictures from the Central Election Commission and they are just about finished with the vote.

They tallied about 98 percent, even more of the vote, and it shows Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition candidate, the man who created the Orange Revolution, in the lead with about 8.5 percent. That's really insurmountable. There's no question that he is going to be the man who will be inaugurated the new president of the Ukraine. He was on the square last night thanking his supporters. And we're expecting that he's going to be going down to that square once again tonight for the big party.

And meanwhile, the man he beat, Victor Yanukovych, the former prime minister, hasn't really conceded yet. In fact, he is saying that he will be mounting an opposition. That he is going into opposition now against Viktor Yushchenko.

Back to you -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Does he have enough, I don't know, support within the population to make that a troublesome thing?

DOUGHERTY: You know he could. Actually there's solid support for him. The country is really very much divided, and he could make life politically miserable for Viktor Yushchenko. But a lot of people want this to be over. People are very tired of this. They voted three times, and a lot of people just want it to end and to have a new president.

COSTELLO: Jill Dougherty live from Kiev this morning.

The number of dead is rising by the hour from this weekend's deadly earthquake and tsunamis. Just moments ago we learned the death toll has now climbed to 20,000. The earthquake measured 9.0, jolting Indonesia's Sumatra Island. You see the map there. It's the world's strongest earthquake in 40 years. The quake triggered tidal waves up to 1,000 miles away, wiping away ferries, cars and wrecking villages.

Sri Lanka was hit really hard, 10,000 people killed there alone. In Indonesia, 4,000 dead, entire towns are leveled. Some say there's not even enough dry ground to bury the dead. In India, 6,000 are reported dead. Huge waves left beaches strewn with bodies. It flipped over boats and cars. And the video is just -- it's just horrendous this morning.

Also this morning, survivors of the monster tsunamis are reacting to their brush with death. Many are still in shock as they survey the widespread destruction and collect the dead. There are many Western tourists among the dead. Those who survived have harrowing tales, but they count themselves as lucky.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My leg injured, my arm, missing a tooth. So there are people down there a lot worse off than me, a lot worse. The hospitals are jam-packed, very full.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was lost for two hours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You OK now? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's OK. The flood washed him away by himself. And he hung on to a door in the hotel until the water calmed down and came out two hours later.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were at Surin (ph) Beach, and, yes, it came in maybe two waves. And the first wave, the tide came up, and the second one, it just entered the hotel and everywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Unbelievable stories.

We want to check in with Chad now because he's been doing some research on these tsunamis and how they occur, because most of us really don't get it how that much devastation could happen all at one time.

MYERS: Carol, a 9.0 to a 9.2 earthquake has the same amount of power as five billion tons of TNT.

COSTELLO: Wow!

MYERS: So you blow up a big bomb in the ocean, you're going to get water moving. And as that water moves, it travels across and along the bottom of the ocean. It's actually very hard to find a tsunami in the middle of the ocean. It may be a one or two-foot rise, that's it. And these waves may be very, very far apart, almost 100 miles apart or so.

And so as the plates moved yesterday, the Indian Plate, the Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate all coming together over this very bumpy part of here of Malaysia, of all this basically Indonesia itself or Micronesia, depending on where you are, you have an awful lot of earthquake activity. In fact, south of New Zealand, just during the day on Friday, we had an 8.2. And Orelon Sidney and I are in here going wow, what a huge earthquake. And I'm surprised there wasn't a tsunami.

Well with this one obviously there was. It was close enough to the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean so that actually when it shook right there, when it shook, the waves spread across the oceans. And the waves, although they're small, maybe one or two feet, you get a lot of water moving up into an obviously a shallower bay. As the water goes up and it gets shallower and shallower.

If you're in the ocean and you're in a boat, the waves are kind of doing this. But as soon as those waves hit the shore, they crash over, even without a tsunami. And so that's what was happening yesterday.

As we get right here, that's the epicenter of the earthquake. And then that storm, like throwing a big boulder in the water, the waves spread away from that boulder. And those waves spread all the way through Phuket, up into Thailand. They also moved off to the west into Sri Lanka, into India. And now we're finding out in fact that some of the waves moved south of India and actually hit the east coast of southern Africa -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes, and there are reports that the island of Sumatra, which we see by your leg there,...

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: ... actually moved 100 feet because of the force of this earthquake.

MYERS: Yes, I'm not buying that yet until I see the USGS, this U.S. Geological Survey say that. The entire plate, the whole plate itself, and this is kind of a hard map to see because it's so white, but the whole map itself -- I'm pushing the button and it's not going, but anyway. There we go, I got it to zoom out a little bit.

The whole plate is almost 1,000 kilometers long or about 600 miles long. The plate, the entire plate shifted. So there were actually these little earthquakes or these aftershocks not only in the star, not only where the earthquake, the original earthquake took place, which was right down here, that's Sumatra, and there's the original earthquake, there were many other of these little dots 600 miles away making other either little tsunamis or just obviously little aftershocks.

One of the aftershocks, Carol, was 7.2. And these are all obviously little islands. Here's Thailand and the Philippines and then all the way back down here into Sumatra. So obviously not a part of the country that we talk about or part of the world that we talk about a lot, but certainly here lots of devastation. And I know these numbers are just going to continue to rise.

COSTELLO: And we'll have much more in the minutes to come on DAYBREAK about this. Thank you -- Chad.

MYERS: You bet.

COSTELLO: We're going to be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: In Health Headlines for you this morning, the street drug known as Ecstasy is reportedly about to be tested on terminally ill patients. "The Washington Post" reporting the FDA has approved a Harvard study using the illegal drug. Researchers want to see if it can help ease the fear of impending death in people who are dying of cancer.

In another cancer study, scientists say gray hair may yield clues to fighting melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer. Turns out there's a link between melanoma and resilient cells that help color hair and skin. So scientists want to figure out how to kill the cells which would then help them learn to kill the cancer. And those of you in a high-risk category who haven't gotten your flu shot, do it now. That's the warning from health officials. Guidelines are about to change and the vaccines will become available to a much larger group.

For more on this or any other health story, head to our Web site. The address CNN.com/health.

Canceled flights, long lines, horror stories from the holidays. Coming up, helpful tips to help weary travelers.

And we'll read some of your e-mail about your holiday travel experiences right after this.

You are watching DAYBREAK.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: For thousands of people, the holidays were anything but jolly. Comair, which handles about 30,000 travelers a day, shut down due to a computer problem. The airline canceled more than 1,000 flights. Was finally able to get a few planes in the air last night.

An unprecedented sick out caused problems with U.S. Airways. The lack of baggage handlers left many people wondering where their luggage was.

So our e-mail Question of the Morning, please vent with us, tell us your holiday travel nightmare, and many of you have responded this morning.

This one is from Heidi (ph). She says Denver to Atlanta on Christmas Eve. Waited an hour for the plane to Rochester, New York to get a new part. Then waited an hour for the plane to be brought to the gate. Waited another hour for Comair to look for a flight crew. That's when we were told the flight had been canceled and there was nothing they could do. After several hours, got a plane to LaGuardia where we spent midnight at Times Square. No planes, trains or rental cars available. Thank God for Greyhound. We got to Rochester by bus on Christmas morning at 8:00 a.m.

We'll try to read more in the next hour of DAYBREAK, which begins right now.

The waves kept crashing, now the death toll keeps growing. Straight ahead on DAYBREAK, disaster in Southeast Asia.

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Aired December 27, 2004 - 05:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers.

Now in the News.

More violence this morning in Baghdad, a suicide bomber blew up his car outside the headquarters of a major Shiite Muslim political party. He killed 6 people and wounded 33.

The death toll keeps climbing, 20,000 now are believed dead and thousands more missing after a massive earthquake triggers tsunamis in Southeast Asia. Hardest hit were Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, the Maltese and Malaysia.

A victory for the opposition in the presidential election re-run in the Ukraine. With nearly all the votes counted, opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko appears to have an insurmountable lead.

It's back to work day for most of you, but some of you may not make it. Airport aggravation persists and a winter storm in the Carolinas and Virginia has slowed traffic to a crawl on I-95, not to mention the leftover airport delays from the weekend. It's ugly.

Happy holidays -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, to you, too. People still trying to get to their relatives for Christmas.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

MYERS: Yes, and now it's time to go home. All those people that are sitting at the airports, you know you just have to feel for them because they had such great plans. And then all of a sudden the weather threw a big curve and then obviously some workers threw a big curve and then weather threw another one, so.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MYERS: Carol, back to you.

COSTELLO: All right, thank you -- Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome. COSTELLO: Today we're getting our first look at the enormity of the devastation in Asia following the deadly earthquake and tsunamis over the weekend, more than 20,000 now dead. The giant waves have also left hundreds of thousands of people homeless throughout the region. The quake itself was a magnitude 9.0. That is the largest quake in the last 40 years and the fourth strongest ever measured.

Are these pictures from Thailand, by the way, Angie (ph), that we're seeing here? I believe it is. At a resort town in Thailand, hundreds are dead here. And you can see the huge waves that just suddenly washed up on the shore, wiping out the beach, hotels, trees, et cetera. Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka also hard it. The death toll in India alone stands at nearly 6,000.

CNN has correspondents covering this disaster story throughout the area affected by the earthquake and the tsunamis. We have two reporters in Thailand, one in Sri Lanka, one in Indonesia, three in India.

We're going live now to Thailand's resort island of Phuket and correspondent Aneesh Raman.

Hello -- Aneesh.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning to you.

The death toll here in southern Thailand just about doubling in the past half-hour. It now stands at 835 people presumed dead after these devastating waves racked this southern area.

That video you were saying really shows the force of what took place now over 24 hours ago when a wall of water, as one eye witness described them, some were upwards of 30 feet high, simply devoured the coastline in a matter of mere moments.

Phuket Island, where we are, is one of the most desirable tourist locations in the region and this its peak season. So as you can imagine, it's unlikely any other time would have had more people on this island. The majority of those here were Western tourists, as well as from neighboring Japan, New Zealand, Australia. So really getting to these people and getting them out of this area and back home, it's the Thai government's top priority right now. A hundred people presumed dead in Phuket alone -- Carol.

COSTELLO: We were seeing some pictures, Aneesh, of the waves washing on to the shore. Explain to us how this happened and how it caught people by surprise.

RAMAN: Sure. The Indian Ocean is not known to have these sort of huge earthquakes and tsunamis and so there really aren't a lot of early warning systems set up as you would find in the counterparts in the Pacific Ocean the countries there. So countries like Sri Lanka, countries like Thailand, impoverished countries really didn't have the money to make that a priority, so they didn't have a system in place to really send the signal that this was coming. And here on the island, these were tourists from a foreign land here, not speaking the native language, and so it was utter chaos as these huge waves just descended upon this beach. Eyewitnesses we spoke to describe scenes just in a matter of moments going from tranquility, these are pristine beaches, and then becoming just hellish fights for survival. A lot of the people who were out in the water at the time, people that were on the beachfront immediately were engulfed by this water.

And also keep in mind these tsunami waves, they come with a 50- mile-an-hour force, they are some 30 feet high. But they are also equally strong as they retreat, pulling everything with them. And so elderly and children particularly in that situation, people not strong enough to hold on, are brought out -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Aneesh Raman, live in Thailand this morning, thank you.

We'll have much more on the tsunamis to come on DAYBREAK.

Now we want to head to Iraq, though. A suicide car bomb explodes in Baghdad outside the headquarters of one of the main political parties. It comes weeks before the January election.

So let's head live to Baghdad for an update and CNN's Jeff Koinange.

Hello -- Jeff.

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello there, Carol.

And officials here on the ground are telling us that, just like you said, 6 dead, 33 wounded as a suicide car bomber detonated his car right outside the country's largest political party that called itself the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Now the bomb tore off a big chunk of the building. And officials here say it may have weighed as much as 500 kilograms. So the death toll in that is expected to rise.

Now presumably, Carol, the target for that was the head of SCIRI, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim who wasn't in the building at the time.

And a separate incident, an insurgent group has just released a video on the Internet, which seems to appear to show the planning and execution stages of the suicide bombing at Camp Marez, the U.S. military base in Mosul in northern Iraq, that killed 18 Americans and 3 Iraqi national guardsmen nearly a week ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOINANGE (voice-over): CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of the video that purportedly shows a bone-chilling prelude to what would become the deadliest attack on a U.S. military base in Iraq. In the video, three members claiming to belong to the radical Islamic group Ansar al-Sunnah, clad in black, wearing face masks and carrying automatic weapons, are discussing an attack on Camp Marez in Mosul. Among them, the would-be suicide bomber, identified here as Abu Omar Al-Mosuli.

ABU OMAR AL-MOSULI (through translator): We, the army of Ansar al-Sunnah, are carrying out a destructive attack which will terrorize the hearts of Americans, crusaders and their helpers.

KOINANGE: The same man even includes the time of day the attack would take place.

AL-MOSULI (through translator): Our lion will wait until the lunch area is crowded with the crusader and then he will execute the operation.

KOINANGE: The people making the take then purportedly make their way to an undetermined vantage point, somewhere near what appears to be the cafeteria at Camp Marez, seen here in the foreground. They continue to film. While CNN cannot validate the time on the tape as authentic, it does coincide with the time the attack took place.

Seconds pass, then the explosion that appeared to rip the mess hall's roof off, killing 22 and wounding scores.

The members then drive off while still filming the devastating outcome.

The attack on Camp Marez is a hugely embarrassing security breach for the U.S. military, but the video does appear to confirm what the U.S. said earlier this week, that the attack was a coordinated and premeditated strike.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Now, Carol, U.S. military officials in Camp Marez tell us that they'll be holding a memorial service Tuesday for the 13 U.S. servicemen killed in that attack -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Jeff Koinange, live in Baghdad this morning, thank you.

Let's head into The War Room now for more on the Mosul video and some new information on troop strength in that Iraqi city.

CNN's senior international editor David Clinch joins us live in Atlanta.

And I understand they are asking for more troops for Mosul, at least, right?

DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Well that's true. The general, General Abizaid, who runs the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, telling our Barbara Starr and officials in the region, telling our Barbara Starr, who's traveling in that region at the moment, that the U.S. will increase its troops numbers in and around Mosul.

But interestingly, that increase will also include a lot of Iraqi troops as well. So no precise numbers on how many troops will be moving in. But interestingly, when they talk about lifting the numbers in that area, they're talking about U.S. troops but also Iraqi troops. And of course a big question as to whether Iraqi troops in and around Mosul can do anything to prevent attacks like this when clearly U.S. troops were unable to in this case.

And you know we've run this video. It's very interesting when you look at the package that Jeff Koinange has put together from Baghdad there, we think long and hard before we run this kind of insurgent video where they are putting stuff on Web sites, which they do all the time, saying look what we did, look how good we are, we killed Americans.

And we at CNN and other networks have to really think about when and if we use video like this. This Mosul attack was a significant event and we decided that it was important enough to really put in this context and talk about it. These militants have found the Internet to be one of their most powerful weapons.

COSTELLO: They certainly have. David Clinch, reporting live from Atlanta this morning, thank you.

CLINCH: All right -- Carol.

COSTELLO: The polls are closed, a new president is chosen, so which Viktor is the victor? In five minutes, we'll take you live to Kiev for the results.

Also, our Question of the Day, what was your holiday travel experience? We want to hear about your nightmare. Please send them to us. We're getting good ones so far. DAYBREAK@CNN.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: After today, everything is going to change in Ukraine. That's the word from Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition candidate and apparent winner of Ukraine's rerun presidential election.

CNN Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty has been covering this tumultuous campaign. She joins us live now from Kiev.

Good morning -- Jill.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Carol.

Well, you know, last night down here on Independence Square in Kiev there was a gigantic party, and that was even before the official vote was tallied. And right now there are still people on the main street and they are watching TV monitors. And on those screens they can see pictures from the Central Election Commission and they are just about finished with the vote.

They tallied about 98 percent, even more of the vote, and it shows Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition candidate, the man who created the Orange Revolution, in the lead with about 8.5 percent. That's really insurmountable. There's no question that he is going to be the man who will be inaugurated the new president of the Ukraine. He was on the square last night thanking his supporters. And we're expecting that he's going to be going down to that square once again tonight for the big party.

And meanwhile, the man he beat, Victor Yanukovych, the former prime minister, hasn't really conceded yet. In fact, he is saying that he will be mounting an opposition. That he is going into opposition now against Viktor Yushchenko.

Back to you -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Does he have enough, I don't know, support within the population to make that a troublesome thing?

DOUGHERTY: You know he could. Actually there's solid support for him. The country is really very much divided, and he could make life politically miserable for Viktor Yushchenko. But a lot of people want this to be over. People are very tired of this. They voted three times, and a lot of people just want it to end and to have a new president.

COSTELLO: Jill Dougherty live from Kiev this morning.

The number of dead is rising by the hour from this weekend's deadly earthquake and tsunamis. Just moments ago we learned the death toll has now climbed to 20,000. The earthquake measured 9.0, jolting Indonesia's Sumatra Island. You see the map there. It's the world's strongest earthquake in 40 years. The quake triggered tidal waves up to 1,000 miles away, wiping away ferries, cars and wrecking villages.

Sri Lanka was hit really hard, 10,000 people killed there alone. In Indonesia, 4,000 dead, entire towns are leveled. Some say there's not even enough dry ground to bury the dead. In India, 6,000 are reported dead. Huge waves left beaches strewn with bodies. It flipped over boats and cars. And the video is just -- it's just horrendous this morning.

Also this morning, survivors of the monster tsunamis are reacting to their brush with death. Many are still in shock as they survey the widespread destruction and collect the dead. There are many Western tourists among the dead. Those who survived have harrowing tales, but they count themselves as lucky.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My leg injured, my arm, missing a tooth. So there are people down there a lot worse off than me, a lot worse. The hospitals are jam-packed, very full.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was lost for two hours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You OK now? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's OK. The flood washed him away by himself. And he hung on to a door in the hotel until the water calmed down and came out two hours later.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were at Surin (ph) Beach, and, yes, it came in maybe two waves. And the first wave, the tide came up, and the second one, it just entered the hotel and everywhere.

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COSTELLO: Unbelievable stories.

We want to check in with Chad now because he's been doing some research on these tsunamis and how they occur, because most of us really don't get it how that much devastation could happen all at one time.

MYERS: Carol, a 9.0 to a 9.2 earthquake has the same amount of power as five billion tons of TNT.

COSTELLO: Wow!

MYERS: So you blow up a big bomb in the ocean, you're going to get water moving. And as that water moves, it travels across and along the bottom of the ocean. It's actually very hard to find a tsunami in the middle of the ocean. It may be a one or two-foot rise, that's it. And these waves may be very, very far apart, almost 100 miles apart or so.

And so as the plates moved yesterday, the Indian Plate, the Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate all coming together over this very bumpy part of here of Malaysia, of all this basically Indonesia itself or Micronesia, depending on where you are, you have an awful lot of earthquake activity. In fact, south of New Zealand, just during the day on Friday, we had an 8.2. And Orelon Sidney and I are in here going wow, what a huge earthquake. And I'm surprised there wasn't a tsunami.

Well with this one obviously there was. It was close enough to the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean so that actually when it shook right there, when it shook, the waves spread across the oceans. And the waves, although they're small, maybe one or two feet, you get a lot of water moving up into an obviously a shallower bay. As the water goes up and it gets shallower and shallower.

If you're in the ocean and you're in a boat, the waves are kind of doing this. But as soon as those waves hit the shore, they crash over, even without a tsunami. And so that's what was happening yesterday.

As we get right here, that's the epicenter of the earthquake. And then that storm, like throwing a big boulder in the water, the waves spread away from that boulder. And those waves spread all the way through Phuket, up into Thailand. They also moved off to the west into Sri Lanka, into India. And now we're finding out in fact that some of the waves moved south of India and actually hit the east coast of southern Africa -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes, and there are reports that the island of Sumatra, which we see by your leg there,...

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: ... actually moved 100 feet because of the force of this earthquake.

MYERS: Yes, I'm not buying that yet until I see the USGS, this U.S. Geological Survey say that. The entire plate, the whole plate itself, and this is kind of a hard map to see because it's so white, but the whole map itself -- I'm pushing the button and it's not going, but anyway. There we go, I got it to zoom out a little bit.

The whole plate is almost 1,000 kilometers long or about 600 miles long. The plate, the entire plate shifted. So there were actually these little earthquakes or these aftershocks not only in the star, not only where the earthquake, the original earthquake took place, which was right down here, that's Sumatra, and there's the original earthquake, there were many other of these little dots 600 miles away making other either little tsunamis or just obviously little aftershocks.

One of the aftershocks, Carol, was 7.2. And these are all obviously little islands. Here's Thailand and the Philippines and then all the way back down here into Sumatra. So obviously not a part of the country that we talk about or part of the world that we talk about a lot, but certainly here lots of devastation. And I know these numbers are just going to continue to rise.

COSTELLO: And we'll have much more in the minutes to come on DAYBREAK about this. Thank you -- Chad.

MYERS: You bet.

COSTELLO: We're going to be right back.

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COSTELLO: In Health Headlines for you this morning, the street drug known as Ecstasy is reportedly about to be tested on terminally ill patients. "The Washington Post" reporting the FDA has approved a Harvard study using the illegal drug. Researchers want to see if it can help ease the fear of impending death in people who are dying of cancer.

In another cancer study, scientists say gray hair may yield clues to fighting melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer. Turns out there's a link between melanoma and resilient cells that help color hair and skin. So scientists want to figure out how to kill the cells which would then help them learn to kill the cancer. And those of you in a high-risk category who haven't gotten your flu shot, do it now. That's the warning from health officials. Guidelines are about to change and the vaccines will become available to a much larger group.

For more on this or any other health story, head to our Web site. The address CNN.com/health.

Canceled flights, long lines, horror stories from the holidays. Coming up, helpful tips to help weary travelers.

And we'll read some of your e-mail about your holiday travel experiences right after this.

You are watching DAYBREAK.

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COSTELLO: For thousands of people, the holidays were anything but jolly. Comair, which handles about 30,000 travelers a day, shut down due to a computer problem. The airline canceled more than 1,000 flights. Was finally able to get a few planes in the air last night.

An unprecedented sick out caused problems with U.S. Airways. The lack of baggage handlers left many people wondering where their luggage was.

So our e-mail Question of the Morning, please vent with us, tell us your holiday travel nightmare, and many of you have responded this morning.

This one is from Heidi (ph). She says Denver to Atlanta on Christmas Eve. Waited an hour for the plane to Rochester, New York to get a new part. Then waited an hour for the plane to be brought to the gate. Waited another hour for Comair to look for a flight crew. That's when we were told the flight had been canceled and there was nothing they could do. After several hours, got a plane to LaGuardia where we spent midnight at Times Square. No planes, trains or rental cars available. Thank God for Greyhound. We got to Rochester by bus on Christmas morning at 8:00 a.m.

We'll try to read more in the next hour of DAYBREAK, which begins right now.

The waves kept crashing, now the death toll keeps growing. Straight ahead on DAYBREAK, disaster in Southeast Asia.

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