Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Fresh Attacks in Haifa; Israel; Beirut Being Bombed for 10th Day; Tropical Storm Beryl

Aired July 21, 2006 - 06:29   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: There's the scene, a joyous scene of evacuees being reunited with family members, loved ones, Baltimore Airport. Still many more in Lebanon trying to make their way out.
Good morning. Welcome to a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

I'm Miles O'Brien in New York.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Soledad O'Brien, reporting to you live from Jerusalem this morning, talking to Israelis about what they're thinking about this conflict -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Soledad. Back with you in just a bit.

New attacks this morning on the Israeli port city of Haifa. Further rocket firings. At least three rocket firings from southern Lebanon into that city.

Fionnuala Sweeney live now from Haifa with more.

Hello, Fionnuala.

FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

Yes, indeed, it's just after 1:30 in the afternoon here in Haifa. And within the last 15 minutes, the air raid sirens went off, not for the first time in this city. And shortly after that, we heard maybe four explosions as rockets landed in the city. And we could tell that these explosions were just maybe 30 seconds, perhaps a minute apart from each other.

The air raid sirens have stopped, but the city is filled with the sound of sirens from ambulances, as presumably the emergency services rush to the various locations where these rockets have fallen -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Fionnuala. Innumerable rocket attacks at this point. I'm sure somebody's tallied it up.

How -- when you get down on street level there in Haifa, are the streets pretty much vacant at this point?

SWEENEY: Well, you know, the streets are still operating. I went out for a walk early this morning when I first woke up, when I got into Haifa, and I understood that you could tell from on the streets there were cars going, there were people still in coffee shops. But this is normally a very bustling city, and it is, I am told, quieter than usual.

Yesterday, we were in a city just a few miles from here called Nahariya. And I'm just interrupting myself here, Miles, to be told that there are injuries in these latest four Katyusha rockets that have fell on this city. But it Nahariya, it was like a ghost town, Miles.

Absolutely nobody on the streets. It was bizarre. It was like a film set, but without anybody on it.

And so people have been told to stay indoors. Every house, every building in this country has one room that's reinforced, and that is the room into which everybody goes when an air raid siren goes off and we know that there is an impending attack.

But just to recap, within the last 15 minutes, air ride sirens have gone off in the city of Haifa, where we're standing now. There are injuries reported from at least four Katyusha rocket attacks that fell in the last few moments. And the city here filled at the moment around me with the sound of sirens, as ambulances and the emergency services rush to those locations -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: We have had the sense over the past day or so that the Katyusha rocket firings, at least into Haifa, had diminished somewhat. Is that the case? And if so, what's going on now, do you think?

SWEENEY: Well, you know, I think that when this escalation and the conflict with Hezbollah began nine days ago, everybody was on high alert. And as you know, the rockets, Miles, fell all around the northern band of Israel. And, indeed, in the last couple of days in Haifa, the air raid sirens and the number of rockets falling on the city had diminished. And people were beginning to relax somewhat.

It's perhaps a bit surprising to find people relaxing just 24 hours after a major rocket launch, but such is life here in Israel, that people just get on with life very quickly. And yes, everyone around here had been telling me about how much they had begun to relax.

I had been here just since yesterday afternoon, hadn't heard any air raid sirens at all, and myself had been lulled into a false sense of security about how safe it is. But this is, I think the case that, what's going to happen now, of course the city will be back on high alert. And I think even in the bigger picture, it shows that as much as a hammering the Israeli military is giving Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, they are still capable of firing rockets.

We were at a military briefing just an hour ago not far away from here, and we were told by the Israeli military that they still believe that Hezbollah is a force. This is a difficult war. It is a force to be reckoned with.

Nobody here is expecting that they're going to completely wipe out Hezbollah. The mission of the Israeli military is to render them ineffective, to cripple them, in the words of the brigadier general. And he said it is a very difficult operation. It is a new kind of war for Israel.

There are no front lines. Civilians, they say, are being used. There are rockets in houses. And they are doing their best not, I think, to go in on a ground invasion, but I think they're finding that the more and more they get drawn into pinpoint operations, that this is what their target is going to have to be. There is only so much that airstrikes can do. And here the rockets are still falling -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Fionnuala Sweeney in Haifa.

Thank you very much.

It underscores how mobile and how easy it is to hide those small Katyusha rockets.

Let's get back to Soledad in Jerusalem.

Soledad, Fionnuala just talking about how amazingly -- how resilient the people are of Israel, how in a sense they, while recognizing the fear, press on with things. I think you've discovered that as well.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I think there's no question about that. And in no small measure because it's a conflict that's been going on in some way, shape or form for a long, long time here.

Fionnuala talked about some of those civilians who are now unnerved again by this spate of rocket attacks. We were told by the deputy mayor here in Jerusalem that, in fact, they have taken in 600 families right here in Jerusalem who have wanted to evacuate out of the north. Another 3,000 families have been housed about an hour's drive away. And they've set up entertainment and tents, and basically they're taking care of the people who really were moving out of the region because they were fearful of being injured in some kind of rocket attack in the north.

Here in Jerusalem, though, in the heart of Jerusalem is where we're reporting from. Over my shoulder, the old city. And what we've seen today is an increase in security. Not a really big surprise, because we've been told by many people that, in fact, that security increases whenever there are "troubles," is the word that was used several times with us, meaning some kind of an escalation in the violence.

The old city, there's some records of it being inhabited by Jews as far back as 3,000 years. And it's a walled-off area of about a half-square-mile.

Four quarters inside. If you haven't even traveled here, a Christian quarter, a Jewish quarter, Armenia quarter, and a Muslim quarter as well.

The region is now back under Israeli control. That happened after the 1967 War. The Wailing Wall -- the Western Wall is really -- citizens there this morning that we spoke to talked a little bit about what's happening in Lebanon. You heard just a moment ago the Lebanese woman who was able to get out, talking about some of the devastating things that she's seen.

We talked to some Israeli citizens about their take on that. We're going to show you those interviews a little bit later this morning -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, Soledad.

Our special edition of AMERICAN MORNING continues after a quick break.

Tropical Storm Beryl makes landfall in the Northeast. Nantucket taking a direct hit. They're getting hammered there right now, and we're live with the latest.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: The attacks and counterattacks continue on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border. Word just in to us a little while ago of at least three separate rockets landing on the Israeli northern city of Haifa, a city of 300,000, only 20 miles south of the border with Lebanon.

Live pictures now. You see the response to one of those rocket firings and one of the landings. And apparently there are some injuries to report.

We're tracking that very closely for you right now. But once again, Haifa targeted once again by Hezbollah Katyusha rockets.

Meanwhile, Israel targeting Beirut. Beirut being bombed for the 10th day in a row now by Israeli fighters. A humanitarian crisis developing as people try to escape the fighting there. Tens of thousands trying to get out.

Anthony Mills live now in Beirut with more -- Anthony.

ANTHONY MILLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The bombardment of Beirut continues with resounding explosions overnight. And also, in the rest of the country, in the south and in the east, more airstrikes.

At the same time, we're told by U.N. spokesperson Milar Strugar (ph) that over the last three days, U.N. bases in the south of Lebanon have taken between seven and eight hits from Israeli shells. So that, in addition on the front in the south of this country.

And, of course, all that set against the backdrop of a growing humanitarian crisis in which we're seeing, according to the U.N., hundreds of thousands of displaced persons moving upwards, away from the south of Lebanon, which they've been told -- ordered to leave. They've been crossing the border into Syria, and they've been coming to Beirut, where they're being housed in parks, temporary hostels, public schools, and really wherever room can be made for them.

So, continued bombing against the backdrop of a growing humanitarian crisis.

Back to you.

M. O'BRIEN: Anthony Mills in Beirut.

Thank you very much.

Closer to home, Tropical Storm Beryl moving toward Canada now after blowing over Nantucket. Driving rain, heavy winds knocked Rob Marciano off the air, but he's back now, which means I guess the weather is getting a little better.

Is that a fact, Rob?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that is a fact. The winds have switched, so that -- that can play havoc with the engineering feed here.

This storm moved through quite quickly. I mean, it didn't really start raining here until 10:00, 11:00 last night. And by the time 3:00 and 4:00 rolled around this morning, all that rain had pushed off to the north and east. We're still getting little showers and squalls moving through, but the key now is the wind has shifted.

We're on the eastern point, the far eastern point on the island. You see the lighthouse behind me, up on a big bluff that protects some of these homes that are out here. But now that the winds have turned more northwesterly, it's kind of pushing -- at least laying down the surf, if not pushing it out quite a bit.

The tide rolling in, but you see the waves now two, three feet, whereas about two hours ago they were breaking at 10, 12, 15 feet. And then if you go further out into the ocean, you can start to see the white caps further out there, where the water not quite protected by the bluff that we are standing on. Beach erosion a big concern here on the island, especially on the southern beaches, where they continue to battle the ocean, taking away sand in one spot and piling it up on another.

As far as power outages are concerned, nothing, really. We had 45-mile-an-hour wind gusts at around 3:00 this morning. That took down some tree limbs, but not much in the way of power lines.

And just some puddling on the roadways, with anywhere from probably an inch, to maybe an inch and a quarter estimation of how much rainfall they've seen. But most of that, Miles, now has moved off to the north and east.

This storm really, really accelerated as it got picked up by that jet stream. And folks here are just saying, you know, it's kind of like a Nor'easter, you know, just a wind and rainstorm. And the only thing that they're worried about is that this is really early in the season to see a tropical system make a direct landfall this far north. Typically, it would be more like mid to late August, if not into September, and we're in the middle of July. So, if anything, that has folks a little bit nervous, but they made it through the storm for the most part A-OK.

Miles, back over to you.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. I mean, so far it hasn't been the season that we quite anticipated, has it?

MARCIANO: Well, that's true. By this time last year, we were already on the "E" storm. We were already on Emily, which was our second major hurricane of the season. And this is only our second tropical storm.

We haven't even seen a hurricane yet. But what -- what Max Mayfield and the rest of the forecasters at the National Hurricane Center will tell you, that, you know, when you get your storms, how early in the season they come, doesn't necessarily dictate how bad that season is going to be.

This becomes a critical time as we get into the beginning part of August. Really mid-August until the middle part of the October, that is when we really accelerate and ramp up the number of storms that typically begin to form. So, even though we're not at the rate that we were last year, we'll see what happens a month from now. And hopefully we can still say the same thing. But prime time doesn't really get going for another two or three weeks -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right.

Rob Marciano, on Nantucket Island. I believe Siasconset, right? Are you in Siasconset?

MARCIANO: We are.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, excellent. All right.

Let's get to Chad Myers, as a matter of fact.

Chad, you've been talking about this kind of pressure cooker effect that we need to be worried about, right?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It can be, but I think you just jinxed it all, just by talking about it.

M. O'BRIEN: I shouldn't have done it. I'm sorry.

MYERS: Yes. You owe me some Starbucks money, bud. You're going to pay my caffeine bill for the rest of the year if you jinxed it.

M. O'BRIEN: Because you got up at about 2:00 this morning, didn't you?

MYERS: Yes, a little earlier than that. That's OK. (WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Chad Myers.

MYERS: You're welcome, bud.

M. O'BRIEN: Back with you in a bit.

Living with terror not new to Israelis, of course. Still to come, Soledad spent some time with the deputy mayor of Jerusalem. And they talk about daily life in that city as the war rages.

And new fighting to tell you about this morning. Reporters standing by all throughout the region to bring you the latest.

No one covers it better than us. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Live pictures. Israeli television coming to us from the port city of Haifa.

For the first time in 24 hours, Katyusha rockets, Hezbollah-fired from across the border in southern Lebanon, have rained down on that port city of 300,000, 20 miles south of the border. We're told at least three rockets struck the city just about a half an hour ago. And we're told there are injuries.

Rescue officials saying six people injured in the attack. We have no reports of any fatalities, however. There you see the scene as Israeli rescue personnel arrive and try to attend to those who are injured. Clearly, somebody injured there being taken away to the hospital.

Once again, at least three rockets. Those Katyusha variety rockets, we presume, raining down on the port city of Haifa, about 20 miles south of the border.

There you see some of the damage to the buildings there. Clearly, some shrapnel involved in all that as people take pictures from their cell phones.

I'm not sure these are live pictures, folks. I don't know about that. We better be careful about that. In any case, recent video, for sure, as rescue workers attend to the damage and to the victims of this latest attack and the volleys which continue back and forth on both sides of the border.

Let's get to Soledad in Jerusalem -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's take you further south from there in Haifa, to where we are, in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, to say that it's important historically or important religiously is, in many ways, a huge, huge understatement. It is critical to Jews and to Christians and to Muslims. And I think we're having a little problem with our lights there.

It's a huge conflict for centuries, in fact. And talking about this current crisis, though, we had a chance to talk to Yigal Amedi. He is the deputy mayor of Jerusalem. And here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: How have things changed since the fighting began here in Jerusalem? What's different?

YIGAL AMEDI, JERUSALEM DEPUTY MAYOR: In Jerusalem, it's a very safe place now. You know...

S. O'BRIEN: It's safe? People here don't...

AMEDI: Yes. People -- people -- half (ph) of them, our brothers in the north, but the life here in Jerusalem, it's the same, like we don't have the war.

S. O'BRIEN: There seemed to be a lot of surprise and shock in Haifa when -- when the rockets could reach the people who live there, the Hezbollah rockets. Do people here in Jerusalem worry about that, that Hezbollah could have rockets that could hit here?

AMEDI: No. They're not -- they don't worry about rockets in Jerusalem. But, you know, in Haifa, it's the first time that -- this kind of war. Suddenly, people wake up in the morning, and their house is bombed. So, it was -- they were very surprised.

In Jerusalem, for a few years we have a lot of problems, another kind of problem. There is -- there was a lot of terror attacks in Jerusalem, and people bombed here in coffee -- in buses, but now it's very quiet and very safe in Jerusalem.

I think that this war is going to finish very quickly. And I don't think it's going to come to Jerusalem.

You know, people in Tel Aviv are a little bit afraid that they are going to join in this war because the Hezbollah said that they have missiles that they can come to Tel Aviv. But here in Jerusalem, it's the safest place in the world now, I think.

S. O'BRIEN: When -- when you have collateral damage, when you kill Lebanese people who are not affiliated with Hezbollah, you run the risk of recruiting more people who are sympathetic to Hezbollah. People who are moderates are now angry, and so angry that they now support Hezbollah, when maybe before they didn't.

AMEDI: War is not some kind of nice thing. War, it's war. And when you have to do something to finish this problem, you must do it, you know.

The army of Israel, they try to do what they can so that people that are not from Hezbollah don't die. But I'll tell you like I told you before, if the people of the Hezbollah are going in some houses and sitting from -- and from these houses they are shooting, you must finish the problem. So you must bomb them. And, you know, I think that only the army of Israel, before they do something, they are saying to the people, move from this place because we are going to bomb this place, because the Hezbollah is sitting there.

S. O'BRIEN: They get a warning.

AMEDI: So, what happened, the Hezbollah, when they heard it, they know before the army do something, where the army do the things. You know, you can't make war like this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Yigal Amedi, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem.

One other thing he told us was that they have now arranged to have 600 families come from the north, where you just heard from Fionnuala the fighting is really renewed again today, come south into Jerusalem. And he also said that not far from here, about an hour away, they've also set up facilities, tents and a kind of area where some 3,000 other people are able to now evacuate out of Haifa and other areas north to some safety.

We're going to take a short break. We're back in just a moment as we continue to monitor fighting on both sides of the border and the overall coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.

We're back in just a moment.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MYERS: Hi, everyone. Welcome back.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MYERS: The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Chad.

Another barrage of Hezbollah rockets targeting no less than five northern Israeli cities just within the past few moments. The port city of Haifa among the targets. Injuries to report.

Israel, meanwhile, sending more troops to the border as Lebanon's leaders threaten to join the fight to defend their soil. Could a ground invasion be imminent?

Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.

S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.

We're coming to you live this morning from Jerusalem. Right behind me, the old city. We'll have more on that just ahead.

Miles, back to you.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's get the latest developments in and get you up to date on what's going on in the Middle East.

Hezbollah launching rockets landing in five Israeli cities, including Haifa, within the past hour.

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