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Iraq Now Claiming It's Shot Down U.S. Predator Plane
Aired January 22, 2003 - 08:15 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Iraq is now claiming it has shot down an unmanned U.S. Predator spy plane. That report coming from the Iraqi news agency. The U.S. government has not confirmed the story the this point.
Let's turn to Nic Robertson, who's joining us from Baghdad right now, to see what else the Iraqis are saying this morning -- good morning, Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Well, this news came about 15 minutes ago, reported by the Iraqi news agency Ina. Now, in the past, the Iraqi news agency, when it's talked about attacks in the northern and southern no fly zones, often those, their accounts in terms of numbers of sorties, in terms of numbers of sites hit, have quite often correlated with what's been reported by coalition forces.
However, at this time, the only information we have is coming from the Iraqi news agency. They say that their ground defensive positions shot down an unmanned U.S. spy plane, a Predator. Now, they say that this spy plane was flying from the area of Kuwait. Now, quite often the Iraqi news agency does tend to try and pinpoint where the aircraft flying into Iraq's air space have come from. They quite often say Kuwait, the Gulf region, sometimes from Turkey to the north. In this case they say Kuwait -- Paula.
ZAHN: Since the last time we checked with you, any official reaction to President Bush's harsh statements yesterday about Iraq?
ROBERTSON: No, still nothing official. But I think when we look at the newspapers here, which all the time really reflect what the government's, the government's position is, an editorial there saying that President Bush knows that he's lying. They say that President Bush knows Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction and that he should stand back and let the inspectors finish their work without pressuring them and without, as they say, blackmailing.
But still nothing official yet -- Paula.
ZAHN: Nic Robertson reporting from Baghdad this morning.
Thanks so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 22, 2003 - 08:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Iraq is now claiming it has shot down an unmanned U.S. Predator spy plane. That report coming from the Iraqi news agency. The U.S. government has not confirmed the story the this point.
Let's turn to Nic Robertson, who's joining us from Baghdad right now, to see what else the Iraqis are saying this morning -- good morning, Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Well, this news came about 15 minutes ago, reported by the Iraqi news agency Ina. Now, in the past, the Iraqi news agency, when it's talked about attacks in the northern and southern no fly zones, often those, their accounts in terms of numbers of sorties, in terms of numbers of sites hit, have quite often correlated with what's been reported by coalition forces.
However, at this time, the only information we have is coming from the Iraqi news agency. They say that their ground defensive positions shot down an unmanned U.S. spy plane, a Predator. Now, they say that this spy plane was flying from the area of Kuwait. Now, quite often the Iraqi news agency does tend to try and pinpoint where the aircraft flying into Iraq's air space have come from. They quite often say Kuwait, the Gulf region, sometimes from Turkey to the north. In this case they say Kuwait -- Paula.
ZAHN: Since the last time we checked with you, any official reaction to President Bush's harsh statements yesterday about Iraq?
ROBERTSON: No, still nothing official. But I think when we look at the newspapers here, which all the time really reflect what the government's, the government's position is, an editorial there saying that President Bush knows that he's lying. They say that President Bush knows Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction and that he should stand back and let the inspectors finish their work without pressuring them and without, as they say, blackmailing.
But still nothing official yet -- Paula.
ZAHN: Nic Robertson reporting from Baghdad this morning.
Thanks so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
