Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Saturday
Three British Soldiers Killed Today In Basra
Aired August 23, 2003 - 12:11 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.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: In Iraq, the violence against coalition troops has moved south. Three British soldiers were killed today in an ambush on their convoy in Basra. CNN's Ben Wedeman joins us from the capital to talk about that, as well as, the bomb investigation at U.N. offices -- Ben.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes Renay, that attack took place earlier today leaving three British soldiers killed, one seriously wounded. Apparently they were just driving on a routine drive through the city when another car drove up alongside their vehicles, oened fire. They apparently lost control of the vehicle and crashed. No idea about who may have been behind that attack. Now, by and large, Southern Iraq has certainly, relative to the rest or essential part of the country, been fairly peaceful, but there have been a number of incidents over the last few months which are raising the concern of coalition officials about the situation down there.
Meanwhile, in Baghdad, itself, the British embassy was evacuated, today, out of fear that that institution was going to be targeted along the same lines as the United Nations headquarters, here, was targeted this Tuesday.
Now, meanwhile, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation has put on Arab video statement by a group calling itself Jaish Mohammed, in that statement they claimed responsibility on behalf -- one of their sub- brigades for the attack on the United Nations headquarters, which at this point, left 22 people dead, although, that is not the final death toll. What's interesting in this statement, Renay, is that among other things, the group said that they -- that the attack on the U.N. headquarters was not carried out by non-Iraqis, that it was an Iraqi operation pure and simple.
Now, at the United Nations itself, apparently the United Nations workers went back to work today. Not in their building, in tents, however, and that's probably -- given the heat here, not a very easy thing to do.
In other violence in Iraq -- in the area of the Northern city of Kirkuk, there were clashes between Kurds and Turkomen, the Turkomen being the Turkish minority that lives in that area. U.S. troops arrived on the scene. They said, in a statement, that they came under fire from the crowd, they returned fire leaving two people, Turkomen dead and two Turkomen wounded.
Now, against the background of violence, the chief U.S. administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, held a press conference today, in which he said he had a swelling pride of good news. Now, he said that good news has to do with the infrastructure, with the fact that schools, electricity, water services are slowly getting back to what he described as pre-war levels. Now, he also discussed and expressed regret over the attack against the United Nations' headquarters, and he put that attack, in his words, in the context of the war on terrorism. This is what he said:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL BREMER, U.S. CIVILIAN ADMINISTRATOR: Stunned by terrorists. It's part of a global war on terrorism which was declared on the United States September 11th two years ago. And, it is now unfortunately, the case that Iraq has become one of the fields of battle in this global war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WEDEMAN: Now, of course, according to the Bush administration's vision for Iraq this place was not supposed to become part of that global war -- Renay.
MIGUEL: Ben Wedeman reporting live from Baghdad. Thank you very much, Ben.
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 August 23, 2003 - 12:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: In Iraq, the violence against coalition troops has moved south. Three British soldiers were killed today in an ambush on their convoy in Basra. CNN's Ben Wedeman joins us from the capital to talk about that, as well as, the bomb investigation at U.N. offices -- Ben.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes Renay, that attack took place earlier today leaving three British soldiers killed, one seriously wounded. Apparently they were just driving on a routine drive through the city when another car drove up alongside their vehicles, oened fire. They apparently lost control of the vehicle and crashed. No idea about who may have been behind that attack. Now, by and large, Southern Iraq has certainly, relative to the rest or essential part of the country, been fairly peaceful, but there have been a number of incidents over the last few months which are raising the concern of coalition officials about the situation down there.
Meanwhile, in Baghdad, itself, the British embassy was evacuated, today, out of fear that that institution was going to be targeted along the same lines as the United Nations headquarters, here, was targeted this Tuesday.
Now, meanwhile, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation has put on Arab video statement by a group calling itself Jaish Mohammed, in that statement they claimed responsibility on behalf -- one of their sub- brigades for the attack on the United Nations headquarters, which at this point, left 22 people dead, although, that is not the final death toll. What's interesting in this statement, Renay, is that among other things, the group said that they -- that the attack on the U.N. headquarters was not carried out by non-Iraqis, that it was an Iraqi operation pure and simple.
Now, at the United Nations itself, apparently the United Nations workers went back to work today. Not in their building, in tents, however, and that's probably -- given the heat here, not a very easy thing to do.
In other violence in Iraq -- in the area of the Northern city of Kirkuk, there were clashes between Kurds and Turkomen, the Turkomen being the Turkish minority that lives in that area. U.S. troops arrived on the scene. They said, in a statement, that they came under fire from the crowd, they returned fire leaving two people, Turkomen dead and two Turkomen wounded.
Now, against the background of violence, the chief U.S. administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, held a press conference today, in which he said he had a swelling pride of good news. Now, he said that good news has to do with the infrastructure, with the fact that schools, electricity, water services are slowly getting back to what he described as pre-war levels. Now, he also discussed and expressed regret over the attack against the United Nations' headquarters, and he put that attack, in his words, in the context of the war on terrorism. This is what he said:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL BREMER, U.S. CIVILIAN ADMINISTRATOR: Stunned by terrorists. It's part of a global war on terrorism which was declared on the United States September 11th two years ago. And, it is now unfortunately, the case that Iraq has become one of the fields of battle in this global war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WEDEMAN: Now, of course, according to the Bush administration's vision for Iraq this place was not supposed to become part of that global war -- Renay.
MIGUEL: Ben Wedeman reporting live from Baghdad. Thank you very much, Ben.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
