Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Tensions in Najaf
Aired April 03, 2003 - 15:13 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.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The Army says it now has control of the southern city of Najaf, isolating Iraqi forces in areas of the Muslim holy city. Najaf is home of one of the holiest sites of the Shia Muslim faith, and today it became a potential powder keg.
CNN's Ryan Chilcote is embedded with the 101st Airborne. He's joining us now live -- Ryan.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, first, we have some exclusive pictures. Our cameraman, Greg Donalenta (ph), just went out with one of the companies of soldiers out here, where they found a weapons cache right in the middle of a school. Take a look at these pictures. They're really going to shock you.
Acting on a tip from some people here in the city, they went to this school. They didn't know whether it was just going to be weapons or whether they would find some Fedayeen fighters inside the school as well. Well, they didn't find any Fedayeen fighters, but they certainly did find a lot of weapons, a lot of RPG rounds, a lot of mortar rounds -- just a lot of weapons in general.
This is exactly what U.S. troops are hoping is going to happen. They are hoping that people are going to get comfortable enough with their presence and comfortable enough with the security situation in the city that they're going to tell U.S. troops about the presence and whereabouts of these weapons caches. Today, really a big payoff for U.S. troops.
Now, earlier in the day -- the day really starting off with what was supposed to be a rather uneventful patrol, the goal of that patrol for the soldiers' commander to link up with the Grand Ayatollah Sistani, the leader of all Shia Muslims here in the city of Najaf and really throughout the world.
The soldiers got about halfway to the meeting place, where they got a radio call from the ayatollah. He was telling them, hey, I would like you to secure my home before you do that. The problem with that, of course, only was that the ayatollah's compound was about halfway down the street from where the soldiers were, halfway down the street to the Imam Ali mosque, which is one of the holiest shrines in the Shia Muslim faith, a place that non-Muslims aren't necessarily welcome.
Well, the soldiers set out with those intentions, but no one apparently had told the crowd, which up to this point had been very welcoming of the U.S. troops. Chaos, absolute chaos ensued. The crowd apparently believing that the troops were going to approach the Imam Ali mosque itself, something that really, as you can see, disturbed them. Some really quick action from both the ayatollah's representatives on the scene and the soldiers' commander, he stepped right in, and he told his soldiers to take a knee, to relax, to point their weapons at the ground, and to try and be as friendly as possible, diffusing what could have been a really ugly situation -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Ryan Chilcote talking about an ugly situation, potentially at least. Thanks very much for that report. Ryan is in Najaf.
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 April 3, 2003 - 15:13 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The Army says it now has control of the southern city of Najaf, isolating Iraqi forces in areas of the Muslim holy city. Najaf is home of one of the holiest sites of the Shia Muslim faith, and today it became a potential powder keg.
CNN's Ryan Chilcote is embedded with the 101st Airborne. He's joining us now live -- Ryan.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, first, we have some exclusive pictures. Our cameraman, Greg Donalenta (ph), just went out with one of the companies of soldiers out here, where they found a weapons cache right in the middle of a school. Take a look at these pictures. They're really going to shock you.
Acting on a tip from some people here in the city, they went to this school. They didn't know whether it was just going to be weapons or whether they would find some Fedayeen fighters inside the school as well. Well, they didn't find any Fedayeen fighters, but they certainly did find a lot of weapons, a lot of RPG rounds, a lot of mortar rounds -- just a lot of weapons in general.
This is exactly what U.S. troops are hoping is going to happen. They are hoping that people are going to get comfortable enough with their presence and comfortable enough with the security situation in the city that they're going to tell U.S. troops about the presence and whereabouts of these weapons caches. Today, really a big payoff for U.S. troops.
Now, earlier in the day -- the day really starting off with what was supposed to be a rather uneventful patrol, the goal of that patrol for the soldiers' commander to link up with the Grand Ayatollah Sistani, the leader of all Shia Muslims here in the city of Najaf and really throughout the world.
The soldiers got about halfway to the meeting place, where they got a radio call from the ayatollah. He was telling them, hey, I would like you to secure my home before you do that. The problem with that, of course, only was that the ayatollah's compound was about halfway down the street from where the soldiers were, halfway down the street to the Imam Ali mosque, which is one of the holiest shrines in the Shia Muslim faith, a place that non-Muslims aren't necessarily welcome.
Well, the soldiers set out with those intentions, but no one apparently had told the crowd, which up to this point had been very welcoming of the U.S. troops. Chaos, absolute chaos ensued. The crowd apparently believing that the troops were going to approach the Imam Ali mosque itself, something that really, as you can see, disturbed them. Some really quick action from both the ayatollah's representatives on the scene and the soldiers' commander, he stepped right in, and he told his soldiers to take a knee, to relax, to point their weapons at the ground, and to try and be as friendly as possible, diffusing what could have been a really ugly situation -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Ryan Chilcote talking about an ugly situation, potentially at least. Thanks very much for that report. Ryan is in Najaf.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
