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Journalists Become Latest Casualties of War
Aired April 08, 2003 - 14:04 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 feel of Baghdad today is that of the city where an old regime is dying. U.S. officials say Iraqi resistance is becoming less organized and increasingly desperate. Explosions ring out day and night. Supplies are running low and hospitals are becoming overwhelmed. Some of the latest casualties, journalists. CNN's Nic Robertson is standing by across the border in Jordan to give us the latest from there -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the very latest, I was talking with sources a little time ago in Baghdad, they described the disposition of coalition forces and Iraqi forces in one particular neighborhood, the Katasiya (ph) neighborhood. This is a neighborhood that's on the highway between the center of Baghdad and the International Airport, just southwest of the city. An area that the coalition forces very much dominate now.
This is how he described it. He said on the main highway you have tanks sitting on the highway. They control the main highway. But when you leave the highway and go into the neighborhood of Katasiya (ph), what you see is large numbers of militia, large numbers of armed Iraqis, the Republican Guard elements, Fedayeen elements, Baath Party elements. He says they don't necessarily look particularly organized, but they seem to be massing, or at least there seem to be large numbers of them there, but their disposition is that separation.
We've heard that the coalition forces dominating areas, but not wanting to get caught up in an urban battle. This seems to be the situation. They are controlling the highways, they are dominating the areas they want to dominate, but off those highways, there are militia forces waiting for something, if you will. And Iraq's information minister today, Mohammed Al-Sahaf, said that these forces were, in fact, about to encircle the coalition.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMED SAEED AL-SAHAF, IRAQI INFORMATION MINISTER (through translator): It's the same desperate attempts to weaken our resistance, but our forces, especially the commandos, are preparing to destroy them. We burned some of the vehicles in Al Rasheed camp, and now they are isolated in the city.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: What we saw earlier in the day were coalition forces moving tanks, moving them into new areas. And that's when it appears that journalists got caught up in the conflict. Al Jazeera first. They were able to see -- one of their journalists being carried away by a -- the film from a neighboring camera position, Abu Dhabi's camera position, Tarek Ayoub, a producer and reporter for the Al Jazeera station, killed in a missile strike on Al Jazeera's house there.
A little bit later, Abu Dhabi's house was also struck by a missile. Both of those stations off the air. Abu Dhabi's team at this time in their house, on the banks of the Tigris. They've been in there for about 12 hours, since that situation developed early this morning. They are still making telephone calls to get the Red Cross to come and take them out of the area. They are still very much in an area of the battle.
And about a mile further southeast down the Tigris river, journalists, the many hundreds of journalists in the Palestine Hotel, also found themselves essentially in the center of the battle. A shell struck the 15th and 16th -- 14th and 15th floor of that building, killing a Reuters cameraman, Taras Prostaluk (ph), from the Ukraine and killing a Spanish cameraman, Jose Cuso (ph) from Tarachino (ph) station in Spain.
Now, coalition forces say they believe they were being fired on by snipers, or at least militarily engaged from the Palestine Hotel. Journalist in that hotel say they were not aware that there was any outgoing fire from their location -- Wolf.
BLITZER: There was a suggestion that the Iraqis, Nic, the Iraqi government had deliberately used that Palestine Hotel knowing that because there were journalists there, they might be protected, almost like they would use a mosque or a hospital. When you were there at the Palestine Hotel, I believe you stayed there at the end of your stay in Baghdad before you were expelled by the Iraqi government, were the Iraqi military officials and others using that hotel effectively, in effect?
ROBERTSON: That hotel is being used by Iraq's Ministry of Information. They have taken their press center and their whole entire operation from the Ministry of Information, based it in the Palestine Hotel. They are fully aware that co-locating themselves with journalists is something that should make them safer. It's something that does make them feel safer. That's the Ministry of Information, really a civilian outfit.
What journalists are not talking about and haven't said is that there are any military forces in that hotel. Now, I speak regularly with a number of sources who speak to me on condition of anonymity, because Iraqi officials have made it very clear that anyone in Baghdad who deals with CNN will be treated as a spy. So the people I talked to there, I know who they are. They cannot make themselves known to Iraqi officials in that capital. They are essentially talking to me from that location, but if you will, on the quiet.
Now, they are able to tell me anything and everything that is going on in that hotel, and they're very diligent in that work and they are also very trained and aware of military operations. And so far, they haven't told me about any military use of that particular hotel. But it's in absolutely no doubt in my mind and to the journalists there that the Ministry of Information is very much using the journalists in that hotel to make themselves safe so that they can continue getting their information out -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Nic Robertson joining us. Thanks, Nic, very 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 April 8, 2003 - 14:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The feel of Baghdad today is that of the city where an old regime is dying. U.S. officials say Iraqi resistance is becoming less organized and increasingly desperate. Explosions ring out day and night. Supplies are running low and hospitals are becoming overwhelmed. Some of the latest casualties, journalists. CNN's Nic Robertson is standing by across the border in Jordan to give us the latest from there -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the very latest, I was talking with sources a little time ago in Baghdad, they described the disposition of coalition forces and Iraqi forces in one particular neighborhood, the Katasiya (ph) neighborhood. This is a neighborhood that's on the highway between the center of Baghdad and the International Airport, just southwest of the city. An area that the coalition forces very much dominate now.
This is how he described it. He said on the main highway you have tanks sitting on the highway. They control the main highway. But when you leave the highway and go into the neighborhood of Katasiya (ph), what you see is large numbers of militia, large numbers of armed Iraqis, the Republican Guard elements, Fedayeen elements, Baath Party elements. He says they don't necessarily look particularly organized, but they seem to be massing, or at least there seem to be large numbers of them there, but their disposition is that separation.
We've heard that the coalition forces dominating areas, but not wanting to get caught up in an urban battle. This seems to be the situation. They are controlling the highways, they are dominating the areas they want to dominate, but off those highways, there are militia forces waiting for something, if you will. And Iraq's information minister today, Mohammed Al-Sahaf, said that these forces were, in fact, about to encircle the coalition.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMED SAEED AL-SAHAF, IRAQI INFORMATION MINISTER (through translator): It's the same desperate attempts to weaken our resistance, but our forces, especially the commandos, are preparing to destroy them. We burned some of the vehicles in Al Rasheed camp, and now they are isolated in the city.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: What we saw earlier in the day were coalition forces moving tanks, moving them into new areas. And that's when it appears that journalists got caught up in the conflict. Al Jazeera first. They were able to see -- one of their journalists being carried away by a -- the film from a neighboring camera position, Abu Dhabi's camera position, Tarek Ayoub, a producer and reporter for the Al Jazeera station, killed in a missile strike on Al Jazeera's house there.
A little bit later, Abu Dhabi's house was also struck by a missile. Both of those stations off the air. Abu Dhabi's team at this time in their house, on the banks of the Tigris. They've been in there for about 12 hours, since that situation developed early this morning. They are still making telephone calls to get the Red Cross to come and take them out of the area. They are still very much in an area of the battle.
And about a mile further southeast down the Tigris river, journalists, the many hundreds of journalists in the Palestine Hotel, also found themselves essentially in the center of the battle. A shell struck the 15th and 16th -- 14th and 15th floor of that building, killing a Reuters cameraman, Taras Prostaluk (ph), from the Ukraine and killing a Spanish cameraman, Jose Cuso (ph) from Tarachino (ph) station in Spain.
Now, coalition forces say they believe they were being fired on by snipers, or at least militarily engaged from the Palestine Hotel. Journalist in that hotel say they were not aware that there was any outgoing fire from their location -- Wolf.
BLITZER: There was a suggestion that the Iraqis, Nic, the Iraqi government had deliberately used that Palestine Hotel knowing that because there were journalists there, they might be protected, almost like they would use a mosque or a hospital. When you were there at the Palestine Hotel, I believe you stayed there at the end of your stay in Baghdad before you were expelled by the Iraqi government, were the Iraqi military officials and others using that hotel effectively, in effect?
ROBERTSON: That hotel is being used by Iraq's Ministry of Information. They have taken their press center and their whole entire operation from the Ministry of Information, based it in the Palestine Hotel. They are fully aware that co-locating themselves with journalists is something that should make them safer. It's something that does make them feel safer. That's the Ministry of Information, really a civilian outfit.
What journalists are not talking about and haven't said is that there are any military forces in that hotel. Now, I speak regularly with a number of sources who speak to me on condition of anonymity, because Iraqi officials have made it very clear that anyone in Baghdad who deals with CNN will be treated as a spy. So the people I talked to there, I know who they are. They cannot make themselves known to Iraqi officials in that capital. They are essentially talking to me from that location, but if you will, on the quiet.
Now, they are able to tell me anything and everything that is going on in that hotel, and they're very diligent in that work and they are also very trained and aware of military operations. And so far, they haven't told me about any military use of that particular hotel. But it's in absolutely no doubt in my mind and to the journalists there that the Ministry of Information is very much using the journalists in that hotel to make themselves safe so that they can continue getting their information out -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Nic Robertson joining us. Thanks, Nic, very 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
