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Four Marines Injured Seriously

Aired April 10, 2003 - 12:36   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: We're going interrupt Ari Fleischer's briefing. We're going to continue to monitor the Q&A. But I want to go back to Baghdad right now. There's a breaking story, a suicide bombing on the streets of Baghdad, not far from the Palestine Hotel. Our Walter Rodgers reporting here on CNN, four U.S. Marines seriously injured.
Our Christian Amanpour is now standing by. She's joining us live.

What else can you tell us, Christiane, about this suicide bombing?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you know, there's been some conflicting information when those reports first started to come out, so we have tracked down the spokesman for the 1st Marine Division, Captain Joe Plenzler who joins me here, and we will get the precise details as he knows them.

Captain, describe to me exactly what happened and the casualties.

CPT. JOE PLENZLER, MARINE SPOKESMAN: The word I have, the initial reports is approximately an hour ago, a man strapped with explosives approached a Marine checkpoint and detonated himself. Initial reports say there have been four wounded. I don't really have a lot of details beyond that right now.

AMANPOUR: Four wounded. You do not know of any deaths?

PLENZLER: That's the initial reports. And obviously, in the chaos of what happened in a situation like that, you know, that's the word we have right now.

AMANPOUR: And these Marines have been evacuated. Do you know the intensity of their wounds?

PLENZLER: I do not.

AMANPOUR: Can you tell me a little bit about the suicide bomber? You say it was an individual, not somebody in a car?

PLENZLER: That's what we heard. Beyond that, I really can't speculate.

AMANPOUR: You know, we've been hearing since you've been here that this is a major worry, the irregulars, people with guns who are maybe slinking back and operating from the civilian population, and particularly the idea of suicide bomber.

PLENZLER: I don't know if worry is really the right word. We came into this fight knowing when you're dealing with a guy who has systematically raping and torturing his own people for as long as he has, we expected all the dirty tricks we've seen, and when we see schools full of explosives, we've had women and children pushed out in front of gunmen. You know, they've basically done everything they could to insight and try to cause as much collateral damage. In fact, yesterday, the Iraqis were shelling Saddam City, trying to kill Shiites. That was expected. So we take that in stride, and we accomplish our mission.

AMANPOUR: Today we spoke to a senior marine colonel who said that, in fact, they had plenty of information that there were even foreign nationals here whose main goal in life was to kill Americans. Have you received those warnings?

PLENZLER: Yes, we've received word there have been folks from other countries around here. But again, we're Marines so we're going to take all comers and we're going to accomplish the mission.

AMANPOUR: Tell me a little bit about the situation of law and order. You just told me that you found a lot of weapons caches today in certain areas, and certainly we've heard explosions throughout the last few hours of you blowing these things up. Where did you find. and what did you find?

PLENZLER: We find them all over. We find a lot. I mean, again, in two schools just about three blocks from here, we found, the report was, enough explosives to fill in one school seven seven-ton trucks, seven of these large military trucks you see out here. So I mean, clearly this is, again, the pattern that this regimen has been following, using mosques, schools, things like that to hide military weapons.

Basically, they've completely abandoned any again Geneva Convention, any law of war. That's why we have those laws, to help protect civilians when two armies clash. So we're seeing, unfortunately, basically Saddam's regimen is killing his own people by causing this collateral damage.

AMANPOUR: Well now, we're seeing that there are enormous amounts of looting going on, even day two of the Marines presence here. It's not just government buildings that have been looted, but now private buildings, offices, some embassies. There are fires in various parts of the cities that we've been able to see. I mean, people just basically having a field day, and some complaints now about why you, the only law and order in the town, isn't stepping in.

PLENZLER: I think what you're seeing is a transition -- we are in a flux period right now between when the regime has control and when the U.S. military has control. So I think that's the period we're going through right now. I have seen, you know, sporadic looting in different places as we were driving around the city today.

But again, we're here to help out, so this thing will calm and settle itself as time goes.

AMANPOUR: You expect it to do so, do you?

PLENZLER: I expect it to do so.

AMANPOUR: OK, captain, thank you very much, indeed, for joining us. I appreciate it. Thank you.

So, Wolf, the latest details from the divisional spokesman, who's saying it was four Marines who were wounded. We don't know how serious those wounds are and we don't know whether it may lead to death, but certainly there have been conflicting reports, and we're just getting it from the Captain Joe Plenzler that so far the initial reports are they were wounded by this one suicide bomber who had explosives tied to his person and rushed up to a checkpoint and detonated those -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Christiane, and he stressed, of course, these were preliminary initial reports that he's getting. Obviously, all of this is subject to change. What is clear is that there was a suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his body that clearly -- and he detonated, and there are wounded. We'll get some more information on that.

Christiane, you've just arrived in Baghdad. You've driven through the city to get to where you are now. Give us your immediate impressions of what life is like in the Iraqi capital right now?

AMANPOUR: Well, hard to give you a very broad impression, because we obviously have seen it through a two-hour drive from where we came initially today until the capital, and what we saw was a mixture. On the one hand, we saw people waving and giving us the thumbs up. We weren't with military. But they were just giving us the thumb's up and waving all the way down the route we took in the city and around the Marine checkpoints and Marine positions, of which there are very many right now, crowds of people looking friendly, talking to the Marines, and basically welcoming them.

On the other hand, at the same time, on the other side of the road, or right in front of us, we saw an enormous amount of looting. It's just a free for all right now, and people are taking whatever from wherever. We saw people almost, you know, having looting fatigue, sitting by the sidewalk with these trolleys that were on wheels piled high with just about any item of furniture or anything they could get, and in one house we passed we saw them actually unloading some of the loot they had taken. There were chairs, and furniture and all sorts of things. And this is very widespread. We're also hearing from other colleagues who have been touring the city today that hospitals have been looted. This is a very serious problem, because there have been civilian casualties, and they need medicine and they need help, and a lot of these hospitals have been looted, we're being told. Also embassies. Yesterday, most of the looting was in government buildings. We're told that it's spreading now to some private offices, certainly some embassies we heard about, and there's concern that this is going to get out of hand. People are concerned about it. BLITZER: Christiane Amanpour in now Baghdad for us. And welcome to Baghdad. Be careful over there. Be careful to all of our colleagues as well. We'll be checking back with you as soon as you get some more information on this suicide bombing, wounding four U.S. Marines. Preliminary reports. We're going get some more details, Christiane, and come back to you once you have a little bit more information. Our Christiane Amanpour is now in the Iraqi capital. We're going to continue to monitor this story.

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 10, 2003 - 12:36   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We're going interrupt Ari Fleischer's briefing. We're going to continue to monitor the Q&A. But I want to go back to Baghdad right now. There's a breaking story, a suicide bombing on the streets of Baghdad, not far from the Palestine Hotel. Our Walter Rodgers reporting here on CNN, four U.S. Marines seriously injured.
Our Christian Amanpour is now standing by. She's joining us live.

What else can you tell us, Christiane, about this suicide bombing?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you know, there's been some conflicting information when those reports first started to come out, so we have tracked down the spokesman for the 1st Marine Division, Captain Joe Plenzler who joins me here, and we will get the precise details as he knows them.

Captain, describe to me exactly what happened and the casualties.

CPT. JOE PLENZLER, MARINE SPOKESMAN: The word I have, the initial reports is approximately an hour ago, a man strapped with explosives approached a Marine checkpoint and detonated himself. Initial reports say there have been four wounded. I don't really have a lot of details beyond that right now.

AMANPOUR: Four wounded. You do not know of any deaths?

PLENZLER: That's the initial reports. And obviously, in the chaos of what happened in a situation like that, you know, that's the word we have right now.

AMANPOUR: And these Marines have been evacuated. Do you know the intensity of their wounds?

PLENZLER: I do not.

AMANPOUR: Can you tell me a little bit about the suicide bomber? You say it was an individual, not somebody in a car?

PLENZLER: That's what we heard. Beyond that, I really can't speculate.

AMANPOUR: You know, we've been hearing since you've been here that this is a major worry, the irregulars, people with guns who are maybe slinking back and operating from the civilian population, and particularly the idea of suicide bomber.

PLENZLER: I don't know if worry is really the right word. We came into this fight knowing when you're dealing with a guy who has systematically raping and torturing his own people for as long as he has, we expected all the dirty tricks we've seen, and when we see schools full of explosives, we've had women and children pushed out in front of gunmen. You know, they've basically done everything they could to insight and try to cause as much collateral damage. In fact, yesterday, the Iraqis were shelling Saddam City, trying to kill Shiites. That was expected. So we take that in stride, and we accomplish our mission.

AMANPOUR: Today we spoke to a senior marine colonel who said that, in fact, they had plenty of information that there were even foreign nationals here whose main goal in life was to kill Americans. Have you received those warnings?

PLENZLER: Yes, we've received word there have been folks from other countries around here. But again, we're Marines so we're going to take all comers and we're going to accomplish the mission.

AMANPOUR: Tell me a little bit about the situation of law and order. You just told me that you found a lot of weapons caches today in certain areas, and certainly we've heard explosions throughout the last few hours of you blowing these things up. Where did you find. and what did you find?

PLENZLER: We find them all over. We find a lot. I mean, again, in two schools just about three blocks from here, we found, the report was, enough explosives to fill in one school seven seven-ton trucks, seven of these large military trucks you see out here. So I mean, clearly this is, again, the pattern that this regimen has been following, using mosques, schools, things like that to hide military weapons.

Basically, they've completely abandoned any again Geneva Convention, any law of war. That's why we have those laws, to help protect civilians when two armies clash. So we're seeing, unfortunately, basically Saddam's regimen is killing his own people by causing this collateral damage.

AMANPOUR: Well now, we're seeing that there are enormous amounts of looting going on, even day two of the Marines presence here. It's not just government buildings that have been looted, but now private buildings, offices, some embassies. There are fires in various parts of the cities that we've been able to see. I mean, people just basically having a field day, and some complaints now about why you, the only law and order in the town, isn't stepping in.

PLENZLER: I think what you're seeing is a transition -- we are in a flux period right now between when the regime has control and when the U.S. military has control. So I think that's the period we're going through right now. I have seen, you know, sporadic looting in different places as we were driving around the city today.

But again, we're here to help out, so this thing will calm and settle itself as time goes.

AMANPOUR: You expect it to do so, do you?

PLENZLER: I expect it to do so.

AMANPOUR: OK, captain, thank you very much, indeed, for joining us. I appreciate it. Thank you.

So, Wolf, the latest details from the divisional spokesman, who's saying it was four Marines who were wounded. We don't know how serious those wounds are and we don't know whether it may lead to death, but certainly there have been conflicting reports, and we're just getting it from the Captain Joe Plenzler that so far the initial reports are they were wounded by this one suicide bomber who had explosives tied to his person and rushed up to a checkpoint and detonated those -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Christiane, and he stressed, of course, these were preliminary initial reports that he's getting. Obviously, all of this is subject to change. What is clear is that there was a suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his body that clearly -- and he detonated, and there are wounded. We'll get some more information on that.

Christiane, you've just arrived in Baghdad. You've driven through the city to get to where you are now. Give us your immediate impressions of what life is like in the Iraqi capital right now?

AMANPOUR: Well, hard to give you a very broad impression, because we obviously have seen it through a two-hour drive from where we came initially today until the capital, and what we saw was a mixture. On the one hand, we saw people waving and giving us the thumbs up. We weren't with military. But they were just giving us the thumb's up and waving all the way down the route we took in the city and around the Marine checkpoints and Marine positions, of which there are very many right now, crowds of people looking friendly, talking to the Marines, and basically welcoming them.

On the other hand, at the same time, on the other side of the road, or right in front of us, we saw an enormous amount of looting. It's just a free for all right now, and people are taking whatever from wherever. We saw people almost, you know, having looting fatigue, sitting by the sidewalk with these trolleys that were on wheels piled high with just about any item of furniture or anything they could get, and in one house we passed we saw them actually unloading some of the loot they had taken. There were chairs, and furniture and all sorts of things. And this is very widespread. We're also hearing from other colleagues who have been touring the city today that hospitals have been looted. This is a very serious problem, because there have been civilian casualties, and they need medicine and they need help, and a lot of these hospitals have been looted, we're being told. Also embassies. Yesterday, most of the looting was in government buildings. We're told that it's spreading now to some private offices, certainly some embassies we heard about, and there's concern that this is going to get out of hand. People are concerned about it. BLITZER: Christiane Amanpour in now Baghdad for us. And welcome to Baghdad. Be careful over there. Be careful to all of our colleagues as well. We'll be checking back with you as soon as you get some more information on this suicide bombing, wounding four U.S. Marines. Preliminary reports. We're going get some more details, Christiane, and come back to you once you have a little bit more information. Our Christiane Amanpour is now in the Iraqi capital. We're going to continue to monitor this story.

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