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Lawlessness Serious Problem in Mosul
Aired April 11, 2003 - 15:08 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: On the northern front, meanwhile, lawlessness is a serious problem today in Mosul. The latest major Iraqi city to fall to coalition forces. CNN's Jane Arraf watched events unfold in that area. She's joining us now live from Erbil -- Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, senior Kurdish officials are saying they're saddened by what they saw happening in Mosul today and they say it could have been prevented.
Now they're telling us that U.S. Special Forces, along with British forces did not go into Mosul until the late afternoon which was several hours after that looting began. And essentially when those Iraqi forces pulled out it left no one in charge. No police, no government, no soldiers anywhere.
It sparked a frenzy of looting. Almost every government building in that city, one of the biggest in Iraq, was looted. Burned or everything stripped from it with people carrying off anything they could possibly carry, including the doors.
Now that spread to places like the Central Bank of Iraq where people rushed out with armloads of money despite smoke pouring out of that building and soldiers firing warning shots.
Now essentially people were telling us they wanted to see the American soldiers, that they just were not there and they were wondering where they were. Now later in the afternoon, small groups of Special Forces did come in, but too late to prevent a lot of that chaos and mayhem that went on -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jane, on the whole, though it looks like a positive situation that's developing in the north. Especially the fact that those oil fires, those oil fields, so many had feared they could be torched. That has not happened.
ARRAF: That was definitely the priority, Wolf, of U.S. forces to secure oil fields. That would have been a major disaster militarily, economically and ecologically if those northern oil fields went up. That is almost half of Iraq's oil wealth there. And they did secure the oil fields, which was they're intent. But what they've done is left the city somewhat prone to chaos.
Now what those small numbers of U.S. forces, which are not meant to police cities by any means, that has allowed people in the city to basically go unchecked. Now what they're doing is trying to get revenge in some sense. We saw people in secret police headquarters and Ba'ath Party headquarters just bent on destruction. The rest of them were bent on just getting anything they could. They said we have been robbed by Saddam Hussein and we want something back, and they did manage to carry a lot of it away.
That is expected to continue. The situation may stabilize, but Mosul is a little bit difficult because if they do send in large numbers of Kurdish forces, but certainly not something that's going to make a large part of the population there, or the Turkish government or military feel comfortable at all -- Wolf.
BLITZER: CNN's Jane Arraf. She's in the northern part of Iraq. She's been covering the story for us from day one. Thanks very much, Jane, for that report.
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 11, 2003 - 15:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: On the northern front, meanwhile, lawlessness is a serious problem today in Mosul. The latest major Iraqi city to fall to coalition forces. CNN's Jane Arraf watched events unfold in that area. She's joining us now live from Erbil -- Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, senior Kurdish officials are saying they're saddened by what they saw happening in Mosul today and they say it could have been prevented.
Now they're telling us that U.S. Special Forces, along with British forces did not go into Mosul until the late afternoon which was several hours after that looting began. And essentially when those Iraqi forces pulled out it left no one in charge. No police, no government, no soldiers anywhere.
It sparked a frenzy of looting. Almost every government building in that city, one of the biggest in Iraq, was looted. Burned or everything stripped from it with people carrying off anything they could possibly carry, including the doors.
Now that spread to places like the Central Bank of Iraq where people rushed out with armloads of money despite smoke pouring out of that building and soldiers firing warning shots.
Now essentially people were telling us they wanted to see the American soldiers, that they just were not there and they were wondering where they were. Now later in the afternoon, small groups of Special Forces did come in, but too late to prevent a lot of that chaos and mayhem that went on -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jane, on the whole, though it looks like a positive situation that's developing in the north. Especially the fact that those oil fires, those oil fields, so many had feared they could be torched. That has not happened.
ARRAF: That was definitely the priority, Wolf, of U.S. forces to secure oil fields. That would have been a major disaster militarily, economically and ecologically if those northern oil fields went up. That is almost half of Iraq's oil wealth there. And they did secure the oil fields, which was they're intent. But what they've done is left the city somewhat prone to chaos.
Now what those small numbers of U.S. forces, which are not meant to police cities by any means, that has allowed people in the city to basically go unchecked. Now what they're doing is trying to get revenge in some sense. We saw people in secret police headquarters and Ba'ath Party headquarters just bent on destruction. The rest of them were bent on just getting anything they could. They said we have been robbed by Saddam Hussein and we want something back, and they did manage to carry a lot of it away.
That is expected to continue. The situation may stabilize, but Mosul is a little bit difficult because if they do send in large numbers of Kurdish forces, but certainly not something that's going to make a large part of the population there, or the Turkish government or military feel comfortable at all -- Wolf.
BLITZER: CNN's Jane Arraf. She's in the northern part of Iraq. She's been covering the story for us from day one. Thanks very much, Jane, for that report.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
