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U.S. Troops Launch Counter-Offensive in Iraq
Aired June 13, 2003 - 15:01 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.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Since the end of major combat operations in Iraq, Americans have been dying there almost every day in a nearly constant barrage of hit and run assaults. But U.S. forces have stepped up their counteroffensive. Today, Central Command reports that 27 attackers were killed in Balad, north of Baghdad, after they ambushed U.S. troops.
American forces conducted a wide-ranging mission in the Balad area earlier this week, capturing almost 400 suspected Iraqi fighters still loyal to Saddam Hussein. And they launched a large-scale attack on what U.S. military officials are calling a terrorist training camp west of Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. GEN. DAVID MCKIERNAN, CMDR. U.S. GROUND FORCES: It was a camp area that was confirmed with bad guys, and specifically who the bad guys are will be determined as we exploit the site. We struck it very lethally and we're exploiting whatever intelligence value we can get from that site for future operations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WOODRUFF: In addition, U.S. forces say they captured 74 suspected al Qaeda sympathizers after a raid in northern Iraq yesterday.
Well, Iraqi citizens are facing different kinds of threats: poverty, lawlessness, filth and fear. CNN's Ben Wedeman looks at the grim situation in what used to be Saddam City.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): It's hot, it's sweaty, it's dirty, it's dusty. It's another day in the Sadr City, a vast Baghdad slum. On this day, men, and mostly women, wait for hours in the withering summer heat to buy a canister of cooking gas at 25 cents a piece. Few here can afford the $3 black market canisters being sold on the street.
American troops try to maintain control and pitch in where they can. But out of this chaos, it is difficult to bring order. For the lucky ones who's wait wasn't in vain, the long and noisy roll home.
Until two months ago, Sadr City was known as Saddam City. When the old dictator fell, the city's predominantly Shiite Muslim inhabitants renamed their suburb after a popular Shiite cleric widely believed to have been assassinated by Saddam's notoriously secret police. Long opponents of the Ba'athist regime, the people of Sadr City feel the new era shows no signs of becoming a golden age.
"Of course there's been an improvement," says taxi driver Mohammed (ph). "There's no more oppression. But that's the only change. Everything else is worse."
Large parts of Sadr City are flooded with sewage and waste water. The only way to get around it is to wade through it. The streets, strewn with rubbish. A local religious organization is paying these men the equivalent of around $2 a day to pile up the trash. But there's only enough money to pay a few people to do it, and lots of garbage.
(on camera): Sadr City is poor. It has always been poor. And there is probably very little the Americans can do to change that.
(voice-over): American officials say one of their top priorities is to create jobs. Many here thought the Americans could solve all problems, big and small. Now they're disappointed.
"They're just driving around and around on their patrols," says this man. "They don't give any humanitarian aid, nothing."
Some feel it's simply a failure to communicate. "If the Americans could speak Arabic like you, if they could just speak with us, we would love them," says this man. Love could help, but cooking gas and clean streets would be more appreciated.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Sadr City, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WOODRUFF: A tough, tough time they are still having.
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 June 13, 2003 - 15:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Since the end of major combat operations in Iraq, Americans have been dying there almost every day in a nearly constant barrage of hit and run assaults. But U.S. forces have stepped up their counteroffensive. Today, Central Command reports that 27 attackers were killed in Balad, north of Baghdad, after they ambushed U.S. troops.
American forces conducted a wide-ranging mission in the Balad area earlier this week, capturing almost 400 suspected Iraqi fighters still loyal to Saddam Hussein. And they launched a large-scale attack on what U.S. military officials are calling a terrorist training camp west of Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. GEN. DAVID MCKIERNAN, CMDR. U.S. GROUND FORCES: It was a camp area that was confirmed with bad guys, and specifically who the bad guys are will be determined as we exploit the site. We struck it very lethally and we're exploiting whatever intelligence value we can get from that site for future operations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WOODRUFF: In addition, U.S. forces say they captured 74 suspected al Qaeda sympathizers after a raid in northern Iraq yesterday.
Well, Iraqi citizens are facing different kinds of threats: poverty, lawlessness, filth and fear. CNN's Ben Wedeman looks at the grim situation in what used to be Saddam City.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): It's hot, it's sweaty, it's dirty, it's dusty. It's another day in the Sadr City, a vast Baghdad slum. On this day, men, and mostly women, wait for hours in the withering summer heat to buy a canister of cooking gas at 25 cents a piece. Few here can afford the $3 black market canisters being sold on the street.
American troops try to maintain control and pitch in where they can. But out of this chaos, it is difficult to bring order. For the lucky ones who's wait wasn't in vain, the long and noisy roll home.
Until two months ago, Sadr City was known as Saddam City. When the old dictator fell, the city's predominantly Shiite Muslim inhabitants renamed their suburb after a popular Shiite cleric widely believed to have been assassinated by Saddam's notoriously secret police. Long opponents of the Ba'athist regime, the people of Sadr City feel the new era shows no signs of becoming a golden age.
"Of course there's been an improvement," says taxi driver Mohammed (ph). "There's no more oppression. But that's the only change. Everything else is worse."
Large parts of Sadr City are flooded with sewage and waste water. The only way to get around it is to wade through it. The streets, strewn with rubbish. A local religious organization is paying these men the equivalent of around $2 a day to pile up the trash. But there's only enough money to pay a few people to do it, and lots of garbage.
(on camera): Sadr City is poor. It has always been poor. And there is probably very little the Americans can do to change that.
(voice-over): American officials say one of their top priorities is to create jobs. Many here thought the Americans could solve all problems, big and small. Now they're disappointed.
"They're just driving around and around on their patrols," says this man. "They don't give any humanitarian aid, nothing."
Some feel it's simply a failure to communicate. "If the Americans could speak Arabic like you, if they could just speak with us, we would love them," says this man. Love could help, but cooking gas and clean streets would be more appreciated.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Sadr City, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WOODRUFF: A tough, tough time they are still having.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
