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Ambulance Attack Said to Show "No Regard For Life"
Aired June 19, 2003 - 14:21 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: There's word today of a grim assessment from U.S. forces in Baghdad after a clearly marked ambulance came under grenade attack today. Deadly results coming out of that.
A U.S. Army captain complained that coalition's enemies have no regard for human life.
Let's get the latest now from CNN's Barbara Starr at the Pentagon.
It's hard to recall an incident where an ambulance has been singled out. You can think of all the recent conflicts that we've talked about -- Kosovo, you name it -- Somalia. An ambulance does set a new level, doesn't it?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly in this conflict it does, Miles.
You saw some of the aftermath pictures there. This incident happening earlier today, south of Baghdad. One U.S. soldier killed, two wounded, as they were transporting another wounded man, unrelated incident, in a military ambulance. They came under attack by what is believed to be rocket propelled grenades and small arms fire. Again, some of the aftermath there of that incident.
Now, the question that's being asked here at the Pentagon is whether or not these continuing attacks against U.S. forces may be somehow organized. Is somebody financing them? Is somebody backing them? Is there some organized targeting campaign or are these random killings?
Looking at the statistics, that tells a good piece of the story. Now since major combat ended in early May, according to President Bush, now some 53 soldiers have died since then, 17 of them by hostile action.
Yesterday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged that there is some debate in the administration about whether this is an organized effort by opposition groups. Here's some of what else he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: You've got to remember that if Washington, D.C. were the size of Baghdad, we would be having something like 215 murders a month and it is -- there is going to be violence in a big city. There's 5.5 million people. For the most part, it's in that area I described. That's where the active -- and it tends not to be at this stage, random killings.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: Now what the secretary is talking about there is the area around Baghdad, west of Baghdad, the area of Fallujah that we have heard so much about, and a bit north of the city. And what he said was that the U.S. military would continue these focused raids that we have seen over the last several days, Operation Desert Scorpion and other missions to go in, target the opposition groups, arrest them, seize their weapons and try and put a stop to what appears to be very much continuing violence against U.S. soldiers in Iraq -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Appreciate it.
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 19, 2003 - 14:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: There's word today of a grim assessment from U.S. forces in Baghdad after a clearly marked ambulance came under grenade attack today. Deadly results coming out of that.
A U.S. Army captain complained that coalition's enemies have no regard for human life.
Let's get the latest now from CNN's Barbara Starr at the Pentagon.
It's hard to recall an incident where an ambulance has been singled out. You can think of all the recent conflicts that we've talked about -- Kosovo, you name it -- Somalia. An ambulance does set a new level, doesn't it?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly in this conflict it does, Miles.
You saw some of the aftermath pictures there. This incident happening earlier today, south of Baghdad. One U.S. soldier killed, two wounded, as they were transporting another wounded man, unrelated incident, in a military ambulance. They came under attack by what is believed to be rocket propelled grenades and small arms fire. Again, some of the aftermath there of that incident.
Now, the question that's being asked here at the Pentagon is whether or not these continuing attacks against U.S. forces may be somehow organized. Is somebody financing them? Is somebody backing them? Is there some organized targeting campaign or are these random killings?
Looking at the statistics, that tells a good piece of the story. Now since major combat ended in early May, according to President Bush, now some 53 soldiers have died since then, 17 of them by hostile action.
Yesterday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged that there is some debate in the administration about whether this is an organized effort by opposition groups. Here's some of what else he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: You've got to remember that if Washington, D.C. were the size of Baghdad, we would be having something like 215 murders a month and it is -- there is going to be violence in a big city. There's 5.5 million people. For the most part, it's in that area I described. That's where the active -- and it tends not to be at this stage, random killings.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: Now what the secretary is talking about there is the area around Baghdad, west of Baghdad, the area of Fallujah that we have heard so much about, and a bit north of the city. And what he said was that the U.S. military would continue these focused raids that we have seen over the last several days, Operation Desert Scorpion and other missions to go in, target the opposition groups, arrest them, seize their weapons and try and put a stop to what appears to be very much continuing violence against U.S. soldiers in Iraq -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
