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Hunt for Saddam

Aired August 07, 2003 - 13:07   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: Now, let's bring you up to date on latest developments in Iraq. United States forces have captured four suspected resistance leaders in a series of predawn raid. But that is overshadowed by the car bomb blast outside the Jordanian embassy that killed at least 10 people and wounded dozens of others, and then there's this, two American soldiers died last night in a firefight in Baghdad.
All the while, the search for Saddam Hussein continues.

CNN's Jane Arraf standing by in Tikrit with more on that.

Hello, Jane.

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles. Quite a lot of gunfire going on here. Don't know if you can hear it, just across the Tigris River. We're at a military base where some of the focus for the hunt for Saddam, and the hunt for what they call high value targets and others, have been going on. As you mentioned, they have now four people among a series -- as part of a series of raids. One of them, a Fedayeen official. Two other ones, associates of Saddam's eldest son, Uday, who lies dead close to here.

All of that, of course, overshadowed, as you said, by that car bomb in what General Sanchez, top general in Baghdad, is calling the worst incident of terrorism against a soft target since the end of the war.

And it's certainly a wake-up call for Iraqis. That embassy, like many other embassies, is unprotected by American soldiers. The Americans have made clear they can't protect embassies, and in fact, have encouraged diplomats not to come. The upshot of that massive car bomb, 10 people killed, dozens wounded it seems.

Miles, this gunfire continuing. There are people gathered here to see just exactly what is going on across the river. We're going to try to get back to you on that .

But in the meantime, they emphasis here that they are continuing to round up suspects who they say might be responsible for these continuing attacks on American forces and on other people -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Jane, I'm going to assume you're safe if you can stand there for a few more moments for one quick question. The rounding up of these four implies an organized effort to focus attacks on the U.S. troops. How organized is it? ARRAF: It's extremely organized, in the sense that this is now what they say their focus is on. Now, we could listen to a little comment from the Major General Ray Odierno, who is the top commander here, and in fact, he said that actually we shouldn't see getting Saddam as the major focus. Let's just listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. RAY ODIERNO, CMDR., 4TH INFANTRY DIV.: I think he's on the run. He's moving every three to four hours. I think he is -- it's impossible for him to command and control what's going on. So what I'm after is the ones commanding and controlling what's going on against our forces and trying to subvert what we're trying to do in building up Iraq. That's really our focus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARRAF: In fact, the message coming from here is that they may not find Saddam anytime soon. They know he's on the run, but they don't know where. And people shouldn't focus on that. They should focus on the fact that they say they are rounding up these mid-level people, who are responsible for these attacks on American soldiers, and depriving Saddam of the infrastructure he needs to continue to hide -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Jane Arraf in Tikrit, thank you very much. Stay safe there, to you and all your crew.

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 August 7, 2003 - 13:07   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now, let's bring you up to date on latest developments in Iraq. United States forces have captured four suspected resistance leaders in a series of predawn raid. But that is overshadowed by the car bomb blast outside the Jordanian embassy that killed at least 10 people and wounded dozens of others, and then there's this, two American soldiers died last night in a firefight in Baghdad.
All the while, the search for Saddam Hussein continues.

CNN's Jane Arraf standing by in Tikrit with more on that.

Hello, Jane.

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles. Quite a lot of gunfire going on here. Don't know if you can hear it, just across the Tigris River. We're at a military base where some of the focus for the hunt for Saddam, and the hunt for what they call high value targets and others, have been going on. As you mentioned, they have now four people among a series -- as part of a series of raids. One of them, a Fedayeen official. Two other ones, associates of Saddam's eldest son, Uday, who lies dead close to here.

All of that, of course, overshadowed, as you said, by that car bomb in what General Sanchez, top general in Baghdad, is calling the worst incident of terrorism against a soft target since the end of the war.

And it's certainly a wake-up call for Iraqis. That embassy, like many other embassies, is unprotected by American soldiers. The Americans have made clear they can't protect embassies, and in fact, have encouraged diplomats not to come. The upshot of that massive car bomb, 10 people killed, dozens wounded it seems.

Miles, this gunfire continuing. There are people gathered here to see just exactly what is going on across the river. We're going to try to get back to you on that .

But in the meantime, they emphasis here that they are continuing to round up suspects who they say might be responsible for these continuing attacks on American forces and on other people -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Jane, I'm going to assume you're safe if you can stand there for a few more moments for one quick question. The rounding up of these four implies an organized effort to focus attacks on the U.S. troops. How organized is it? ARRAF: It's extremely organized, in the sense that this is now what they say their focus is on. Now, we could listen to a little comment from the Major General Ray Odierno, who is the top commander here, and in fact, he said that actually we shouldn't see getting Saddam as the major focus. Let's just listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. RAY ODIERNO, CMDR., 4TH INFANTRY DIV.: I think he's on the run. He's moving every three to four hours. I think he is -- it's impossible for him to command and control what's going on. So what I'm after is the ones commanding and controlling what's going on against our forces and trying to subvert what we're trying to do in building up Iraq. That's really our focus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARRAF: In fact, the message coming from here is that they may not find Saddam anytime soon. They know he's on the run, but they don't know where. And people shouldn't focus on that. They should focus on the fact that they say they are rounding up these mid-level people, who are responsible for these attacks on American soldiers, and depriving Saddam of the infrastructure he needs to continue to hide -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Jane Arraf in Tikrit, thank you very much. Stay safe there, to you and all your crew.

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