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Suicide Bombers Kill 30 in Iraq
Aired October 27, 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.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: And now we turn to a different sort of danger in Iraq. Suicide bombers killed about 30 people and wounded more than 200 today in attacks in Baghdad. Two U.S. soldiers are among the dead. The International Red Cross headquarters and Iraqi police stations were targeted on this, the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Here in Washington, President Bush condemned the attacks. Let's go to CNN's Kathleen Koch at the White House.
Kathleen, what is the White House saying about all this violence?
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Judy, it was a clearly somber President Bush who welcomed reporters into the Oval Office this morning. He had been meeting there with U.S. defense officials, security officials, and most importantly, Paul Bremer, who is the U.S. civil administrator in Iraq.
That for a progress update. But clearly, the talk this morning was largely about security, about the bombings, about who was behind them, and about what, if anything, the U.S. can do to stop these from happening in the future.
President Bush called those responsible for the deadly attacks this morning terrorists, killers. He said they hate freedom but they love terror, and that they are bent on creating fear and chaos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The best way to describe the people who are conducting these attacks are cold-blooded killers, terrorists. That's all they are. They're terrorists.
And the best way to find them is to work with the Iraqi people to ferret them out and go get them. And that's exactly what we discussed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: As to what can be done to prevent such attacks, Ambassador Bremer will be meeting at the Pentagon in the coming days with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Meyers, and others, to talk strategy.
A couple of the steps that came up today, hardening U.S. targets, coalition targets in Iraq so that they are less vulnerable; improving intelligence gathering to stop such attacks before they start. And also, very important, persuading Iraq's neighbors to do more, to do what they can to help harden up their borders to prevent insurgents from coming across and causing such attacks in the future -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: All right. Kathleen Koch reporting for us on a rainy day here in Washington at the White House. Kathleen, thank you very much.
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 October 27, 2003 - 15:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: And now we turn to a different sort of danger in Iraq. Suicide bombers killed about 30 people and wounded more than 200 today in attacks in Baghdad. Two U.S. soldiers are among the dead. The International Red Cross headquarters and Iraqi police stations were targeted on this, the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Here in Washington, President Bush condemned the attacks. Let's go to CNN's Kathleen Koch at the White House.
Kathleen, what is the White House saying about all this violence?
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Judy, it was a clearly somber President Bush who welcomed reporters into the Oval Office this morning. He had been meeting there with U.S. defense officials, security officials, and most importantly, Paul Bremer, who is the U.S. civil administrator in Iraq.
That for a progress update. But clearly, the talk this morning was largely about security, about the bombings, about who was behind them, and about what, if anything, the U.S. can do to stop these from happening in the future.
President Bush called those responsible for the deadly attacks this morning terrorists, killers. He said they hate freedom but they love terror, and that they are bent on creating fear and chaos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The best way to describe the people who are conducting these attacks are cold-blooded killers, terrorists. That's all they are. They're terrorists.
And the best way to find them is to work with the Iraqi people to ferret them out and go get them. And that's exactly what we discussed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: As to what can be done to prevent such attacks, Ambassador Bremer will be meeting at the Pentagon in the coming days with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Meyers, and others, to talk strategy.
A couple of the steps that came up today, hardening U.S. targets, coalition targets in Iraq so that they are less vulnerable; improving intelligence gathering to stop such attacks before they start. And also, very important, persuading Iraq's neighbors to do more, to do what they can to help harden up their borders to prevent insurgents from coming across and causing such attacks in the future -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: All right. Kathleen Koch reporting for us on a rainy day here in Washington at the White House. Kathleen, thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
