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Soldiers Dead in Mosul Attack
Aired November 24, 2003 - 14:00 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, ANCHOR: Up first this hour, murder and mayhem in Mosul.
A new day brings a new attack on U.S. forces and new information on a worse attack yesterday. Central Command now says the G.I.s who were shot to death inside a civilian car were probably robbed but not slashed or bludgeoned, as early reports suggested.
In today's attack, a U.S. soldier was wounded by a small arms fire and/or an improvised bomb.
Let's go to CNN's Jane Arraf. She joins us on the line right now from Mosul -- Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, it's taken awhile for the details of this story to come out, understandably.
Now when this first happened in Mosul yesterday, in broad daylight, soldiers from the 101st Airborne, traveling on what should have been a routine trip, one compound to another, in a civilian vehicle, were shot and that was the first word that was heard from the military.
Now it's taken almost 24 hours but they are now saying, as you noted, that the bodies were in fact, after they were shot, dragged from the vehicle and looted. It was word that we got pretty quickly on the streets. Witnesses there painted a pretty gruesome picture for us.
Now as the military arrived to cordon off the area and prevent what they most fear, perhaps, what they called a Somalia style scene, witnesses there certainly in no mood to talk to the military but they did talk a little bit to us.
And they described a swarm of people, children and adults, swarming over the vehicle, which had been disabled by yet another attacker, to steal everything they could. Watches, hand grenades, everything.
Understandably, something so horrifying the military doesn't really want to talk about it much, but the soldiers certainly are talking it among themselves -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Jane, why were they in a civilian vehicle?
ARRAF: They often use them, Miles, especially here in Mosul, which ironically had been quite stable. Now the military here has by all accounts, and we've seen this develop the past few months. We've been in and out of this city. They've gotten along relatively well with the people here. They've pumped money into the economy. They've been on foot patrols. They've actually gotten out into the community.
It's not one of those places where they go around in armored cars all the time. They do use civilian vehicles. Part of that may be, indeed, there is a shortage of other vehicles, but it's quite routine here to see uniformed soldiers in white civilian vehicles.
And that's part of the problem, Miles. These type of vehicles are identified with the military. And in other parts of the country, they have become an automatic target. That may be something that's beginning to happen here, as well -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: And despite the fact that they were in a civilian vehicle, as far as we know were they in full combat regalia: Kevlar, helmet and weaponry?
ARRAF: It depends on the areas they're traveling through. It depends often what threat level they perceive. But generally when you see soldiers out here in the streets, they are wearing the Kevlar. However the Kevlar certainly doesn't protect against a lot of things.
One of the soldiers was reported by witnesses to have been shot in the neck, for instance. And when you're in a vehicle that is not armored, you're really at risk of gunshots.
Now again, this is a city that had been quite stable. But it's a very complicated city. You'll remember it's the place where they found Saddam's sons. They had been hiding out here, thinking they were safe. And part of the reason they thought they were safe is there's still quite a lot of support for the Ba'ath Party, quite a lot of support for Saddam himself probably.
But a difficult, complicated, very interesting ethnic mix. But as we said, it had been one of the success stories, but recently, a huge spike in attacks -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Jane Arraf on the line with us from Mosul. Stay safe there.
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 November 24, 2003 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, ANCHOR: Up first this hour, murder and mayhem in Mosul.
A new day brings a new attack on U.S. forces and new information on a worse attack yesterday. Central Command now says the G.I.s who were shot to death inside a civilian car were probably robbed but not slashed or bludgeoned, as early reports suggested.
In today's attack, a U.S. soldier was wounded by a small arms fire and/or an improvised bomb.
Let's go to CNN's Jane Arraf. She joins us on the line right now from Mosul -- Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, it's taken awhile for the details of this story to come out, understandably.
Now when this first happened in Mosul yesterday, in broad daylight, soldiers from the 101st Airborne, traveling on what should have been a routine trip, one compound to another, in a civilian vehicle, were shot and that was the first word that was heard from the military.
Now it's taken almost 24 hours but they are now saying, as you noted, that the bodies were in fact, after they were shot, dragged from the vehicle and looted. It was word that we got pretty quickly on the streets. Witnesses there painted a pretty gruesome picture for us.
Now as the military arrived to cordon off the area and prevent what they most fear, perhaps, what they called a Somalia style scene, witnesses there certainly in no mood to talk to the military but they did talk a little bit to us.
And they described a swarm of people, children and adults, swarming over the vehicle, which had been disabled by yet another attacker, to steal everything they could. Watches, hand grenades, everything.
Understandably, something so horrifying the military doesn't really want to talk about it much, but the soldiers certainly are talking it among themselves -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Jane, why were they in a civilian vehicle?
ARRAF: They often use them, Miles, especially here in Mosul, which ironically had been quite stable. Now the military here has by all accounts, and we've seen this develop the past few months. We've been in and out of this city. They've gotten along relatively well with the people here. They've pumped money into the economy. They've been on foot patrols. They've actually gotten out into the community.
It's not one of those places where they go around in armored cars all the time. They do use civilian vehicles. Part of that may be, indeed, there is a shortage of other vehicles, but it's quite routine here to see uniformed soldiers in white civilian vehicles.
And that's part of the problem, Miles. These type of vehicles are identified with the military. And in other parts of the country, they have become an automatic target. That may be something that's beginning to happen here, as well -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: And despite the fact that they were in a civilian vehicle, as far as we know were they in full combat regalia: Kevlar, helmet and weaponry?
ARRAF: It depends on the areas they're traveling through. It depends often what threat level they perceive. But generally when you see soldiers out here in the streets, they are wearing the Kevlar. However the Kevlar certainly doesn't protect against a lot of things.
One of the soldiers was reported by witnesses to have been shot in the neck, for instance. And when you're in a vehicle that is not armored, you're really at risk of gunshots.
Now again, this is a city that had been quite stable. But it's a very complicated city. You'll remember it's the place where they found Saddam's sons. They had been hiding out here, thinking they were safe. And part of the reason they thought they were safe is there's still quite a lot of support for the Ba'ath Party, quite a lot of support for Saddam himself probably.
But a difficult, complicated, very interesting ethnic mix. But as we said, it had been one of the success stories, but recently, a huge spike in attacks -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Jane Arraf on the line with us from Mosul. Stay safe there.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
