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American Morning
Surge of Mideast Violence
Aired November 21, 2002 - 08:03 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: More now on the surge of Middle East violence.
First, we go to Kuwait. Two U.S. soldiers are being treated for serious injuries after a shooting there this morning on a highway, and we're getting our first reports as to exactly what might have happened.
Let's turn to Kevin Sites, who joins us live by video phone from Kuwait City -- good morning, Kevin.
KEVIN SITES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
At 10:30 a.m. this morning, two U.S. soldiers traveling on the road from Camp Doha to Erveshan (ph), that's a town about 45 miles south here of Kuwait City, were shot and seriously wounded. One was shot in the face. The other was actually shot in the shoulder. And they had, they were actually tough enough to drive themselves actually to Erveshan and to a hospital there where they were airlifted to a military hospital here in Kuwait City.
Now, earlier, the reports were that this was an unknown assailant. Now we're hearing parents on Reuters that are attributed to senior Kuwaiti officials, that the actual shooter in this incident was a Kuwaiti policeman, and this is unconfirmed at this point. But a Kuwaiti policeman with a history of mental health problems.
Now, if that is true, that would certainly possibly bring down the tension here a few notches. It's unrelated to the other shooting that happened here on October 8, where one U.S. Marine was killed and another seriously wounded as they were doing training exercises on an island off the Kuwaiti coast. So if that's true -- and we have not confirmed these reports yet -- it may bring down the tension here, although Kuwaiti officials are certainly embarrassed by the incident.
There has been a string of shootings here, a string of incidents, rather, here, that have certainly made the force protection of U.S. forces here more important. And in this particular incident there will be an investigation going on, both by Kuwaiti officials and U.S. officials.
ZAHN: Kevin Sites, thanks for that live update.
We 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 November 21, 2002 - 08:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: More now on the surge of Middle East violence.
First, we go to Kuwait. Two U.S. soldiers are being treated for serious injuries after a shooting there this morning on a highway, and we're getting our first reports as to exactly what might have happened.
Let's turn to Kevin Sites, who joins us live by video phone from Kuwait City -- good morning, Kevin.
KEVIN SITES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
At 10:30 a.m. this morning, two U.S. soldiers traveling on the road from Camp Doha to Erveshan (ph), that's a town about 45 miles south here of Kuwait City, were shot and seriously wounded. One was shot in the face. The other was actually shot in the shoulder. And they had, they were actually tough enough to drive themselves actually to Erveshan and to a hospital there where they were airlifted to a military hospital here in Kuwait City.
Now, earlier, the reports were that this was an unknown assailant. Now we're hearing parents on Reuters that are attributed to senior Kuwaiti officials, that the actual shooter in this incident was a Kuwaiti policeman, and this is unconfirmed at this point. But a Kuwaiti policeman with a history of mental health problems.
Now, if that is true, that would certainly possibly bring down the tension here a few notches. It's unrelated to the other shooting that happened here on October 8, where one U.S. Marine was killed and another seriously wounded as they were doing training exercises on an island off the Kuwaiti coast. So if that's true -- and we have not confirmed these reports yet -- it may bring down the tension here, although Kuwaiti officials are certainly embarrassed by the incident.
There has been a string of shootings here, a string of incidents, rather, here, that have certainly made the force protection of U.S. forces here more important. And in this particular incident there will be an investigation going on, both by Kuwaiti officials and U.S. officials.
ZAHN: Kevin Sites, thanks for that live update.
We 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
