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American Morning

Deadly Day in Middle East

Aired November 21, 2002 - 09:03   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: The terror group Hamas is now claiming responsibility for that deadly suicide blast in Jerusalem this morning. It happened on a very crowded commuter bus during morning rush hour, 11 people killed, dozens more wounded, many of them children. '
And Jerrold Kessel joins us now from the scene of that disaster.

Good morning, Jerrold.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

And it is a fact now that Hamas claiming responsibility in a leaflet issued in Gaza, saying they'll continue attack to Israelis, revenge for attacks on their leaders, and to bring Israel to its knees, so says Hamas in the leaflet.

Israeli forces have gone into a village south of Bethlehem and have picked up the brother and the cousin of the man who they say was responsible, the suicide bomber aboard bus number 20 this morning, who blew himself up at 7:20 a.m. as the bus approached the bus stop, a loud explosion, the bomber killing 11 people, wounding some 50. The explosion was so loud that it rocked the neighboring tenements in the low-income neighborhood, Curate Manacham (ph). And among them, a woman who told us we spoke to afterwards said she was almost blown out of the bed by the force of the blast and the sound, and she came down to see what was happening. We spoke to her afterwards. She was very distraught, but I asked her whether she felt that at any time soon these bombings would stop.

Here was her reply:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIMCHA COHEN, BOMBING WITNESS: I pray every day, every night every single day. I say, God, put in our heart the love. Start to love each other!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KESSEL: One sentiment there, but there's also a lot of anger with the anguish, as people now lighting candles, saying prayers at that bus stop, trying to get back to normal, as Israelis again try to factor into their ordinary lives another suicide bombing, which has taken 11 lives, and wounded 50 other people, many of them, children, high school children, on their way to school.

ZAHN: Jerrold, in the wake of these attacks, there's traditionally been some sort of a retaliation on the Israelis part.

What do you think might be considered this time?

KESSEL: Well, the Israeli police have said that they identified the man as a 26-year-old Palestinian who was resident in Bethlehem. As I've reported, the forces have gone into a village south of Bethlehem, where apparently he had hailed from before going into Bethlehem sometime back. We don't know when. Israeli -- handing it back to the Palestinian Authority Police back in August. It could be they'll go back in there to reassert control. That's certainly one option that's possible, but a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that the Israeli reaction won't go beyond the parameters of the way Israel has been combating the terrorism in the last several of months; to wit, that they will continue operations within the Palestinian areas and in Palestinian towns to try to stop the bombers at source.

But if anybody imagines perhaps now that some Israelis would still like to do, go Yasser Arafat himself, that's probably, probably very unlikely.

ZAHN: Jerrold Kessel, thanks, a live update. Looking at those pictures is painful.

More now on the violent day in the Middle East. Two U.S. soldiers are being treated for serious injuries after a shooting there this morning.

Kevin Sites has been following the story all day long. He joins us now live by videophone from Kuwait City.

Kevin, what do you have?

KEVIN SITES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, at 10:30 a.m. this morning, two U.S. soldiers were shot, one in the face, one in the shoulder, as they traveled on the road from camp Doha -- that's the U.S. military base -- to a town called Arafshon (ph). Basically, this morning, they were saying it was an unknown assailant. Now, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior says that the man that shot the two soldiers a Kuwaiti policeman. A junior level that then fled to Saudi Arabia. We don't have anymore details than that on the assailant, no name, no political identification. Just at this point, he was a Kuwaiti policeman of a junior level.

And those soldiers had it together enough after they were shot, they drove to a town where they were air lifted to a Kuwaiti military hospital. Their wounds are serious, but not life threatening at this point. This whole thing just raises the tension level here in Kuwait. This is the fifth in a string of incidents that has happened here, the most serious on October 8th when a U.S. Marine was killed and another seriously wounded when they were shot by two that were said to be Al Qaeda sympathizers that had trained in Afghanistan.

U.S. military is here actually performing Operation Desert Spring, which is a series of military exercise with the Kuwaiti military. It's said to be a defensive posture, but they're using 115 mm howitzers in the desert. They have APCs. They could very well be used in offensive operations against Iraq, if called to do so.

ZAHN: Kevin Sites, thanks so much for the update. 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 - 09:03   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The terror group Hamas is now claiming responsibility for that deadly suicide blast in Jerusalem this morning. It happened on a very crowded commuter bus during morning rush hour, 11 people killed, dozens more wounded, many of them children. '
And Jerrold Kessel joins us now from the scene of that disaster.

Good morning, Jerrold.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

And it is a fact now that Hamas claiming responsibility in a leaflet issued in Gaza, saying they'll continue attack to Israelis, revenge for attacks on their leaders, and to bring Israel to its knees, so says Hamas in the leaflet.

Israeli forces have gone into a village south of Bethlehem and have picked up the brother and the cousin of the man who they say was responsible, the suicide bomber aboard bus number 20 this morning, who blew himself up at 7:20 a.m. as the bus approached the bus stop, a loud explosion, the bomber killing 11 people, wounding some 50. The explosion was so loud that it rocked the neighboring tenements in the low-income neighborhood, Curate Manacham (ph). And among them, a woman who told us we spoke to afterwards said she was almost blown out of the bed by the force of the blast and the sound, and she came down to see what was happening. We spoke to her afterwards. She was very distraught, but I asked her whether she felt that at any time soon these bombings would stop.

Here was her reply:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIMCHA COHEN, BOMBING WITNESS: I pray every day, every night every single day. I say, God, put in our heart the love. Start to love each other!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KESSEL: One sentiment there, but there's also a lot of anger with the anguish, as people now lighting candles, saying prayers at that bus stop, trying to get back to normal, as Israelis again try to factor into their ordinary lives another suicide bombing, which has taken 11 lives, and wounded 50 other people, many of them, children, high school children, on their way to school.

ZAHN: Jerrold, in the wake of these attacks, there's traditionally been some sort of a retaliation on the Israelis part.

What do you think might be considered this time?

KESSEL: Well, the Israeli police have said that they identified the man as a 26-year-old Palestinian who was resident in Bethlehem. As I've reported, the forces have gone into a village south of Bethlehem, where apparently he had hailed from before going into Bethlehem sometime back. We don't know when. Israeli -- handing it back to the Palestinian Authority Police back in August. It could be they'll go back in there to reassert control. That's certainly one option that's possible, but a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that the Israeli reaction won't go beyond the parameters of the way Israel has been combating the terrorism in the last several of months; to wit, that they will continue operations within the Palestinian areas and in Palestinian towns to try to stop the bombers at source.

But if anybody imagines perhaps now that some Israelis would still like to do, go Yasser Arafat himself, that's probably, probably very unlikely.

ZAHN: Jerrold Kessel, thanks, a live update. Looking at those pictures is painful.

More now on the violent day in the Middle East. Two U.S. soldiers are being treated for serious injuries after a shooting there this morning.

Kevin Sites has been following the story all day long. He joins us now live by videophone from Kuwait City.

Kevin, what do you have?

KEVIN SITES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, at 10:30 a.m. this morning, two U.S. soldiers were shot, one in the face, one in the shoulder, as they traveled on the road from camp Doha -- that's the U.S. military base -- to a town called Arafshon (ph). Basically, this morning, they were saying it was an unknown assailant. Now, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior says that the man that shot the two soldiers a Kuwaiti policeman. A junior level that then fled to Saudi Arabia. We don't have anymore details than that on the assailant, no name, no political identification. Just at this point, he was a Kuwaiti policeman of a junior level.

And those soldiers had it together enough after they were shot, they drove to a town where they were air lifted to a Kuwaiti military hospital. Their wounds are serious, but not life threatening at this point. This whole thing just raises the tension level here in Kuwait. This is the fifth in a string of incidents that has happened here, the most serious on October 8th when a U.S. Marine was killed and another seriously wounded when they were shot by two that were said to be Al Qaeda sympathizers that had trained in Afghanistan.

U.S. military is here actually performing Operation Desert Spring, which is a series of military exercise with the Kuwaiti military. It's said to be a defensive posture, but they're using 115 mm howitzers in the desert. They have APCs. They could very well be used in offensive operations against Iraq, if called to do so.

ZAHN: Kevin Sites, thanks so much for the update. 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