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American Morning

Reports U.S. Troops Fired on Demonstrating Iraqis

Aired April 29, 2003 - 07:03   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: More now on Iraq. We want to get to Fallujah, the town west of Baghdad, about 30, maybe 40 miles west of the capital city.
Karl Penhaul on the telephone watching and trying to pick up more on the developments there.

Karl -- what have you learned about this shooting?

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, there was a demonstration last night after dark. Around 200-250 members of the local population walked to a school, where soldiers of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division have been camped out for the last 10 days. The locals were asking the soldiers to leave. They wanted their youngsters and the teachers to go back to school and restart classes there.

After that, it becomes very unclear exactly what did happen.

I spoke to one local resident. He lost a cousin in the shooting. His brother was also seriously wounded and is still in the hospital. He said that the soldiers started firing. He said that 12 civilians were killed and up to 50 were wounded.

I've also talked to soldiers who were there during the incident. They say they came under fire first, that some of the crowd were chanting pro-Saddam Hussein slogans, and opened fire on the soldiers with AK-47s. The soldiers then say they responded, targeting specific members in the crowd, shooting some of them dead, possibly injuring others.

They have no concrete count on how many people they may have shot or may have wounded. The locals there, as I say, say they this morning have buried 12 of their number.

HEMMER: Karl Penhaul by way of telephone in Fallujah.

East now to Baghdad and Rym Brahimi, who is picking up things from there as well.

Rym -- what are you learning?

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, what we hear from the U.S. Central Command based in Qatar is that they're saying that the American soldiers fired in response to fire that was coming from the Iraqis. I expect we'll hear more details on that a little later.

Meanwhile, the deputy of the U.S. ground forces here in Iraq is saying that they will boost the number of forces here in the Iraqi capital in the next 7 to 10 days by up to 4,000 infantrymen and military policemen. This, they're hoping, is going to help maybe put a halt to the amount of violence, the insecurity, the looting that's been taking place in Baghdad ever since the capital fell into the hands of the U.S. forces.

Now, of course, a lot of people here are still complaining about the lack of security, so they're hoping that this is going to help somehow. And there is still some sporadic fighting in certain areas of the capital.

Another development, Bill, here is, of course, the arrest of the oil minister. He surrendered himself to U.S. forces, and he is someone that probably will have lot to say if he's willing to talk. Amir Rashid was the oil minister for some six years, until the beginning of the war. He would obviously have information on oil contracts and whether or not these oil contracts and the oil smuggling that took place was used, as it's believed, to pay for weapons and rebuilding Iraq's weapons programs.

But before that, he was also in charge of long-range missiles and missiles programs. So, again, a lot of things that the U.S. will probably be wanting to ask him.

And finally, he is the husband of Dr. Rihab Taha, also known as "Dr. Germ," who had been in charge previously of Iraq's biological weapons program -- Bill.

HEMMER: Rym, back to this town of Fallujah. I imagine most Americans have not heard of this town just yet. You've been in Baghdad and Iraq for so many months. What can you tell us about the makeup of the town, and what you might know about the U.S. military presence there prior to this incident?

BRAHIMI: Well, it's a small town to the west of Baghdad. It takes about 45 minutes to 50 minutes to drive from the Iraqi capital to there.

It's an interesting town, because it's actually a place that has been bombed before. It was bombed in '91, because that's where there were a couple of -- two or three sites, actually, that were related to Iraq's chemical weapons program at very vast sites around there.

And then, some of them were reconverted into pesticide factories, and so a lot of people would have been working in town from Fallujah to there.

As far as the U.S. presence there, well, I understand that there was a lot of unhappiness, that there is a lot of anger and a lot of tension right now. There was already a lot of anger at the fact that U.S. troops had taken over a school at a time when residents there said and were called on by their religious clerics, if you will, to go back to work and go back to school -- Bill.

HEMMER: Rym Brahimi in Baghdad.

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 April 29, 2003 - 07:03   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: More now on Iraq. We want to get to Fallujah, the town west of Baghdad, about 30, maybe 40 miles west of the capital city.
Karl Penhaul on the telephone watching and trying to pick up more on the developments there.

Karl -- what have you learned about this shooting?

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, there was a demonstration last night after dark. Around 200-250 members of the local population walked to a school, where soldiers of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division have been camped out for the last 10 days. The locals were asking the soldiers to leave. They wanted their youngsters and the teachers to go back to school and restart classes there.

After that, it becomes very unclear exactly what did happen.

I spoke to one local resident. He lost a cousin in the shooting. His brother was also seriously wounded and is still in the hospital. He said that the soldiers started firing. He said that 12 civilians were killed and up to 50 were wounded.

I've also talked to soldiers who were there during the incident. They say they came under fire first, that some of the crowd were chanting pro-Saddam Hussein slogans, and opened fire on the soldiers with AK-47s. The soldiers then say they responded, targeting specific members in the crowd, shooting some of them dead, possibly injuring others.

They have no concrete count on how many people they may have shot or may have wounded. The locals there, as I say, say they this morning have buried 12 of their number.

HEMMER: Karl Penhaul by way of telephone in Fallujah.

East now to Baghdad and Rym Brahimi, who is picking up things from there as well.

Rym -- what are you learning?

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, what we hear from the U.S. Central Command based in Qatar is that they're saying that the American soldiers fired in response to fire that was coming from the Iraqis. I expect we'll hear more details on that a little later.

Meanwhile, the deputy of the U.S. ground forces here in Iraq is saying that they will boost the number of forces here in the Iraqi capital in the next 7 to 10 days by up to 4,000 infantrymen and military policemen. This, they're hoping, is going to help maybe put a halt to the amount of violence, the insecurity, the looting that's been taking place in Baghdad ever since the capital fell into the hands of the U.S. forces.

Now, of course, a lot of people here are still complaining about the lack of security, so they're hoping that this is going to help somehow. And there is still some sporadic fighting in certain areas of the capital.

Another development, Bill, here is, of course, the arrest of the oil minister. He surrendered himself to U.S. forces, and he is someone that probably will have lot to say if he's willing to talk. Amir Rashid was the oil minister for some six years, until the beginning of the war. He would obviously have information on oil contracts and whether or not these oil contracts and the oil smuggling that took place was used, as it's believed, to pay for weapons and rebuilding Iraq's weapons programs.

But before that, he was also in charge of long-range missiles and missiles programs. So, again, a lot of things that the U.S. will probably be wanting to ask him.

And finally, he is the husband of Dr. Rihab Taha, also known as "Dr. Germ," who had been in charge previously of Iraq's biological weapons program -- Bill.

HEMMER: Rym, back to this town of Fallujah. I imagine most Americans have not heard of this town just yet. You've been in Baghdad and Iraq for so many months. What can you tell us about the makeup of the town, and what you might know about the U.S. military presence there prior to this incident?

BRAHIMI: Well, it's a small town to the west of Baghdad. It takes about 45 minutes to 50 minutes to drive from the Iraqi capital to there.

It's an interesting town, because it's actually a place that has been bombed before. It was bombed in '91, because that's where there were a couple of -- two or three sites, actually, that were related to Iraq's chemical weapons program at very vast sites around there.

And then, some of them were reconverted into pesticide factories, and so a lot of people would have been working in town from Fallujah to there.

As far as the U.S. presence there, well, I understand that there was a lot of unhappiness, that there is a lot of anger and a lot of tension right now. There was already a lot of anger at the fact that U.S. troops had taken over a school at a time when residents there said and were called on by their religious clerics, if you will, to go back to work and go back to school -- Bill.

HEMMER: Rym Brahimi in Baghdad.

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