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American Morning
Fighting in Fallujah, Iraq
Aired April 29, 2003 - 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to get back to Iraq right now to the town of Fallujah.
Karl Penhaul working the story, live on the scene to tell us what he is finding out.
Karl -- good afternoon there.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Bill.
We've been visiting the two main hospitals in Fallujah in the course of the afternoon, and we're being told by doctors there, they've confirmed to us seven civilians are dead, at least 53 wounded.
The final death toll could be higher than that, Bill. Simply some of the families may have chosen to take their dead directly to the mosque and then on to the cemetery for burial. And we do know that some of the funerals took place this morning.
Demonstrators and the families say that the military, the American military opened fire first, when some of the demonstrators were throwing rocks at the Army. The Army, however, says that they were fired on first.
I talked this morning to a sergeant, a sniper. He took part in the shooting incident, and this is what he had to say about the incident, Bill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just shot at what I saw, and what I saw were targets, targets with weapons. They were going harm me. It's either them or me, and I took the shot, sir, And I'm still here talking to you, and they're not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PENHAUL: Then, as a result of this incident, in the course of the morning we have seen some pretty hot tempers in the area, around the school where the American 82nd Airborne has been based for the last few days. A lot of the local residents have been turning out, Bill, chanting, "Down with President Bush, down with President Blair," calling on the troops to leave.
In the last few moments the 82nd Airborne has told us they will be leaving the school. They'll be pulling out either later today or early in the morning. We understand, however, that a tank unit may be sent in to this area to replace them -- Bill.
HEMMER: Karl, can you tell us more about the town, about its size, about the amount of unrest that may have been present there prior to this incident today?
PENHAUL: We understand it's a town of about 100,000-150,000 inhabitants. It's about 40 miles west of the city of Baghdad, lives largely off the agriculture, the fresh produce that they produce in this area.
We understand there hasn't been a lot of unrest here. They have had a certain amount of order. In fact, the people, we understand, have been organizing themselves since the fall of the government.
And the residents we've talked to said they didn't open fire. None of them have spoken of seeing weapons, although, as I say, they do freely admit that tempers did flare, and they had been throwing rocks at the Americans -- Bill.
HEMMER: Karl Penhaul near the scene there in Fallujah in Iraq. Thanks.
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 - 09:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to get back to Iraq right now to the town of Fallujah.
Karl Penhaul working the story, live on the scene to tell us what he is finding out.
Karl -- good afternoon there.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Bill.
We've been visiting the two main hospitals in Fallujah in the course of the afternoon, and we're being told by doctors there, they've confirmed to us seven civilians are dead, at least 53 wounded.
The final death toll could be higher than that, Bill. Simply some of the families may have chosen to take their dead directly to the mosque and then on to the cemetery for burial. And we do know that some of the funerals took place this morning.
Demonstrators and the families say that the military, the American military opened fire first, when some of the demonstrators were throwing rocks at the Army. The Army, however, says that they were fired on first.
I talked this morning to a sergeant, a sniper. He took part in the shooting incident, and this is what he had to say about the incident, Bill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just shot at what I saw, and what I saw were targets, targets with weapons. They were going harm me. It's either them or me, and I took the shot, sir, And I'm still here talking to you, and they're not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PENHAUL: Then, as a result of this incident, in the course of the morning we have seen some pretty hot tempers in the area, around the school where the American 82nd Airborne has been based for the last few days. A lot of the local residents have been turning out, Bill, chanting, "Down with President Bush, down with President Blair," calling on the troops to leave.
In the last few moments the 82nd Airborne has told us they will be leaving the school. They'll be pulling out either later today or early in the morning. We understand, however, that a tank unit may be sent in to this area to replace them -- Bill.
HEMMER: Karl, can you tell us more about the town, about its size, about the amount of unrest that may have been present there prior to this incident today?
PENHAUL: We understand it's a town of about 100,000-150,000 inhabitants. It's about 40 miles west of the city of Baghdad, lives largely off the agriculture, the fresh produce that they produce in this area.
We understand there hasn't been a lot of unrest here. They have had a certain amount of order. In fact, the people, we understand, have been organizing themselves since the fall of the government.
And the residents we've talked to said they didn't open fire. None of them have spoken of seeing weapons, although, as I say, they do freely admit that tempers did flare, and they had been throwing rocks at the Americans -- Bill.
HEMMER: Karl Penhaul near the scene there in Fallujah in Iraq. Thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
