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American Morning

Six British Soldiers Killed in Clash with Iraqi Civilians

Aired June 25, 2003 - 08:04   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, ANCHOR: Back to Iraq right now. The continuing controversy sin the deaths of these six British soldiers.
The British prime minister Tony Blair, responding to that news, there had been concerns about security in the area. But he said it is too soon right now to know what exactly took place yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: There had been problems in relation to that, and that may form part of the background to it. But at the moment, it's simply too early to say. I think within the next 24 hours we should be in a better position to say exactly what the origins were of the particular group that attacked our forces there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Tony Blair in the House of Commons last hour in London.

Ben Wedeman near the scene now in Iraq. Ben, what have you learned there on the ground?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, it appears that, really, the spark for all of this was intense fear among local inhabitants here in the town of Majar Al-Kabir. Fear of intrusive house inspections.

Now it's a very sensitive subject here because many people feel that their house is their honor. And they were afraid that British forces were coming into this town of about 60,000 to inspect, to search houses, looking for weapons.

What happened, according to the accounts we've been piecing together, is that a British patrol showed up in the main market, and there was a good deal of apprehension when the people saw them. They thought they were coming to carry out house inspections.

There were rocks thrown that British patrol. It would seem, according to several accounts I've heard, that the British forces fired back with plastic bullets. This made the people even more upset.

And we must point out many Iraqis are armed and many of them, in fact, well armed. Apparently some of them fired back either in the air or in the direction of the British troops.

The situation went out of control. The British military police started to move back to here, right here is the main police station for the town. They tried to get some sort of protection inside. But a large group of local residents, the number is really hard to pin down at this moment, collected outside the police station, started firing towards it. The British firing back.

In fact, we noticed, for instance, there are about 150 bullet marks on the wall, fresh bullet marks, of this police station, including one that looks like the impact of an RPG shell, as well. And so this battle, this gun battle went on for quite some time. The final sort of death toll was four dead Iraqis, 17 wounded and, of course, those six dead British military police.

Back to you, Bill.

HEMMER: And then Ben, quickly, to come back to this idea about the Brits moving in to try and secure weapons there in the area. If it is true, was there any reason for the Brits to believe right now that this area was filled with unrest or an incident was waiting to take place there?

WEDEMAN: Well, actually, Bill, this was a fairly quiet area. There hadn't been any real incidents of notes. Now, of course, there were lots of weapons here, as there are in most parts of Iraq.

And in fact, people of this area overcame the Iraqi area before the American forces ever pulled in here. And they had a lot of time, essentially, to get all the weapons out of the local arsenals. So it's well-known that they had heavy artillery, they had anti-aircraft guns, heavy machine guns. It's all there, but none of it apparently had been used on British forces.

But as you probably heard over the last few weeks, the coalition, the Americans and the British, have been trying to encourage the Iraqis to hand in their weapons. And apparently, the local British commander worked out with tribal leaders that there would be a 60 day period during which the British would not conduct any searches for weapons and the tribal leaders would try to arrange and collect all the weapons that are still out there -- Bill.

HEMMER: Ben Wedeman, a town that is quiet no more as of yesterday. Thanks in southeastern Iraq.

The Pentagon is commenting today on a story out of London regarding the whereabouts of the former Iraqi information minister, Muhammad Saeed al-Sahaf. "The Daily Mirror" reporting today that he was detained Monday at a U.S. road block.

Al-Sahaf became known by some as Comical Ali for some of his denials that Baghdad was falling to U.S. troops. He's not on any coalition's most wanted list of 55. But a Pentagon official tells CNN that there is no information right now to support the claim that al- Sahaf is in U.S. custody at the moment. If it changes, we'll bring it to you.

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 June 25, 2003 - 08:04   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, ANCHOR: Back to Iraq right now. The continuing controversy sin the deaths of these six British soldiers.
The British prime minister Tony Blair, responding to that news, there had been concerns about security in the area. But he said it is too soon right now to know what exactly took place yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: There had been problems in relation to that, and that may form part of the background to it. But at the moment, it's simply too early to say. I think within the next 24 hours we should be in a better position to say exactly what the origins were of the particular group that attacked our forces there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Tony Blair in the House of Commons last hour in London.

Ben Wedeman near the scene now in Iraq. Ben, what have you learned there on the ground?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, it appears that, really, the spark for all of this was intense fear among local inhabitants here in the town of Majar Al-Kabir. Fear of intrusive house inspections.

Now it's a very sensitive subject here because many people feel that their house is their honor. And they were afraid that British forces were coming into this town of about 60,000 to inspect, to search houses, looking for weapons.

What happened, according to the accounts we've been piecing together, is that a British patrol showed up in the main market, and there was a good deal of apprehension when the people saw them. They thought they were coming to carry out house inspections.

There were rocks thrown that British patrol. It would seem, according to several accounts I've heard, that the British forces fired back with plastic bullets. This made the people even more upset.

And we must point out many Iraqis are armed and many of them, in fact, well armed. Apparently some of them fired back either in the air or in the direction of the British troops.

The situation went out of control. The British military police started to move back to here, right here is the main police station for the town. They tried to get some sort of protection inside. But a large group of local residents, the number is really hard to pin down at this moment, collected outside the police station, started firing towards it. The British firing back.

In fact, we noticed, for instance, there are about 150 bullet marks on the wall, fresh bullet marks, of this police station, including one that looks like the impact of an RPG shell, as well. And so this battle, this gun battle went on for quite some time. The final sort of death toll was four dead Iraqis, 17 wounded and, of course, those six dead British military police.

Back to you, Bill.

HEMMER: And then Ben, quickly, to come back to this idea about the Brits moving in to try and secure weapons there in the area. If it is true, was there any reason for the Brits to believe right now that this area was filled with unrest or an incident was waiting to take place there?

WEDEMAN: Well, actually, Bill, this was a fairly quiet area. There hadn't been any real incidents of notes. Now, of course, there were lots of weapons here, as there are in most parts of Iraq.

And in fact, people of this area overcame the Iraqi area before the American forces ever pulled in here. And they had a lot of time, essentially, to get all the weapons out of the local arsenals. So it's well-known that they had heavy artillery, they had anti-aircraft guns, heavy machine guns. It's all there, but none of it apparently had been used on British forces.

But as you probably heard over the last few weeks, the coalition, the Americans and the British, have been trying to encourage the Iraqis to hand in their weapons. And apparently, the local British commander worked out with tribal leaders that there would be a 60 day period during which the British would not conduct any searches for weapons and the tribal leaders would try to arrange and collect all the weapons that are still out there -- Bill.

HEMMER: Ben Wedeman, a town that is quiet no more as of yesterday. Thanks in southeastern Iraq.

The Pentagon is commenting today on a story out of London regarding the whereabouts of the former Iraqi information minister, Muhammad Saeed al-Sahaf. "The Daily Mirror" reporting today that he was detained Monday at a U.S. road block.

Al-Sahaf became known by some as Comical Ali for some of his denials that Baghdad was falling to U.S. troops. He's not on any coalition's most wanted list of 55. But a Pentagon official tells CNN that there is no information right now to support the claim that al- Sahaf is in U.S. custody at the moment. If it changes, we'll bring it to you.

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