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American Morning
U.S. Soldier, Interpreter Killed in Baghdad Attack
Aired July 21, 2003 - 07:04 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: An American soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were killed today when their Humvee was fired on in Baghdad. The new U.S. commander, General John Abizaid, announced a plan today to deal with the threat to U.S. troops by training a 7,000- member Iraqi force.
Rym Brahimi is in Baghdad for us this morning.
Rym -- good morning.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.
Indeed, another day, another killing of a U.S. troop -- a U.S. soldier, rather. This time it happened in the northeast of Baghdad. One U.S. soldier from the First Armored Division was killed, along with an interpreter, when their vehicle went over an explosive device. And they were also -- they also came under small arms fire.
Now, witnesses at the scene said that they also saw rocket- propelled grenade fire attacking them. We will bring you more details about that later.
And this comes just a day after two other soldiers were killed and another one wounded in the north near the city of Mosul. They fell under small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenade attacks in an ambush.
Basically, Soledad, this brings to 152 the total number of U.S. soldiers killed since the war began on March 20. That's five more than the previous Gulf War in 1991.
Now, against this backdrop of violence, if you will, Paul Wolfowitz is here, the deputy defense secretary, and the U.S. commander, General John Abizaid. Now, he's here for the first time. He says that was planning to form a 7,000-strong Iraqi militia that would be trained by U.S. forces in order to face this new security threat. He also said that there wouldn't be an expansion of the number of forces, but some of the heavily-armored troops would be replaced by more likely more mobile troops as well -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Rym, a quick question for you. Any reaction this morning to word of that -- this militia, this Iraqi militia will be trained and brought up to speed?
BRAHIMI: Well, for the time being, we haven't really had any formal reaction either from the Iraqis or from anyone in the coalition authority here. What we do know is there is a desperate need among Iraqis and also among international people here in Iraq for more security. And that security seems that now coalition authorities are coming around to the fact that it's not just U.S. soldiers that can bring about that security, but they need Iraqis to work with them on that.
Now, as occupying powers, they do need to ensure security basic services, but I think they realize that they also need to have the -- to co-op Iraqis to work with them on that issue -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Rym Brahimi for us in Baghdad this morning. Thank 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 July 21, 2003 - 07:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: An American soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were killed today when their Humvee was fired on in Baghdad. The new U.S. commander, General John Abizaid, announced a plan today to deal with the threat to U.S. troops by training a 7,000- member Iraqi force.
Rym Brahimi is in Baghdad for us this morning.
Rym -- good morning.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.
Indeed, another day, another killing of a U.S. troop -- a U.S. soldier, rather. This time it happened in the northeast of Baghdad. One U.S. soldier from the First Armored Division was killed, along with an interpreter, when their vehicle went over an explosive device. And they were also -- they also came under small arms fire.
Now, witnesses at the scene said that they also saw rocket- propelled grenade fire attacking them. We will bring you more details about that later.
And this comes just a day after two other soldiers were killed and another one wounded in the north near the city of Mosul. They fell under small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenade attacks in an ambush.
Basically, Soledad, this brings to 152 the total number of U.S. soldiers killed since the war began on March 20. That's five more than the previous Gulf War in 1991.
Now, against this backdrop of violence, if you will, Paul Wolfowitz is here, the deputy defense secretary, and the U.S. commander, General John Abizaid. Now, he's here for the first time. He says that was planning to form a 7,000-strong Iraqi militia that would be trained by U.S. forces in order to face this new security threat. He also said that there wouldn't be an expansion of the number of forces, but some of the heavily-armored troops would be replaced by more likely more mobile troops as well -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Rym, a quick question for you. Any reaction this morning to word of that -- this militia, this Iraqi militia will be trained and brought up to speed?
BRAHIMI: Well, for the time being, we haven't really had any formal reaction either from the Iraqis or from anyone in the coalition authority here. What we do know is there is a desperate need among Iraqis and also among international people here in Iraq for more security. And that security seems that now coalition authorities are coming around to the fact that it's not just U.S. soldiers that can bring about that security, but they need Iraqis to work with them on that.
Now, as occupying powers, they do need to ensure security basic services, but I think they realize that they also need to have the -- to co-op Iraqis to work with them on that issue -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Rym Brahimi for us in Baghdad this morning. Thank 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.
