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American Morning
Abizaid Announces Plans to Train Iraqi Force as Another U.S. Soldier, Iraqi Civilian Attacked, Killed
Aired July 21, 2003 - 09:06 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 to deal with the threat to U.S. 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, Soledad. Indeed, one U.S. soldier killed again. A daily state of attacks, always American casualties. And his Iraq interpreter as well.
Now the vehicle that they were in apparently was believed to have gone over and explosive device. In fact what happened was the explosive device was placed on a crash barrier. And when the vehicle passed by, well (ph) it was detonated it seems remotely. There were two vehicles in that convoy but it seems that the U.S. soldier and the Iraqi interpreter were in the same vehicle that got hit.
Now, this comes after two U.S. soldiers were killed in another attack that was -- that actually took place in the north in Mosul. And that's not an area where U.S. troops are usually attacked. They were ambushed and attacked by small arms fire. This brings to 152 the number of U.S. troops killed since the beginning of the war on March 20.
Now, you mentioned General Abizaid, he's in town for the first time, the U.S. commander here. And he said that there are two main measures that are being taken now. One of them, they will replace a lot the heavy armored troops by smaller, or more lightly equipped and more mobile troops who will be able to face the new security threats maybe more efficiently.
And another measure, General Abizaid announced the creation of a 7,000-strong Iraqi militia. These men will be trained by conventional U.S. forces, and he expects them to be on the ground, ready to operate in 45 days -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Rym Brahimi for us in Baghdad this morning. Thanks for that report.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
U.S. Soldier, Iraqi Civilian Attacked, Killed>
Aired July 21, 2003 - 09:06 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 to deal with the threat to U.S. 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, Soledad. Indeed, one U.S. soldier killed again. A daily state of attacks, always American casualties. And his Iraq interpreter as well.
Now the vehicle that they were in apparently was believed to have gone over and explosive device. In fact what happened was the explosive device was placed on a crash barrier. And when the vehicle passed by, well (ph) it was detonated it seems remotely. There were two vehicles in that convoy but it seems that the U.S. soldier and the Iraqi interpreter were in the same vehicle that got hit.
Now, this comes after two U.S. soldiers were killed in another attack that was -- that actually took place in the north in Mosul. And that's not an area where U.S. troops are usually attacked. They were ambushed and attacked by small arms fire. This brings to 152 the number of U.S. troops killed since the beginning of the war on March 20.
Now, you mentioned General Abizaid, he's in town for the first time, the U.S. commander here. And he said that there are two main measures that are being taken now. One of them, they will replace a lot the heavy armored troops by smaller, or more lightly equipped and more mobile troops who will be able to face the new security threats maybe more efficiently.
And another measure, General Abizaid announced the creation of a 7,000-strong Iraqi militia. These men will be trained by conventional U.S. forces, and he expects them to be on the ground, ready to operate in 45 days -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Rym Brahimi for us in Baghdad this morning. Thanks for that report.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
U.S. Soldier, Iraqi Civilian Attacked, Killed>
