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American Morning
In Iraq, Two Deadly Attacks
Aired August 29, 2003 - 09:01 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: Let's go to Iraq now, where there have been two deadly attacks today. A car bomb exploded knee a Shiite shrine in Najaf, killing at least 17 people, including a prominent Shiite cleric, and north of Baghdad, a U.S. soldier killed when a supply convoy came under attack.
CNN's Rym Brahimi joins us live from the Iraqi capital this morning.
Rym, good morning again.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Well, definitely very, very serious, the death of this Muslim Shiite cleric, Mohammed Bakra Al Hakim (ph) in a car bomb that exploded right in front of the Iman Ali (ph) mosque in Najaf. That's the holiest site for Shiite Muslims here in Iraq. Apparently, it exploded at 2:00 p.m., which is exactly when people would have been going out of the mosque after Friday prayers.
So happens according to relatives of Al Hakim who died in the blast, he was just leaving that mosque after prayers and he was heading towards his car when two cars apparently exploded. Now, we are going to bring you more details on that later.
Apparently, the number of deaths is still, they haven't been confirmed, but it seems to have ranged up to 20 deaths in that explosion, and several people wounded as well.
Now, the timing, of course, is crucial, because clearly, it was time to coincide with at least people coming out of the mosque, if not specifically, that Shiite prominent leader, but, of course the leader himself and who he was, you know, really is very significant, and definitely will create a lot of pandemonium, a lot of trouble in this area at least -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Rym Brahimi updating us this morning.
Rym, thanks.
For more on this latest outbreak of violence in Iraq, and what it mean for the reconstruction effort, let's turn now to CNN analyst Ken Pollack from the Saban Center for Middle East studies at the Brookings Institution.
Ken, nice to see you. Thanks for joining us.
KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: Thank you, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: And we should mention, you're in our Washington bureau this morning.
Obviously, so much is unknown at this point. Apparently lots of damage. We haven't seen pictures coming out of there yet, but who is first on your list who could have perpetrated this attack?
POLLACK: Well, honestly, Soledad, given so little time afterwards, it is very unclear. It seems most likely this is one of another of Shia groups. There have been a number of Shia groups within Iraq who have been jostling for control, jostling for power. We had the assassination of Isala Hoyt (ph) earlier on, right after the war. That was a major attack mounted by the members of another Shia group, led by Muktara Asadr (ph), a radical cleric. This seems to be part of that effort.
But we cannot rule out other groups. In particular, it's entirely possible that a Sunni group was behind this, and if it comes out that it was a Sunni group that perpetrated this attack, then you could have big problems, because then it will be seen as a Sunni attack on a major Shia cleric. That could galvanize Shia opinions against the Shia. You could have some real problems between the majority Shia population and the minority Sunni population, if that is the case.
O'BRIEN: If that scenario is true, outside of that, what could the fallout be? You're talking about an attack that took place near a holy site on a holy day. Give me a sense of the overall fallout across the country.
POLLACK: Yes, well, as you're pointing out, Soledad, this was a very important site. The shrine of the Iman Ali (ph), the burial place of Iman Ali, is probably the most important holy site to Shia in the world. It would be like a major bomb going off outside of St. Peters in Rome or the Church of the Nativity for Christians, something along those lines. It's going to underscore for many Iraqis, and in particular for the Shia, the problem of security inside of Iraq.
While I don't think there's any Iraqi who is going to blame the United States directly, I think it's hard to imagine that any Iraqi would say, well, the Americans set this bomb off, certainly you will have a lot of Shia who will be angry at the United States simply for not doing a better job with security, simply for having created a security environment where this kind of attack could happen.
O'BRIEN: If the U.S. loses support, let's say those are thoughts that come out of the Shia population, and the U.S. starts losing the support of this majority population, what's the fallout from that?
POLLACK: Well, look, if we start to lose the support of the Shia, then we've got real problems. You know, Most of the attacks that have been focused on American, and British and other coalition troops have come from a small percentage of the Sunni population. As best we can tell, this is all located up in what's called the Sunni Triangle, up in the northwest of country, and they are mostly mostly Sunni tribesmen and Saddam's old regime followers. That's a very small amount of the population. And while it's obviously problematic, one attack a day, or however many times a day, this is not going to sink the reconstruction effort.
If the Shia population turns against the United States and you see large-scale resistance by the Shia against the U.S., this reconstruction effort is doomed. But I think we ought to be very careful about that. We're a long way from that point right now. The vast majority of the Shia seem very committed to the effort. They are angry at the United States for not having given them better security, not having restored basic services, but so far, they remain committed to making the reconstruction effort work. They just want it to work better.
O'BRIEN: All right, Ken Pollack, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it.
POLLACK: Thank you, Soledad.
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 August 29, 2003 - 09:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go to Iraq now, where there have been two deadly attacks today. A car bomb exploded knee a Shiite shrine in Najaf, killing at least 17 people, including a prominent Shiite cleric, and north of Baghdad, a U.S. soldier killed when a supply convoy came under attack.
CNN's Rym Brahimi joins us live from the Iraqi capital this morning.
Rym, good morning again.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Well, definitely very, very serious, the death of this Muslim Shiite cleric, Mohammed Bakra Al Hakim (ph) in a car bomb that exploded right in front of the Iman Ali (ph) mosque in Najaf. That's the holiest site for Shiite Muslims here in Iraq. Apparently, it exploded at 2:00 p.m., which is exactly when people would have been going out of the mosque after Friday prayers.
So happens according to relatives of Al Hakim who died in the blast, he was just leaving that mosque after prayers and he was heading towards his car when two cars apparently exploded. Now, we are going to bring you more details on that later.
Apparently, the number of deaths is still, they haven't been confirmed, but it seems to have ranged up to 20 deaths in that explosion, and several people wounded as well.
Now, the timing, of course, is crucial, because clearly, it was time to coincide with at least people coming out of the mosque, if not specifically, that Shiite prominent leader, but, of course the leader himself and who he was, you know, really is very significant, and definitely will create a lot of pandemonium, a lot of trouble in this area at least -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Rym Brahimi updating us this morning.
Rym, thanks.
For more on this latest outbreak of violence in Iraq, and what it mean for the reconstruction effort, let's turn now to CNN analyst Ken Pollack from the Saban Center for Middle East studies at the Brookings Institution.
Ken, nice to see you. Thanks for joining us.
KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: Thank you, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: And we should mention, you're in our Washington bureau this morning.
Obviously, so much is unknown at this point. Apparently lots of damage. We haven't seen pictures coming out of there yet, but who is first on your list who could have perpetrated this attack?
POLLACK: Well, honestly, Soledad, given so little time afterwards, it is very unclear. It seems most likely this is one of another of Shia groups. There have been a number of Shia groups within Iraq who have been jostling for control, jostling for power. We had the assassination of Isala Hoyt (ph) earlier on, right after the war. That was a major attack mounted by the members of another Shia group, led by Muktara Asadr (ph), a radical cleric. This seems to be part of that effort.
But we cannot rule out other groups. In particular, it's entirely possible that a Sunni group was behind this, and if it comes out that it was a Sunni group that perpetrated this attack, then you could have big problems, because then it will be seen as a Sunni attack on a major Shia cleric. That could galvanize Shia opinions against the Shia. You could have some real problems between the majority Shia population and the minority Sunni population, if that is the case.
O'BRIEN: If that scenario is true, outside of that, what could the fallout be? You're talking about an attack that took place near a holy site on a holy day. Give me a sense of the overall fallout across the country.
POLLACK: Yes, well, as you're pointing out, Soledad, this was a very important site. The shrine of the Iman Ali (ph), the burial place of Iman Ali, is probably the most important holy site to Shia in the world. It would be like a major bomb going off outside of St. Peters in Rome or the Church of the Nativity for Christians, something along those lines. It's going to underscore for many Iraqis, and in particular for the Shia, the problem of security inside of Iraq.
While I don't think there's any Iraqi who is going to blame the United States directly, I think it's hard to imagine that any Iraqi would say, well, the Americans set this bomb off, certainly you will have a lot of Shia who will be angry at the United States simply for not doing a better job with security, simply for having created a security environment where this kind of attack could happen.
O'BRIEN: If the U.S. loses support, let's say those are thoughts that come out of the Shia population, and the U.S. starts losing the support of this majority population, what's the fallout from that?
POLLACK: Well, look, if we start to lose the support of the Shia, then we've got real problems. You know, Most of the attacks that have been focused on American, and British and other coalition troops have come from a small percentage of the Sunni population. As best we can tell, this is all located up in what's called the Sunni Triangle, up in the northwest of country, and they are mostly mostly Sunni tribesmen and Saddam's old regime followers. That's a very small amount of the population. And while it's obviously problematic, one attack a day, or however many times a day, this is not going to sink the reconstruction effort.
If the Shia population turns against the United States and you see large-scale resistance by the Shia against the U.S., this reconstruction effort is doomed. But I think we ought to be very careful about that. We're a long way from that point right now. The vast majority of the Shia seem very committed to the effort. They are angry at the United States for not having given them better security, not having restored basic services, but so far, they remain committed to making the reconstruction effort work. They just want it to work better.
O'BRIEN: All right, Ken Pollack, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it.
POLLACK: Thank you, Soledad.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
