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American Morning
Car Bomb Explodes Near Holy Site in Najaf
Aired August 29, 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's turn now to Iraq, where there have been two deadly attacks today. A car bomb exploded near a holy site in Najaf and there are reports of many casualties. Another U.S. soldier was killed north of Baghdad when a supply convoy came under attack.
CNN's Rym Brahimi joins us live from the Iraqi capital.
And, Rym, we are hearing that the toll in Najaf just staggering at this hour -- good morning.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.
Indeed, coalition authorities are confirming that there was a car bomb in Najaf. Now, we have sources who have told CNN that the number of casualties is actually up to 100. But that would include the dead and the injured. The French Press Agency, AFP, is reporting 17 dead and there are other agencies reporting up to 20 people killed in that blast and dozens wounded.
Now, our sources also tell us that the explosion took place at 2:00 p.m. right outside the Mosque of the Imam Ali, which is one of the most -- it's actually the most holy site for Shia Muslims. And also 2:00 p.m., it's a time when everybody would have been coming out of Friday prayers. So the damage would have been extensive.
Soledad, it's also the third massive car bomb in Iraq in just a month -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: All right, CNN's Rym Brahimi updating that story for us this morning.
And Rym, of course, will continue to check in with you to get an exact number of how many killed in that attack. Obviously major, widespread damage there.
Thanks for that -- Anderson.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Also, in just a couple of minutes we're going to talk to the editor of "Iraq Today" for his perspective on what's going on in the City of Najaf. And with the death toll continuing to climb in Iraq, ending the violence takes on a new urgency for the Bush administration. But a U.S. proposal at the U.N. to get more countries to help out with security is getting a cool reception from some key members of the Security Council.
Joining us to discuss the issue is the former U.S. ambassador to NATO, Robert Hunter.
Ambassador, thanks very much for being with us.
ROBERT HUNTER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: Good to be with you.
COOPER: The cool response is because of what? I mean the U.S. is waiting to control any U.N. mandated operation. The other countries in the U.N. are just saying no, they want a greater say in operations if they're going to get involved?
HUNTER: Well, there has been a debate going on for a couple of months now. You might call it the negotiations before the negotiations about the terms and conditions in which other countries will come along and be with the United States and Britain to try to sort this out.
The U.S. wants to retain the assurance of absolute control and others believe that this is not just a military problem, as I think we understand, but that you need some kind of broader framework, a U.N. mandate to integrate the military, the political, the economic, but with the United States less prominent and others having a say.
There are differences here. They're not unbridgeable differences. So this is really the negotiation before the negotiation going on.
COOPER: Now, you...
HUNTER: This is the direction it's going.
COOPER: You've been saying for a while, you, I read an op-ed you wrote in the "London Financial Times," I think it was in July, that the answer to all this is NATO. I'm going to put on the screen some of what you said in the "Financial Times." To quote, "Large scale engagement by NATO and the E.U. would blur the role of the U.S. and Britain, reduce their role as lightning rods for deflected grievances, provide greater international legitimacy and be perceived internally as a more neutral presence."
NATO led by a U.S. allied supreme commander -- do you think NATO is the answer?
HUNTER: I do, indeed. A big thing is to get more people there. Now, admittedly, a lot of these are policemen, but that's the job, unfortunately, that the American soldier has been put into. And every day now we have the tragedy of somebody else being killed.
NATO has the capacity to do this. It did Bosnia, it did Kosovo. Most people don't understand that NATO is now running the United Nations operation in Afghanistan, in Kabul, and already doing it successfully.
COOPER: And the difference between a NATO led operation and a U.N. peacekeeping operation, it's a more muscular presence on the ground? HUNTER: NATO knows what it's doing. In fact, in Bosnia there was a U.N. resolution. It was the U.N. in charge. They asked NATO to do the job. And again...
COOPER: So, in essence, you're saying the U.N. does not know what they're doing when they're running a peacekeeping operation?
HUNTER: Well, the U.N. doesn't have the forces, it doesn't have the command, it doesn't have arrangements. I mean that's by a common decision, ours and everybody else over the years. But NATO works. And, in fact, the important thing in regard to American concerns is the supreme allied commander of NATO always has, and I hope always will be, an American general. General James Jones, former commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, he would be in charge of a NATO operation. And I think you would find all the allies, under the right circumstances, being willing to take part.
Nobody can afford to see the United States fail. However much some people may be winking and nodding, you know, about, gee, we didn't want this war and America caused this and all that stuff, they can't have us fail. It's too late for that. Everybody has a stake in succeeding. And if we do it right, and if we get out there and we draw the allies in, we're willing to share the decisions as well as the responsibility, I think we can get NATO in there.
COOPER: And there will certainly be negotiations to see exactly what level of decision-making is handed over to anyone else.
Robert Hunter, former ambassador to NATO, appreciate you joining us.
Thanks very much.
HUNTER: 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 August 29, 2003 - 08:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's turn now to Iraq, where there have been two deadly attacks today. A car bomb exploded near a holy site in Najaf and there are reports of many casualties. Another U.S. soldier was killed north of Baghdad when a supply convoy came under attack.
CNN's Rym Brahimi joins us live from the Iraqi capital.
And, Rym, we are hearing that the toll in Najaf just staggering at this hour -- good morning.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.
Indeed, coalition authorities are confirming that there was a car bomb in Najaf. Now, we have sources who have told CNN that the number of casualties is actually up to 100. But that would include the dead and the injured. The French Press Agency, AFP, is reporting 17 dead and there are other agencies reporting up to 20 people killed in that blast and dozens wounded.
Now, our sources also tell us that the explosion took place at 2:00 p.m. right outside the Mosque of the Imam Ali, which is one of the most -- it's actually the most holy site for Shia Muslims. And also 2:00 p.m., it's a time when everybody would have been coming out of Friday prayers. So the damage would have been extensive.
Soledad, it's also the third massive car bomb in Iraq in just a month -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: All right, CNN's Rym Brahimi updating that story for us this morning.
And Rym, of course, will continue to check in with you to get an exact number of how many killed in that attack. Obviously major, widespread damage there.
Thanks for that -- Anderson.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Also, in just a couple of minutes we're going to talk to the editor of "Iraq Today" for his perspective on what's going on in the City of Najaf. And with the death toll continuing to climb in Iraq, ending the violence takes on a new urgency for the Bush administration. But a U.S. proposal at the U.N. to get more countries to help out with security is getting a cool reception from some key members of the Security Council.
Joining us to discuss the issue is the former U.S. ambassador to NATO, Robert Hunter.
Ambassador, thanks very much for being with us.
ROBERT HUNTER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: Good to be with you.
COOPER: The cool response is because of what? I mean the U.S. is waiting to control any U.N. mandated operation. The other countries in the U.N. are just saying no, they want a greater say in operations if they're going to get involved?
HUNTER: Well, there has been a debate going on for a couple of months now. You might call it the negotiations before the negotiations about the terms and conditions in which other countries will come along and be with the United States and Britain to try to sort this out.
The U.S. wants to retain the assurance of absolute control and others believe that this is not just a military problem, as I think we understand, but that you need some kind of broader framework, a U.N. mandate to integrate the military, the political, the economic, but with the United States less prominent and others having a say.
There are differences here. They're not unbridgeable differences. So this is really the negotiation before the negotiation going on.
COOPER: Now, you...
HUNTER: This is the direction it's going.
COOPER: You've been saying for a while, you, I read an op-ed you wrote in the "London Financial Times," I think it was in July, that the answer to all this is NATO. I'm going to put on the screen some of what you said in the "Financial Times." To quote, "Large scale engagement by NATO and the E.U. would blur the role of the U.S. and Britain, reduce their role as lightning rods for deflected grievances, provide greater international legitimacy and be perceived internally as a more neutral presence."
NATO led by a U.S. allied supreme commander -- do you think NATO is the answer?
HUNTER: I do, indeed. A big thing is to get more people there. Now, admittedly, a lot of these are policemen, but that's the job, unfortunately, that the American soldier has been put into. And every day now we have the tragedy of somebody else being killed.
NATO has the capacity to do this. It did Bosnia, it did Kosovo. Most people don't understand that NATO is now running the United Nations operation in Afghanistan, in Kabul, and already doing it successfully.
COOPER: And the difference between a NATO led operation and a U.N. peacekeeping operation, it's a more muscular presence on the ground? HUNTER: NATO knows what it's doing. In fact, in Bosnia there was a U.N. resolution. It was the U.N. in charge. They asked NATO to do the job. And again...
COOPER: So, in essence, you're saying the U.N. does not know what they're doing when they're running a peacekeeping operation?
HUNTER: Well, the U.N. doesn't have the forces, it doesn't have the command, it doesn't have arrangements. I mean that's by a common decision, ours and everybody else over the years. But NATO works. And, in fact, the important thing in regard to American concerns is the supreme allied commander of NATO always has, and I hope always will be, an American general. General James Jones, former commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, he would be in charge of a NATO operation. And I think you would find all the allies, under the right circumstances, being willing to take part.
Nobody can afford to see the United States fail. However much some people may be winking and nodding, you know, about, gee, we didn't want this war and America caused this and all that stuff, they can't have us fail. It's too late for that. Everybody has a stake in succeeding. And if we do it right, and if we get out there and we draw the allies in, we're willing to share the decisions as well as the responsibility, I think we can get NATO in there.
COOPER: And there will certainly be negotiations to see exactly what level of decision-making is handed over to anyone else.
Robert Hunter, former ambassador to NATO, appreciate you joining us.
Thanks very much.
HUNTER: 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
