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American Morning

Troop Strength in Iraq

Aired September 04, 2003 - 07:03   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: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would like to see more troops in Iraq, but not more American troops. He is on the road in the Persian Gulf region this morning, and Rumsfeld says he wants, in his words, "a firsthand sense of how things are going."
Ben Wedeman is live in Baghdad this morning.

Good morning -- Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, Soledad, well, as you said, Secretary Rumsfeld is expected here at some point. For security reasons, we don't know exactly when.

But when he does get here, he may get an upbeat assessment from the senior coalition commander here on the ground here, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, who just a while ago described -- said it has been a great week for coalition forces in Iraq.

He cited the handover from the Marines to a multinational force led by Poland to the south of Baghdad. He said more than 50,000 Iraqis are now involved in security duties in and around the country. And he said that at the Najaf funeral for that assassinated Shiite cleric that the Iraqi security was able to control a crowd of more than 100,000 people.

He also said he hopes more Muslim troops, possibly from Turkey, can play a greater role in the coalition duties of patrolling and keeping security.

On the question of patrols, he said in the last week there have been at least 10,000 such patrols by coalition forces conducting 250 raids -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Hey, Ben, we opened the show this morning with pretty dramatic pictures of a firefight in Tikrit. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?

WEDEMAN: Yes. Basically, it started with a volley of mortar rounds fired in the direction of coalition forces there. Of course, Tikrit is the hometown of Saddam Hussein. It has been a place where there have been almost daily attacks on the U.S. forces.

Now, what followed this volley of mortar rounds was a fairly intense exchange of fire over the city, according to one report, causing one house to catch on fire. Nonetheless, no report on coalition casualties. It seems to be really just another night in Tikrit.

There have been other incidents as well. Yesterday in the hot spot of Ramadi -- that's a predominantly Arab Sunni town to the west of Baghdad -- there was another attack. Apparently a suicide bomber blew himself up near an Iraqi-U.S. checkpoint, wounding two U.S. soldiers but only very lightly -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Ben Wedeman joining us from Baghdad this morning. Ben, thanks for that update.

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 September 4, 2003 - 07:03   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would like to see more troops in Iraq, but not more American troops. He is on the road in the Persian Gulf region this morning, and Rumsfeld says he wants, in his words, "a firsthand sense of how things are going."
Ben Wedeman is live in Baghdad this morning.

Good morning -- Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, Soledad, well, as you said, Secretary Rumsfeld is expected here at some point. For security reasons, we don't know exactly when.

But when he does get here, he may get an upbeat assessment from the senior coalition commander here on the ground here, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, who just a while ago described -- said it has been a great week for coalition forces in Iraq.

He cited the handover from the Marines to a multinational force led by Poland to the south of Baghdad. He said more than 50,000 Iraqis are now involved in security duties in and around the country. And he said that at the Najaf funeral for that assassinated Shiite cleric that the Iraqi security was able to control a crowd of more than 100,000 people.

He also said he hopes more Muslim troops, possibly from Turkey, can play a greater role in the coalition duties of patrolling and keeping security.

On the question of patrols, he said in the last week there have been at least 10,000 such patrols by coalition forces conducting 250 raids -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Hey, Ben, we opened the show this morning with pretty dramatic pictures of a firefight in Tikrit. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?

WEDEMAN: Yes. Basically, it started with a volley of mortar rounds fired in the direction of coalition forces there. Of course, Tikrit is the hometown of Saddam Hussein. It has been a place where there have been almost daily attacks on the U.S. forces.

Now, what followed this volley of mortar rounds was a fairly intense exchange of fire over the city, according to one report, causing one house to catch on fire. Nonetheless, no report on coalition casualties. It seems to be really just another night in Tikrit.

There have been other incidents as well. Yesterday in the hot spot of Ramadi -- that's a predominantly Arab Sunni town to the west of Baghdad -- there was another attack. Apparently a suicide bomber blew himself up near an Iraqi-U.S. checkpoint, wounding two U.S. soldiers but only very lightly -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Ben Wedeman joining us from Baghdad this morning. Ben, thanks for that update.

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