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American Morning
Suicide Bombing in Baghdad
Aired October 13, 2003 - 07:37 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right now, more on that suicide bombing in Baghdad. The hotel that was attacked was home to Americans as well as members of the Iraqi Governing Council. Six Iraqis were killed, 30 more were injured.
"Washington Post" reporter Rajiv Chandrasekaran was in the hotel when the car bomb exploded. He's now live in Baghdad to tell his story.
And thank you for your time here.
I know you were interviewed over the weekend.
What happened at that bombing as it took place, as you saw it inside the hotel yesterday?
RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN, "WASHINGTON POST": Good morning, Bill.
Yes, I was there yesterday. I was interviewing a member of Iraq's Governing Council. We were sitting in his fourth floor room, talking about high politics. We were talking about how Iraq could write a new constitution and how to bring the country's disparate ethnic and religious groups together.
Ni the middle of our conversation, just this enormous blast struck the hotel. The window behind me shattered. The force of the explosion sent me and the Council member sort of flying to the floor. I was OK. He was injured. He hurt his arm a bit. And then security personnel swarmed in and, you know, brought us into the hallway. They were fearful at that point that it might have been an RPG that hit the hotel or there might have been the prospect of a secondary attack.
After that, I managed to make my way down to the lobby where I saw sort of scenes of sort of horrific carnage, very bloodied, wounded people being brought in; first aid being given to them on the lobby floor; and further made my way out to the front of the hotel, where you could see the billowing smoke of several cars on fire, a very large crater and police swarming everyone and many, many wounded people, bloodied, dazed, trying to get help.
It was a horrific scene there.
HEMMER: Part of your reporting today in your paper, the "Washington Post," reports that Iraqis are becoming the easy targets and the Americans are becoming much more difficult because they're more fortified. If that is the case, why is that happening? CHANDRASEKARAN: Well, Iraqis, Iraqi politicians, Iraqi policemen, all manner of Iraqis who are cooperating with the U.S.-led occupation of this country need to be out and about interacting with their fellow Iraqis. So they can't live in compounds behind multiple layers of concrete walls and barbed wire. They have to be out and about. And so it puts them at a greater risk.
And what seems to be the case over these past few weeks is that the terrorists who are attacking, who are against the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq and the peaceful transformation of this country are making them the easy prey here. We've had a couple of car bombings of Iraqi police stations. Certainly last month or -- last month there was a horrendous explosion at the -- at a Shiite Muslim shrine down in Najaf and again this.
And this obviously coming just a few weeks after one of the members of the Governing Council was gunned down on her way to work.
HEMMER: One final question here. How much of a setback is the violence that we're seeing here in terms of progress in moving forward?
CHANDRASEKARAN: Well, I think it works on two levels. For those Iraqis who are at sort of the upper levels of the new interim Iraqi government, the Governing Council members, they say their resolve is strengthened by this, that they're not going to be cowed by these sorts of attacks.
But for people at a lower level, for the ordinary police officers and security guards, those who are on the front lines, there's a much greater degree of apprehension and there's a new sort of wave of unease that's swept through the capital in the wake of these attacks. And really, for the Iraqi leaders and for the U.S. occupation authorities, it's a lot of those people that they're going to have to reach out to get them to become more confident in this whole venture.
HEMMER: Rajiv Chandrasekaran, a writer for the "Washington Post," glad to know you're OK after that bomb went off just a few short yards away from your location inside the hotel in Baghdad.
Thank you for your time and sharing with us.
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 October 13, 2003 - 07:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right now, more on that suicide bombing in Baghdad. The hotel that was attacked was home to Americans as well as members of the Iraqi Governing Council. Six Iraqis were killed, 30 more were injured.
"Washington Post" reporter Rajiv Chandrasekaran was in the hotel when the car bomb exploded. He's now live in Baghdad to tell his story.
And thank you for your time here.
I know you were interviewed over the weekend.
What happened at that bombing as it took place, as you saw it inside the hotel yesterday?
RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN, "WASHINGTON POST": Good morning, Bill.
Yes, I was there yesterday. I was interviewing a member of Iraq's Governing Council. We were sitting in his fourth floor room, talking about high politics. We were talking about how Iraq could write a new constitution and how to bring the country's disparate ethnic and religious groups together.
Ni the middle of our conversation, just this enormous blast struck the hotel. The window behind me shattered. The force of the explosion sent me and the Council member sort of flying to the floor. I was OK. He was injured. He hurt his arm a bit. And then security personnel swarmed in and, you know, brought us into the hallway. They were fearful at that point that it might have been an RPG that hit the hotel or there might have been the prospect of a secondary attack.
After that, I managed to make my way down to the lobby where I saw sort of scenes of sort of horrific carnage, very bloodied, wounded people being brought in; first aid being given to them on the lobby floor; and further made my way out to the front of the hotel, where you could see the billowing smoke of several cars on fire, a very large crater and police swarming everyone and many, many wounded people, bloodied, dazed, trying to get help.
It was a horrific scene there.
HEMMER: Part of your reporting today in your paper, the "Washington Post," reports that Iraqis are becoming the easy targets and the Americans are becoming much more difficult because they're more fortified. If that is the case, why is that happening? CHANDRASEKARAN: Well, Iraqis, Iraqi politicians, Iraqi policemen, all manner of Iraqis who are cooperating with the U.S.-led occupation of this country need to be out and about interacting with their fellow Iraqis. So they can't live in compounds behind multiple layers of concrete walls and barbed wire. They have to be out and about. And so it puts them at a greater risk.
And what seems to be the case over these past few weeks is that the terrorists who are attacking, who are against the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq and the peaceful transformation of this country are making them the easy prey here. We've had a couple of car bombings of Iraqi police stations. Certainly last month or -- last month there was a horrendous explosion at the -- at a Shiite Muslim shrine down in Najaf and again this.
And this obviously coming just a few weeks after one of the members of the Governing Council was gunned down on her way to work.
HEMMER: One final question here. How much of a setback is the violence that we're seeing here in terms of progress in moving forward?
CHANDRASEKARAN: Well, I think it works on two levels. For those Iraqis who are at sort of the upper levels of the new interim Iraqi government, the Governing Council members, they say their resolve is strengthened by this, that they're not going to be cowed by these sorts of attacks.
But for people at a lower level, for the ordinary police officers and security guards, those who are on the front lines, there's a much greater degree of apprehension and there's a new sort of wave of unease that's swept through the capital in the wake of these attacks. And really, for the Iraqi leaders and for the U.S. occupation authorities, it's a lot of those people that they're going to have to reach out to get them to become more confident in this whole venture.
HEMMER: Rajiv Chandrasekaran, a writer for the "Washington Post," glad to know you're OK after that bomb went off just a few short yards away from your location inside the hotel in Baghdad.
Thank you for your time and sharing with us.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
