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American Morning
Sixteen Soldiers Killed, 20 Wounded in Missile Attack
Aired November 03, 2003 - 08:06 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Sixteen soldiers were killed, 20 wounded in the missile attack on that Chinook helicopter yesterday near Fallujah.
Matthew Chance live in Baghdad. The fallout now on this, Monday -- Matthew, good afternoon there.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Bill.
Good morning to you, in fact, in New York.
The investigation into the circumstances around the downing of that U.S. helicopter continuing, to try and find out exactly what it was that caused that aircraft to plunge out of the sky in the area around Fallujah. Eyewitnesses, as we said, have said it was a shoulder launched surface to air missile that took the chopper down. But the investigators are preparing what forensic evidence they can to try and make sure that that is, indeed, the case.
If it is, certainly it's been identified already as a real problem by the coalition authorities here on the ground. Ricardo Sanchez, the lieutenant colonel in charge of the ground forces of the coalition here saying some time ago that there were more weapons that had spread out across Iraq than it is humanly possible to protect.
So it's quite understandable if some of those weapons have fallen into the hands of these insurgents.
The other big question, Bill, is who are the people who are carrying out these attacks. A lot of theories. Are they Islamists, jihadis that are coming in from outside of Iraq, through its very porous borders to use this country as a platform to strike against the U.S. troops on the ground? Or are they disgruntled Iraqis angry at the possibility or angry, rather, at the fact that their country is still being occupied by the American forces, Bill. These are questions they have to answer.
HEMMER: And a number of them.
Matthew, thanks.
Matthew Chance in Baghdad.
Quickly to the Pentagon. And military planners there are looking at this attack with great concern and urgency today, as expected.
Barbara Starr there live for us -- Barbara, good morning. What's being said now?
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.
Well, as Matthew Chance just said, they are trying to figure out who was behind all of this. Now, the Bush administration saying it will stay the course in Iraq. But there is some new language we are beginning to hear here at the Pentagon. Top military officials now very openly calling the situation an insurgency.
What does that mean? Well, in military terms, an insurgency, of course, is organized resistance to existing authority. That would be the coalition, the U.S. occupation and the Iraqi security forces.
So at least a ratcheting up of their concern about it, even though they still don't know really who's behind it all.
But they do have their suspicions. Now, although the political side of the house, the civilian leadership, has downplayed it a bit in recent days, one man is getting a lot of attention from the U.S. military. That is a man named Izzat Ibrahim Al-Duri, a top aide to Saddam Hussein. You see him here, number six on the most wanted list.
There is strong intelligence, military sources tell CNN, that this man is probably recruiting and funding some of the foreign fighters coming into Iraq. This based on intelligence from people who have been interrogated in recent days that are close to him.
So what to do about all of this? Well, sources here at the Pentagon say they are going to continue sending dozens of additional intelligence personnel, analysts and intelligence experts, over to Iraq, trying to beef up their capability to figure out exactly what's going on and who is behind some of these deadly attacks -- Bill.
HEMMER: Barbara, quickly, back to these interrogations. Is there any connection with this man Al-Duri and Saddam Hussein at this present point?
STARR: Well, these two men have a very long relationship. When Saddam was in power, of course, Al-Duri, one of his top aides, controlling many of the operations in northern Iraq. That's one of the reasons they think he is still active up there. But they say that so far they can't connect the dots, if you will. They know these people are out there. They know that there is foreign fighters. They know there's Saddam loyalists. They know there are attacks. But they can't yet connect all of this together -- Bill.
HEMMER: Barbara, thanks.
And over the weekend, Donald Rumsfeld reiterating that no more U.S. troops needed on the ground in Iraq, a question that continues to be debated in many circles.
Thanks, Barbara.
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 November 3, 2003 - 08:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Sixteen soldiers were killed, 20 wounded in the missile attack on that Chinook helicopter yesterday near Fallujah.
Matthew Chance live in Baghdad. The fallout now on this, Monday -- Matthew, good afternoon there.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Bill.
Good morning to you, in fact, in New York.
The investigation into the circumstances around the downing of that U.S. helicopter continuing, to try and find out exactly what it was that caused that aircraft to plunge out of the sky in the area around Fallujah. Eyewitnesses, as we said, have said it was a shoulder launched surface to air missile that took the chopper down. But the investigators are preparing what forensic evidence they can to try and make sure that that is, indeed, the case.
If it is, certainly it's been identified already as a real problem by the coalition authorities here on the ground. Ricardo Sanchez, the lieutenant colonel in charge of the ground forces of the coalition here saying some time ago that there were more weapons that had spread out across Iraq than it is humanly possible to protect.
So it's quite understandable if some of those weapons have fallen into the hands of these insurgents.
The other big question, Bill, is who are the people who are carrying out these attacks. A lot of theories. Are they Islamists, jihadis that are coming in from outside of Iraq, through its very porous borders to use this country as a platform to strike against the U.S. troops on the ground? Or are they disgruntled Iraqis angry at the possibility or angry, rather, at the fact that their country is still being occupied by the American forces, Bill. These are questions they have to answer.
HEMMER: And a number of them.
Matthew, thanks.
Matthew Chance in Baghdad.
Quickly to the Pentagon. And military planners there are looking at this attack with great concern and urgency today, as expected.
Barbara Starr there live for us -- Barbara, good morning. What's being said now?
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.
Well, as Matthew Chance just said, they are trying to figure out who was behind all of this. Now, the Bush administration saying it will stay the course in Iraq. But there is some new language we are beginning to hear here at the Pentagon. Top military officials now very openly calling the situation an insurgency.
What does that mean? Well, in military terms, an insurgency, of course, is organized resistance to existing authority. That would be the coalition, the U.S. occupation and the Iraqi security forces.
So at least a ratcheting up of their concern about it, even though they still don't know really who's behind it all.
But they do have their suspicions. Now, although the political side of the house, the civilian leadership, has downplayed it a bit in recent days, one man is getting a lot of attention from the U.S. military. That is a man named Izzat Ibrahim Al-Duri, a top aide to Saddam Hussein. You see him here, number six on the most wanted list.
There is strong intelligence, military sources tell CNN, that this man is probably recruiting and funding some of the foreign fighters coming into Iraq. This based on intelligence from people who have been interrogated in recent days that are close to him.
So what to do about all of this? Well, sources here at the Pentagon say they are going to continue sending dozens of additional intelligence personnel, analysts and intelligence experts, over to Iraq, trying to beef up their capability to figure out exactly what's going on and who is behind some of these deadly attacks -- Bill.
HEMMER: Barbara, quickly, back to these interrogations. Is there any connection with this man Al-Duri and Saddam Hussein at this present point?
STARR: Well, these two men have a very long relationship. When Saddam was in power, of course, Al-Duri, one of his top aides, controlling many of the operations in northern Iraq. That's one of the reasons they think he is still active up there. But they say that so far they can't connect the dots, if you will. They know these people are out there. They know that there is foreign fighters. They know there's Saddam loyalists. They know there are attacks. But they can't yet connect all of this together -- Bill.
HEMMER: Barbara, thanks.
And over the weekend, Donald Rumsfeld reiterating that no more U.S. troops needed on the ground in Iraq, a question that continues to be debated in many circles.
Thanks, Barbara.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
