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CNN Sunday Morning
Another U.S. Soldier Killed in Iraq
Aired July 27, 2003 - 07:31 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.
CHUCK ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: There's also another deadly attack against U.S. troops in Iraq. This time, a U.S. soldier is dead and a Marine is wounded.
Let's get more now from CNN's Rym Brahimi joining us from the Iraqi capitol, Baghdad -- Rym?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chuck, indeed, in the early hours of the morning, about 2:30 a.m., one Marine from the first Marine expeditionary force was killed, another one was wounded when they were attacked by a grenade.
Now this happened some 30 kilometers or maybe a 40 minute drive south of Baghdad. And that just -- that also comes as General Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers is expected to arrive in Baghdad for a quick visit. He's going to be briefed on the situation with regard to the military.
But the military have had their deadliest week so far with some 15 U.S. soldiers killed in just eight days. Yesterday as you know, Chuck, three U.S. soldiers were killed at a hospital, a children's hospital in Ba Qubah, that they were guarding. It was also a grenade attack as three of them died. Four others were wounded.
And in a same day, another soldier was killed when his convoy on the western highway from Baghdad came under small fire and a rocket propelled grenade attack.
Now it's not just been the Sunni triangle that U.S. soldiers are facing resistance, if you will. There were violent clashes in Kurbila, in the holy Shi'ite city of Kurbila, about an hour and a half's drive south from Baghdad, when an angry crowd started throwing stones at U.S. soldiers there, accusing them of having killed an Iraqi. The U.S. soldiers shot -- fired guns in the air, just to try and calm and disperse the crowd.
Again, a lot of tension in this very, very hot summer day -- Chuck?
ROBERTS: Rym, what's the status with the bodies of Uday and Qusay Hussein? Are they being buried soon?
BRAHIMI: Well, that seems to be the subject of an emerging debate, if you will. There's been already a distant relative claiming the bodies in Tikrit, which is the birthplace of Saddam Hussein, but also let me show you this, Chuck. This is a letter that was written by another relative of Saddam Hussein.
Now is a very interesting letter because this relative has had several members of his own family killed by Saddam Hussein, assassination attempt he describes in the letter against him and his family by Uday and Qusay.
And despite that, he's asking Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, to allow him to take the bodies and bury them in Tikrit. And he says it is from a moral and humanitarian obligation from those very same modern traditional and value based principles that you are trying to instill in our wounded country that we ask you to release their two bodies, so they can be afforded a burial in accordance with the principles of orthodox Islamic religion.
So again, we haven't had -- we haven't heard any response from the coalition authorities, but the relative who sent that letter said they expected Paul Bremer to receive it sometime this morning -- Chuck?
ROBERTS: Understood. Rym Brahimi in Baghdad. Rym, thanks very much.
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 July 27, 2003 - 07:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHUCK ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: There's also another deadly attack against U.S. troops in Iraq. This time, a U.S. soldier is dead and a Marine is wounded.
Let's get more now from CNN's Rym Brahimi joining us from the Iraqi capitol, Baghdad -- Rym?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chuck, indeed, in the early hours of the morning, about 2:30 a.m., one Marine from the first Marine expeditionary force was killed, another one was wounded when they were attacked by a grenade.
Now this happened some 30 kilometers or maybe a 40 minute drive south of Baghdad. And that just -- that also comes as General Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers is expected to arrive in Baghdad for a quick visit. He's going to be briefed on the situation with regard to the military.
But the military have had their deadliest week so far with some 15 U.S. soldiers killed in just eight days. Yesterday as you know, Chuck, three U.S. soldiers were killed at a hospital, a children's hospital in Ba Qubah, that they were guarding. It was also a grenade attack as three of them died. Four others were wounded.
And in a same day, another soldier was killed when his convoy on the western highway from Baghdad came under small fire and a rocket propelled grenade attack.
Now it's not just been the Sunni triangle that U.S. soldiers are facing resistance, if you will. There were violent clashes in Kurbila, in the holy Shi'ite city of Kurbila, about an hour and a half's drive south from Baghdad, when an angry crowd started throwing stones at U.S. soldiers there, accusing them of having killed an Iraqi. The U.S. soldiers shot -- fired guns in the air, just to try and calm and disperse the crowd.
Again, a lot of tension in this very, very hot summer day -- Chuck?
ROBERTS: Rym, what's the status with the bodies of Uday and Qusay Hussein? Are they being buried soon?
BRAHIMI: Well, that seems to be the subject of an emerging debate, if you will. There's been already a distant relative claiming the bodies in Tikrit, which is the birthplace of Saddam Hussein, but also let me show you this, Chuck. This is a letter that was written by another relative of Saddam Hussein.
Now is a very interesting letter because this relative has had several members of his own family killed by Saddam Hussein, assassination attempt he describes in the letter against him and his family by Uday and Qusay.
And despite that, he's asking Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, to allow him to take the bodies and bury them in Tikrit. And he says it is from a moral and humanitarian obligation from those very same modern traditional and value based principles that you are trying to instill in our wounded country that we ask you to release their two bodies, so they can be afforded a burial in accordance with the principles of orthodox Islamic religion.
So again, we haven't had -- we haven't heard any response from the coalition authorities, but the relative who sent that letter said they expected Paul Bremer to receive it sometime this morning -- Chuck?
ROBERTS: Understood. Rym Brahimi in Baghdad. Rym, thanks very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
