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CNN Sunday Morning
U.S. Soldier Killed in Iraq
Aired August 03, 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.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: It's been a weekend of important developments in Iraq. A U.S. soldier was killed and three wounded. The sons of Saddam Hussein were buried, and the head of the U.S.-Iraq occupation sees no hatred among Iraqis for the United States.
With the latest on today's developments in Iraq, let's go now to CNN's Rym Brahimi. She's live in Baghdad, as unusual. Rym, how are you?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good, thanks. Hi John.
Well, indeed, as you mentioned, you've just encapsulated it all. But the date latest development here is a road to Baghdad Airport has been closed. Now this happened after a civilian car exploded. It's not clear what the cause of the explosion may have been exactly. U.S. military officials are investigating.
What they say is that it might have been a landmine and it might have been also an improvised explosive device. That's exactly what is usually used to target U.S. troops by some of those assailants against U.S. troops here. Also, this is a road that's very much patrolled by U.S. soldiers, so there are questions as to whether this may have been intended for U.S. soldiers patrolling this highway or not.
Now that comes, of course, as there have been several incidents now in which Iraqi civilians have been caught in crossfire, either when the assailants were attacking U.S. soldiers or when U.S. soldiers were actually retaliating, shooting back in self-defense. And that raises questions of basically how unpopular the U.S. troops might become if this continues.
Now, as you mentioned, John, Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator here, spoke to reporters yesterday, and he was asked about that. But he said that he didn't see any hatred among Iraqis for U.S. troops. And he said, in fact, most people here are grateful for the U.S. troops' presence and they have no problem with that.
And when asked about the attacks against U.S. troops, well, he blamed it basically on two groups. He said, on the one hand, you have the remnants of the former ruling Ba'ath Party regime, and on the other hand he said there is a group of what he called foreign terrorists that he said the U.S. has clear evidence are in Iraq -- John.
VAUSE: Rym, I'm just curious. It's been a few days now. We've seen the burial -- over the last couple of days we've seen the burial of Uday and Qusay. We've seen Saddam's daughters now in Jordan.
Is there a sense, a realization now, in Baghdad, and I guess on the people of the street, that really that Saddam Hussein's days are definitely over, or do they still believe that this guy could come back? Are there still people there holding on to hope or to some belief that Saddam Hussein could still be out there lurking and maybe holding to power somehow?
BRAHIMI: Well, that's a good question. I think from what we've been able to gather or understand from the general picture right now is that it seems that most people, generally speaking, are quite confident now that Saddam Hussein is really finished. When you speak to people, even when that audiotape came out, purportedly the voice of Saddam Hussein with him basically promising to return to power, you would have thought maybe that would frighten a few people. But a lot of people actually said, no, he's really finished.
He's in hiding. He's being hunted down. He is a man on the run. There's no way that he can really be a threat to anyone.
That said, there are specific areas where people still feel slightly intimidated. And from what I understand, those areas -- there's one in Baghdad roughly northwest in (UNINTELLIGIBLE) where it used to be a stronghold of a lot of Ba'ath Party people. And, of course, Tikrit, where Fedayeen is said to still be intimidating a lot of people there -- John.
VAUSE: OK. Rym Brahimi for us live in Baghdad. Thank you, Rym.
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 3, 2003 - 08:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: It's been a weekend of important developments in Iraq. A U.S. soldier was killed and three wounded. The sons of Saddam Hussein were buried, and the head of the U.S.-Iraq occupation sees no hatred among Iraqis for the United States.
With the latest on today's developments in Iraq, let's go now to CNN's Rym Brahimi. She's live in Baghdad, as unusual. Rym, how are you?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good, thanks. Hi John.
Well, indeed, as you mentioned, you've just encapsulated it all. But the date latest development here is a road to Baghdad Airport has been closed. Now this happened after a civilian car exploded. It's not clear what the cause of the explosion may have been exactly. U.S. military officials are investigating.
What they say is that it might have been a landmine and it might have been also an improvised explosive device. That's exactly what is usually used to target U.S. troops by some of those assailants against U.S. troops here. Also, this is a road that's very much patrolled by U.S. soldiers, so there are questions as to whether this may have been intended for U.S. soldiers patrolling this highway or not.
Now that comes, of course, as there have been several incidents now in which Iraqi civilians have been caught in crossfire, either when the assailants were attacking U.S. soldiers or when U.S. soldiers were actually retaliating, shooting back in self-defense. And that raises questions of basically how unpopular the U.S. troops might become if this continues.
Now, as you mentioned, John, Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator here, spoke to reporters yesterday, and he was asked about that. But he said that he didn't see any hatred among Iraqis for U.S. troops. And he said, in fact, most people here are grateful for the U.S. troops' presence and they have no problem with that.
And when asked about the attacks against U.S. troops, well, he blamed it basically on two groups. He said, on the one hand, you have the remnants of the former ruling Ba'ath Party regime, and on the other hand he said there is a group of what he called foreign terrorists that he said the U.S. has clear evidence are in Iraq -- John.
VAUSE: Rym, I'm just curious. It's been a few days now. We've seen the burial -- over the last couple of days we've seen the burial of Uday and Qusay. We've seen Saddam's daughters now in Jordan.
Is there a sense, a realization now, in Baghdad, and I guess on the people of the street, that really that Saddam Hussein's days are definitely over, or do they still believe that this guy could come back? Are there still people there holding on to hope or to some belief that Saddam Hussein could still be out there lurking and maybe holding to power somehow?
BRAHIMI: Well, that's a good question. I think from what we've been able to gather or understand from the general picture right now is that it seems that most people, generally speaking, are quite confident now that Saddam Hussein is really finished. When you speak to people, even when that audiotape came out, purportedly the voice of Saddam Hussein with him basically promising to return to power, you would have thought maybe that would frighten a few people. But a lot of people actually said, no, he's really finished.
He's in hiding. He's being hunted down. He is a man on the run. There's no way that he can really be a threat to anyone.
That said, there are specific areas where people still feel slightly intimidated. And from what I understand, those areas -- there's one in Baghdad roughly northwest in (UNINTELLIGIBLE) where it used to be a stronghold of a lot of Ba'ath Party people. And, of course, Tikrit, where Fedayeen is said to still be intimidating a lot of people there -- John.
VAUSE: OK. Rym Brahimi for us live in Baghdad. Thank you, Rym.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
