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CNN Saturday Morning News
Another Attack on U.S. Soldiers in Iraq
Aired June 28, 2003 - 08:00 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Back to Iraq now, where there's been another ambush and another death of a U.S. soldier. The latest attack was last night in a Shiite neighborhood near Baghdad.
CNN's Ben Wedeman joins us now from Baghdad with the very latest -- good afternoon to you there, Ben.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hello, Heidi.
That attack you referred to took place in the Sadr City neighborhood. That's a northern suburb of Baghdad, a very poor Shiite neighborhood where one U.S. soldier was killed, four were wounded, in addition to a civilian interpreter who was working with those soldiers.
Now, that area, actually, has been very unstable for quite some time. But there haven't been a lot of attacks on U.S. forces there because that Shiite area has long been very hostile to the former regime of Saddam Hussein and most people there had actually welcomed U.S. troops initially.
But as the situation in Baghdad becomes more difficult with electricity cuts, with water cuts, with many other services unavailable, people are becoming frustrated and the level of anger toward the U.S. presence is rising.
Now, another development. According to a senior military official, investigators are, in his words, within hours of resolving the disappearance of two soldiers who went missing on Wednesday night in an area about 40 kilometers to the north of Baghdad. Now, U.S. forces have taken six people into custody in connection with that case. Yesterday there were fairly extensive air and ground searches for those two soldiers and the Humvee they were in. But at least those air and ground searches, we are told, did not come up with anything.
Now, another development in Baghdad. There has been a series of fires set around the capital. Dave Rusk (ph), my cameraman and I, spent a long time running around the city basically going from one fire to another, as they were just going in various parts of the town. In several cases, they were warehouses, some of them old and no longer in use, in fact, in areas that had been subject to intensive looting.
But I spoke with the head of the Baghdad civil defense, who told me that it's clear that many of these fires were set by arsons -- Heidi. COLLINS: Well, Ben, just wondering, you know, we see quite a few people there trying to put those fires out. I mean we've got people looting them and then people trying to put them out.
Are these Iraqi civilians? Any idea at this point who they would be?
WEDEMAN: Well, actually, they're -- it doesn't appear that there's much looting going on because there's nothing left to loot. It does appear to be a case of out straight cut arson. And, in fact, the head of civil defense told me that some, several people had been brought in for questioning. It's not known who's behind it.
But what we do know is that -- in fact, there's just a fire going on just up the street from here -- that this is something of a sudden development. You have had fires on a fairly regular basis, but none as sort of as common and as frequent as they are today -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, Ben Wedeman live for us this morning in Baghdad.
Thanks so much, Ben.
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 June 28, 2003 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Back to Iraq now, where there's been another ambush and another death of a U.S. soldier. The latest attack was last night in a Shiite neighborhood near Baghdad.
CNN's Ben Wedeman joins us now from Baghdad with the very latest -- good afternoon to you there, Ben.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hello, Heidi.
That attack you referred to took place in the Sadr City neighborhood. That's a northern suburb of Baghdad, a very poor Shiite neighborhood where one U.S. soldier was killed, four were wounded, in addition to a civilian interpreter who was working with those soldiers.
Now, that area, actually, has been very unstable for quite some time. But there haven't been a lot of attacks on U.S. forces there because that Shiite area has long been very hostile to the former regime of Saddam Hussein and most people there had actually welcomed U.S. troops initially.
But as the situation in Baghdad becomes more difficult with electricity cuts, with water cuts, with many other services unavailable, people are becoming frustrated and the level of anger toward the U.S. presence is rising.
Now, another development. According to a senior military official, investigators are, in his words, within hours of resolving the disappearance of two soldiers who went missing on Wednesday night in an area about 40 kilometers to the north of Baghdad. Now, U.S. forces have taken six people into custody in connection with that case. Yesterday there were fairly extensive air and ground searches for those two soldiers and the Humvee they were in. But at least those air and ground searches, we are told, did not come up with anything.
Now, another development in Baghdad. There has been a series of fires set around the capital. Dave Rusk (ph), my cameraman and I, spent a long time running around the city basically going from one fire to another, as they were just going in various parts of the town. In several cases, they were warehouses, some of them old and no longer in use, in fact, in areas that had been subject to intensive looting.
But I spoke with the head of the Baghdad civil defense, who told me that it's clear that many of these fires were set by arsons -- Heidi. COLLINS: Well, Ben, just wondering, you know, we see quite a few people there trying to put those fires out. I mean we've got people looting them and then people trying to put them out.
Are these Iraqi civilians? Any idea at this point who they would be?
WEDEMAN: Well, actually, they're -- it doesn't appear that there's much looting going on because there's nothing left to loot. It does appear to be a case of out straight cut arson. And, in fact, the head of civil defense told me that some, several people had been brought in for questioning. It's not known who's behind it.
But what we do know is that -- in fact, there's just a fire going on just up the street from here -- that this is something of a sudden development. You have had fires on a fairly regular basis, but none as sort of as common and as frequent as they are today -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, Ben Wedeman live for us this morning in Baghdad.
Thanks so much, Ben.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
