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Breaking News
Tanks Surround Ramallah, Arafat's Compound
Aired June 09, 2002 - 21:23 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.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We want to update you now on the breaking news situation in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the location of Yasser Arafat -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority headquarters there. Some 100 tanks and APCs, according to Palestinian security sources as well as eyewitnesses, are now surrounding the city of Ramallah as well as Yasser Arafat's compound.
We have helicopter gun ships flying overhead, hovering overhead. We want to find out exactly what this pinpoint incursion is. CNN's Matthew Chance is in central Ramallah right now.
Matthew, what do you know about what's going on?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's not so much a pinpoint incursion as a general incursion and reoccupation of Ramallah it seems from where we're standing right in the center of Ramallah right now.
From our vantage point, we can't see any tanks on the streets, but that's simply because of the vantage point that we are in. Eyewitnesses from elsewhere in the city are talking of, as you mentioned, perhaps as many as a 100 tanks that have entered -- not just sit on the outskirts of Ramallah but actually entered this West Bank city and have moved into key positions around Yasser Arafat's compound and around other locations in the city.
I can hear an awful lot even though I say I can't see it. It's dark here, of course. It's in the middle of the night here, just after 4:00 in the morning. It's before daybreak. But I can hear an awful lot.
Just a few moments ago, a tank shell fired in -- it's difficult to say in which direction, but we heard that very clearly. There are also very long, rapid bursts of heavy machine gun fire of the type of caliber gun on top of the Israeli tanks, as we've become very aware, very used to the kind of noise that machine gun makes.
Helicopter gunships can be heard circling in the skies over Ramallah. There is no report yet though of any attack on Yasser Arafat's compound, but you have to remember there are attacks apparently just on the outskirts of that compound. They nearly left the area on Friday morning after moving in for several hours, causing significant, quite heavy damage to the several buildings that remain in Yasser Arafat's compound.
Yasser Arafat, himself, is inside the compound. There are no reports yet though of that compound coming under attack, Carol, for the moment. We're watching the situation very closely.
LIN: Matthew, right now, we do have a Reuters wire report indicating that -- or at least quoting Palestinian sources that the Israelis have now fired into that compound. Does it seem to you, from your sources, that the Israeli military operation is now targeting Yasser Arafat himself, his person?
CHANCE: Well, first of all, I cannot confirm that Reuters report that you've just mentioned although, there -- obviously, this is a danger of -- the possibility of the Israelis being so close to the compound. And as you know, in the past, they have come in. They have fired at the compound. They have destroyed buildings in the compound. It's difficult to say what the strategy of the Israelis is because certainly, if they wanted to kill Yasser Arafat, they could do that. They wouldn't have to come in a hundred tanks and stand outside of his compound.
They seem to following a different strategy. It seems slightly confused to many people who have been observing the situation. The strategy, at this point, appears to be simply to demonstrate to the Palestinian leadership that they can enter Ramallah, they can surround the compound at will and they are willing to, you know, sort of fire shells, fire machine guns, fire whatever they like at Yasser Arafat's buildings.
LIN: What is left of the compound, Matthew?
CHANCE: Well, I was there -- for the most part -- today and I can tell you it's pretty destroyed. There are a few buildings left in the middle that are livable and those are the buildings in which Yasser Arafat is living. But the vast majority of the structures in the compound have been raised to the ground by the various incursions by the Israeli armed forces. The most recent one is of course, as I mentioned, on Friday, where they destroyed basically three or four very big buildings inside the compound. And when I say destroyed, I mean completely raised to the ground, concrete structures, some of which had already been badly damaged during the previous incursions last month where Yasser Arafat, of course, was held or prevented from leaving his compound for several weeks.
LIN: Matthew, we've got a short bit yet left here to be with you. But I'm just wondering -- given the size of this operation, how does it compare to the major incursion from a couple of months ago when we're talking about a hundred tanks and APCs, helicopters overhead?
CHANCE: Well, it's a comparable size on the level of the number of tanks and armor. What we're not seeing this time, at this stage, are ground troops coming in, moving from building to building, seeking out what the Israelis call "Palestinian militants." We're not seeing people being taken from their homes. We're not seeing people, at this stage, being arrested. LIN: All right, thank you very much. Matthew Chance reporting live from central Ramallah where a military operation by the Israelis is clearly underway. We're going to try to confirm this Reuters report that the military has now fired directly into Yasser Arafat's compound.
Matthew Chance just reporting now that Yasser Arafat is indeed inside his compound while this military action is taking place.
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