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CNN Live Event/Special

New Blasts Rock Baghdad

Aired April 02, 2003 - 04:09   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.


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to quickly show you a live picture right now. I'm told it's from Kirkuk. Apparently showing flames. I know it's a little hard to read at this point. We're apparently, again, just saying it's a live picture so the camera is moving around a little bit. There are apparently flames somewhere in or around Kirkuk. That, of course, a city in -- there you go, there you see it on the right hand side of your screen -- oil rich city in the north of Iraq near Kurdish-controlled territory.
We're going to go to Rym Brahimi, who is live in Amman, Jordan, to talk about the latest Baghdad bombing -- Rym.

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, overnight bombing started quite late, compared to the previous days, at about 3:00 a.m., according to people I spoke to in Baghdad. They said they heard the sound of missiles flying overhead and lots of that. There were also, from what we understand, a targeting of the republican palace, which is in the center of the city, as well as an air force building that's also quite central in a very commercial neighborhood near a theater. That building seems to have been heavily damaged. It's been a building the coalition forces have been pounding at day after day in the past -- since the beginning of the war.

And now we also spoke to Red Cross officials in Baghdad, Anderson, and they're telling us of what they describe as a horror scene they saw in a hospital in that city called Hillah (ph), which is about an hour's drive south of the Iraqi capital. The doctors from the Red Cross went there and said they saw hundreds of wounded people. It's a small hospital, but it's clearly overcrowded there with the wounded, mainly women and children.

He said -- the doctors also said that they also saw some corpses that appeared to have been brought in the hospital within the past 48 hours, deteriorated, dismembered corpses. A very horrific scene described by the ICRC members who seem to say that it's the result of a massive raid that occurred there within the past 48 hours -- Anderson.

COOPER: Rym, I know Iraqi officials are very quick to point out civilian casualties. Do they ever release information about military unit casualties or paramilitary unit casualties?

BRAHIMI: It's very difficult to get that from Iraqi officials. Usually the officials that come and brief reporters, be it the Information Minister or the military spokesman, well they release civilian figures. Sometimes they will say that they have had some losses here and there, but it's not a regular trend, by all means. And they also do something -- they also give out a lot of casualties on the other side. They say we've killed so many people, we have inflicted casualties among the American forces and that's something that they will point out, too. But very rarely will we know exactly how many of the Iraqi military or paramilitary forces or militias, even from the ruling Baath Party, have been effected by the wounded or killed -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right. And I suppose that's a number, frankly, we may never know. It's one of those things that might just get lost in the course of the war.

Rym Brahimi, live in Amman, Jordan, 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 April 2, 2003 - 04:09   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to quickly show you a live picture right now. I'm told it's from Kirkuk. Apparently showing flames. I know it's a little hard to read at this point. We're apparently, again, just saying it's a live picture so the camera is moving around a little bit. There are apparently flames somewhere in or around Kirkuk. That, of course, a city in -- there you go, there you see it on the right hand side of your screen -- oil rich city in the north of Iraq near Kurdish-controlled territory.
We're going to go to Rym Brahimi, who is live in Amman, Jordan, to talk about the latest Baghdad bombing -- Rym.

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, overnight bombing started quite late, compared to the previous days, at about 3:00 a.m., according to people I spoke to in Baghdad. They said they heard the sound of missiles flying overhead and lots of that. There were also, from what we understand, a targeting of the republican palace, which is in the center of the city, as well as an air force building that's also quite central in a very commercial neighborhood near a theater. That building seems to have been heavily damaged. It's been a building the coalition forces have been pounding at day after day in the past -- since the beginning of the war.

And now we also spoke to Red Cross officials in Baghdad, Anderson, and they're telling us of what they describe as a horror scene they saw in a hospital in that city called Hillah (ph), which is about an hour's drive south of the Iraqi capital. The doctors from the Red Cross went there and said they saw hundreds of wounded people. It's a small hospital, but it's clearly overcrowded there with the wounded, mainly women and children.

He said -- the doctors also said that they also saw some corpses that appeared to have been brought in the hospital within the past 48 hours, deteriorated, dismembered corpses. A very horrific scene described by the ICRC members who seem to say that it's the result of a massive raid that occurred there within the past 48 hours -- Anderson.

COOPER: Rym, I know Iraqi officials are very quick to point out civilian casualties. Do they ever release information about military unit casualties or paramilitary unit casualties?

BRAHIMI: It's very difficult to get that from Iraqi officials. Usually the officials that come and brief reporters, be it the Information Minister or the military spokesman, well they release civilian figures. Sometimes they will say that they have had some losses here and there, but it's not a regular trend, by all means. And they also do something -- they also give out a lot of casualties on the other side. They say we've killed so many people, we have inflicted casualties among the American forces and that's something that they will point out, too. But very rarely will we know exactly how many of the Iraqi military or paramilitary forces or militias, even from the ruling Baath Party, have been effected by the wounded or killed -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right. And I suppose that's a number, frankly, we may never know. It's one of those things that might just get lost in the course of the war.

Rym Brahimi, live in Amman, Jordan, 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