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Length: 3:58
WOLF BLITZER: Even as the
Bush administration reviews its war strategy and
Congress debates ways to bring troops home, there is
now word that more Americans are being sent to Iraq
to battle insurgents.
But is the Iraq conflict about to blow up into all
out civil war?
We begin with a stunning new development.
Joining us now from Baghdad, our correspondent,
Michael Ware. Michael, CNN has now confirmed that the
Iraqi Minister of Interior has issued an arrest
warrant for the leader of the influential Sunni
Association of Muslim Scholars, a man by the name of
Harith al-Dhari, who is believed to be in Jordan
right now.
Given the tensions that already exist between Shia
and Sunni, give us some perspective on what this
means.
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, such an
arrest warrant, if it's pursued or even if it denies
Harith al-Dhari from returning to Iraq, could be
potentially explosive. I mean, Harith al-Dhari is one
of the leading lights, one of the leading figures for
the Sunni community here in Iraq.
And remember, it's the Sunnis who are the backbone of
the insurgency. And while Harith al-Dhari and his
peak organization, the Association of Muslim
Scholars, may not speak for every Sunni, it's still
the leading organization that carries the Sunni
voice.
And it's certainly going to be seen within that
community as a direct attack not just on this
organization, but on their entire community. It's
going to be viewed as a signal of intent by this
Shia-led government. This really could spell trouble
-- Wolf.
BLITZER: This is of the equivalent -- correct me if
I'm wrong -- if the government decided to issue an
arrest warrant for Muqtada al-Sadr, who's a radical
Shiite cleric, that would cause enormous
ramifications in the Shia community. To do this to
this Sunni leader is very provocative.
WARE: Absolutely. And I mean we need to bear in mind,
as well, that there has been an arrest warrant
hanging over Shia militant cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for
several years now. That relates to the assassination
of a rival cleric in southern Iraq in 2003.
Now, eventually the investigative trial led back to
Muqtada. A warrant was issued.
Now, U.S. forces have not enacted that warrant,
leaving it to the Iraqi government, which still has
done nothing about it. If it now turns around and the
Minister of Interior, dominated by another Shia
militia, issues a warrant against such an important
Sunni leader and then pursues it or effectively
forces him into exile, this will be a rallying cry
for Sunnis generally. It'll inflame the insurgency.
BLITZER: And I assume it will inflame the Sunnis to
the point that it will make the status, the situation
of American troops in Iraq even more vulnerable.
WARE: Oh, for sure. I mean this feeds into a very
complicated dynamic that has American troops caught
in the middle of what is, let's be frank about it, a
civil war. And this is just another act in that
sectarian conflict that we're seeing.
I mean, and U.S. troops here, stuck between these two
warring parties, now, if the Sunnis are inflamed by
this, they will be trying to direct their attacks
against this Shia-led government.
But don't forget, to the Sunni mind, U.S. forces are
just as legitimate a target.
Why?
Because this is a U.S.-backed government. To the
Sunnis and the Sunni insurgents, America brought this
democratic model that delivered power to the Iraqi
Shias and to their mind, Iran. And here they are
trying to arrest a major Sunni leader.
BLITZER: Michael Ware reporting for us from Baghdad.
Thanks.
WARE: Thank you, Wolf.
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Length: 7:07
WOLF BLITZER: We begin
with breaking news we're following out of Iraq. The
U.S. military saying a number of security
contractors, including four Americans have now been
abducted following the ambush of a supply convoy. The
attack took place in southern Iraq near Nasariya. Our
Michael Ware is standing by in Baghdad, but let's
turn and go to the Pentagon, our senior Pentagon
correspondent Jamie McIntyre for the latest
developments. What do we know right now, Jamie?
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf,
officially the U.S. military is saying very little
about this except that there was an incident, they're
calling it, near Nasariya involving a convoy. That's
all they'll say for the record while they say they
are gathering information and about to put out some
sort of release.
Unofficially a U.S. military official confirms to CNN
that as a result of this incident or attack, that a
number of people were abducted by unknown assailants,
including, it is believed, four U.S. contractors who
are working as part of this supply convoy. It is not
known who was responsible for the abduction, although
it took place in or near Nasariya in the southern
part of Iraq, a largely Shia area. But again, the
U.S. military insists that it's still gathering
information. They did confirm, however, that a search
is under way for those missing American contractors
-- Wolf.
BLITZER: Stand by, Jamie. I want to come back to you.
Michael Ware is our man in Baghdad. You're checking
this story out as well. What are you hearing in
Baghdad, Michael?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf,
obviously it's very difficult. It's 3:00 a.m. here.
And the city is under curfew like the rest of the
country. But I've just spoken to some of the British
forces in the south. They confirm that an incident
has taken place. However, they say that it did not
involve any British military or British civilians.
Nonetheless, we have been told here in the capital
that as many as four American contractors may be
missing. So it's confirmed that it's in the area of
Nasariya and clearly, there's a lot yet to come --
Wolf.
BLITZER: What we're hearing also, Jamie and Michael,
let me pick it up with Michael first, that this is
one of these regular convoys. There's an enormous
amount of traffic, ground traffic going in from
northern Kuwait where they stage -- I was there last
year and watched how they do this -- usually 30 or 40
trucks. They drive on that 400-mile road toward
Baghdad and beyond, usually under pretty heavy
security right now. Certainly it's a very dangerous
drive from Kuwait up to Baghdad. But, Michael, I'm
sure you've been on that road many times. These
contractors, these truck drivers, the U.S. military
who go along with them, they're doing it all the
time.
WARE: Absolutely. Generally what we see is a certain
company will have a contract to provide food or other
services to the U.S. military or coalition forces.
They will then contract a security firm to protect
their facilities and their convoys. It seems to be
that this is the type of convoy that we're talking
about. So it has a private security firm that is
providing the protection.
Now what we understand is, it was traveling towards
one of the major bases in or around Nasariya.
Nasariya, there is certainly one American logistics
facility that is very significant and deals with a
lot of the supplies that come into the country for
coalition forces. So there's a lot of regular
traffic. We also know that in this province, around
this area, there has been some tension with the
coalition forces, the Brits who are in control of
that area.
And the governor of that province has requested or
insisted that British forces do not patrol the area
and restrict themselves to the protection of these
logistics bases. This is an area that is controlled
by Shia militias. Some of which U.S. intelligence
claims are backed by Iran. This is not a Sunni area
and this is unlikely to be the work of Sunni
insurgents -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jamie McIntyre, this coming on a day where
the U.S. military announcing that 2,200 more United
States Marines are about to be deployed to the Anbar
Province, that huge province in Western Iraq. What's
going on on that front?
MCINTYRE: Well, again, a day after General John
Abizaid made a pretty spirited argument that
additional U.S. military forces really wouldn't make
much difference in the long run, he also conceded
that he had approved this dispatch of some 2,200
Marines, part of a force that had been held in
reserve on ships to the al Anbar Province to assist
the 20,000 Marines already there. This is an area
where admittedly all U.S. commanders admit they do
not have control of al Anbar Province, which is a
Sunni insurgent stronghold.
But just to come back to the point that Michael Ware
made, this abduction that took place in the south of
Iraq is an area that's controlled by Shia militias.
And coming after a day when we saw this mass
kidnapping in Baghdad, which was carried out by
people who appeared to be dressed as Iraqi police, it
raises the questions about whether there could have
been any Shia militia involvement in this incident in
the south. And again I just want to stress the U.S.
military says it is still gathering information about
precisely what happened, even as they've already
launched a search to try to see if they can find the
missing people.
BLITZER: And Michael, even as the tension level in
Iraq is sky high right now, potentially it could get
a whole lot worse in the coming days with word now
that the Iraqi Interior Ministry has issued a warrant
for the arrest of a top Iraqi Sunni leader. What's
going on, on that front?
WARE: Well, what we know is that this evening the
Ministry of Interior announced that it issued this
arrest warrant for this leading Sunni cleric. Now he
may not speak for all Sunnis in Iraq, but certainly
most of that community will see this as an attack on
them more broadly. Now what generally is happening is
that we're seeing this predominantly Shia-led
government -- and this is a government that has
buried deep within it many, many of these militia
elements -- we're seeing it going on the offensive.
It clearly thinks, elements within this government,
that now is the time, during this period of strategic
uncertainty in the U.S. following the midterm
elections, there is a U.S. soldier missing who was,
according to the U.S. military, abducted in the
lead-up to the midterms. Now U.S. military
intelligence sources say all investigative channels
point to a Shia militia. Now we're seeing this in the
south, in a Shia militia controlled area. It
certainly begs a lot of questions about what's going
on strategically here -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, we're going to have both of you
stand by, Jamie and Michael. Both stand by. We're
following the breaking news.
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Length: 3:21
WOLF BLITZER: Back now to
our breaking news story -- an ambush of security
contractors in southern Iraq. The U.S. military
saying four Americans are among those abducted after
the attack. Our Michael Ware is in Baghdad. Jamie
McIntyre is over at the Pentagon.
Michael, this kind of situation, we don't hear about
a lot of Americans being kidnapped or captured, at
least recently, in Iraq. I assume that's because
security precautions have really been beefed up.
WARE: That's part of the reason, Wolf. There
definitely has been an increase in the protection of
MSRs, or main supply routes. There's also been
beefing up of convoy protection, in terms of anti-IED
technology, more armor -- and this is both civilian
contractors and security teams and U.S. and coalition
military teams.
So, yes, this has very much been a part of doing
business here in Iraq. We've seen contractors hauled
from their trucks or hauled from their vehicles in
the past, including at least one American. And what
we're hearing now is that perhaps this incident now
involves four Americans. And there's unconfirmed
reports from coalition sources that there may be a
fifth missing person as well, a European.
Now this is in an area, a province that was handed
over to Iraqi control just in September. So
technically, the British, Australian and Italian
forces and Americans there protecting significant
logistics bases do not patrol the province itself.
They're not responsible for security in that region.
That's left to the Iraqis.
But this is in a very heavily militia -- Shia militia
dominated area. So something like this could not take
place without the involvement of some kind of
paramilitary organization down in this area, one
would have to speculate -- Wolf.
BLITZER: And Jamie, if, in fact, these Shia militia,
the death squads are putting on Iraqi Army uniforms
and creating what seem to be normal Iraqi military
checkpoints, how is the U.S. military -- what are
they telling you? How are they dealing with this real
threat to U.S. forces trying to determine who's
friendly -- who's a friend and who's a foe?
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well,
first of all, they're still trying to figure out what
happened in this particular incident. And you know
from your days as a Pentagon correspondent, that they
always urge you to be cautious about the initial
reports. In fact, we're now being told it's not clear
that U.S. forces are participating in a search. It
may, in fact, be British forces along with Iraqi
security forces, as Michael Ware pointed out, who are
actually trying to sort out what happened.
Just to backtrack slightly, it appears that this was
a civilian convoy coming out of Kuwait of about 19
vehicles, according to a Pentagon spokesman, and that
it resulted in as many as 14 people being abducted,
including those four Americans who work for this
Kuwaiti-based contractor.
But at this point, they're still trying to sort out
exactly what happened, and whether or not there was
any subterfuge involved in the form of somebody
dressing up as Iraqi security forces.
BLITZER: Jamie McIntyre, Michael Ware, thanks to both
of you.