Click
photo to play
Length: 4:06
KIRAN CHETRY: But we begin in Iraq with a new threat
on a grim anniversary.
It was one year ago tonight that the war was taking a
sharp turn for the worse. One of the holiest sites
for Shiites, a mosque in Samarra, was bombed, setting
off a wave of revenge attacks on dozens of Sunni
mosques. From that point on, the explosion of
sectarian fighting snowballed. And, now, one year
later, the warfare is only getting uglier. Dirty
bombs are now part of the mix.
CNN's Michael Ware joins me now from Baghdad.
Michael, great to see you.
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hi.
CHETRY: Another possible change in tactics by the
terrorists, we're learning of today -- the latest,
the truck bombs that are combining explosives with
chlorine gas. And they have used chlorine in at least
two other attacks.
So, how dangerous is this stuff, this gas combined
with the explosives?
WARE: Well, if used properly, it's an horrific
weapon.
I mean, what chlorine does to the lungs is beyond
imagination. It inflicts terrible wounds and a
nightmarish death. And don't forget, this is a weapon
that is very powerful in instilling fear, in
spreading terror, which is why it's such a popular
strategy for terrorists to explore.
However, we have seen the insurgents here in Iraq
experimenting time and again with a whole variety of
chemical weapons, particularly blister agents, akin
to mustard gas, much of which was left behind --
decaying, old, almost beyond use -- from Saddam's
regime.
What we're now seeing is them experimenting again,
adapting explosives with chlorine tanks. It's a very
difficult technique to perfect, to have the mass
impact that I'm sure that the insurgents would be
looking for.
CHETRY: And is it something that's easy to do, easy
to get a hold of, and easy to do without people
noticing?
WARE: Well, chlorine is chlorine. I mean, that's not
hard to come by.
Explosives -- as many Iraqis have said to me, you
kick the dirt in this country, you will either
uncover oil or weapons. The materiel required for
such devices is not the problem.
The problem is knowing the right mix, how to use just
enough explosives to ignite the device, without
burning off the chemical. How to predict the weather
patterns, the meteorological condition that are best
suited to the deployment of this device. I mean,
weaponizing chlorine or any other agent really is at
the heart of the matter and is the most complicated
aspect of deploying chemical or other weapons of this
nature.
CHETRY: Well, these attacks, the latest ones,
actually happened in neighborhoods on the outskirts
of the capital. So, is this a sign that the new
Baghdad security plan is actually working, at least
in the center of the city, and it's maybe pushing the
violence out to other areas?
WARE: No, no, not really, not at all.
I mean, the Baghdad security plan is certainly having
an impact on the militias, on the death squads, on
the insurgents here in the city. But what it's doing
is just reshaping the nature of the violence. It's
watching it squeeze. It's like when you squeeze a
balloon, and the different ends change shapes.
The insurgents are merely melting back into the
population, sitting back, watching how the Americans
and the Iraqi security forces are operating, and
adapting their tactics.
Sure, there's a degree of displacement. That's
insurgents and militias moving to other areas
temporarily. We've seen that time and time again.
That's almost, without doubt, happening now.
But, by and large, violence still continues in this
city. We're seeing multiple car bombing attacks,
almost every day, killing dozens.
CHETRY: All right, Michael Ware, for us in Baghdad,
with more on the new news about those dirty chlorine
bombs they're using there, thank you.
Click photo to play
Length: 7:00
JOHN KING: ...killed in
Baghdad, dozens more wounded. Plus, a suicide car
bomb killed 13 people in the southern city of Najaf.
All this on the one year anniversary of the bombing
at the Golden Mosque in Samarra.
Tonight, a special report on the impact of that
bombing. We want to warn you, some of this video is
very graphic and can be difficult to watch. This
attack at one of the world's most important Shiite
mosques set off a wave of retaliation and sectarian
violence that continues today.
CNN has chosen not to show any actual executions, but
a warning again, this video may be difficult to
watch, but it's critically important.
Here's CNN's Michael Ware.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These
men are going to die. Shia, accused of being militia
members, executed by Sunni hardliners because they
believe in a different brand of Islam.
Their deaths displayed in this slickly produced video
by the Iraqi guerrilla group Ansar al-Sunna, loosely
affiliated to al Qaeda. This footage, typical of
images released by Ansar al-Sunna and seen on Iraqi
TV stations, was distributed by the group in the last
few weeks.
And as Sunnis kill Shia, so too, Shia kill Sunnis.
Like these men, kidnapped, tortured, their bodies --
hands still bound -- dumped in a Baghdad neighborhood
controlled by a Shia militia. Dozens of bodies appear
on the capital streets every morning.
To Iraqis, this is civil war. What it looks like,
what it is. A daily accumulation of terrible moments.
Just like these. Borne by families on both sides of
Iraq's sectarian divide. Sectarian violence has
plagued Iraq almost since the invasion itself. But
its full fury was not unleashed until one year ago --
February 22, 2006, when this holy place was blown
apart.
The Golden Dome shrine in the town of Samarra, north
of Baghdad, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam.
Its bombing so incendiary, moderate Shia leaders who
had managed to hold back their faithful in the face
of violent provocation for nearly two years finally
lost control.
The weeks after the bombing -- said to be by al
Qaeda, though it never claimed responsibility -- saw
scores of Sunni mosques attacked. This one raked with
machine gunfire. The blood of its attendants staining
the floor.
What had been ad hoc sectarian attacks turned into
systematic widespread campaigns of ethnic cleansing,
roaming death squads and indiscriminate suicide
bombings.
Included in the insurgent video, a sermon by a senior
Shia cleric calling for revenge against Sunnis just
days, says a Mehdi army source, after the Samarra
bombing.
HAZIM AL-ARAJI, SENIOR SADR SHIITE CLERIC (through
translator): If you want somebody to tell you to kill
and there is no one, I tell you to kill. I take
responsibility. Kill any Wahhabi. Kill any Baathist.
WARE: A top aide to the radical Shia militia leader
Muqtada al- Sadr, the cleric's words used on this
insurgent video as a warning to fellow Sunnis.
AL-ARAJI (through translator): It's your
responsibility, my responsibility and the
responsibility of every cleric and tribal leader to
mobilize a devout Shiite army to kill Baathist
takfiri. The Imam orders you to kill.
WARE: Though Mehdi army sources say he was quickly
ordered to curb his public anger, the sentiment was
widely felt.
This civil war -- sparked by the Samarra bombing,
defined by the bloodletting that followed -- is the
legacy of this man, Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, the al
Qaeda in Iraq leader assassinated by a U.S. missile
in June.
He planned it from the beginning, as this letter,
intercepted and released by U.S. intelligence
agencies and the coalition administration in February
2004 clearly outlines.
Zarqawi, an extremist Sunni, described Shia as the
most evil of mankind and believed only by provoking
them into the kind of violence seen in the wake of
Samarra would the slumbering Sunni nation awake and
eventually emerge victorious.
One year on, death squads the U.S. military says are
protected by and hidden within Iraq's police forces,
haunt a terrified Sunni community. Al Qaeda
assassination teams and car bomb attacks slaughter
Shia in their neighborhoods. Unknown bodies float
down the Tigris River. And Iraq is much closer to
what Zarqawi wanted it to be.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Michael Ware joins us now live from Baghdad.
Michael, gruesome images of the toll of the
insurgency there. You mentioned the letter the
Americans intercepted from Zarqawi. How closely did
it predict the state of Iraq today?
WARE (on camera): Well, John, it's chilling,
actually, to read this Zarqawi document that he wrote
way back in 2003, was intercepted, handed to Western
intelligence agencies and then made public in 2004,
because it maps out virtually what we are seeing now
here on the ground.
This was essentially what the then-U.S. mission
described as Zarqawi's action plan. He was spelling
out to Osama bin Laden, "this is how I see the
situation. This is what I think we need to do. This
is the way forward." Key to that was sparking civil
war of the very kind that you have now in Iraq.
He also spoke about galvanizing the Sunni insurgency,
infusing Jihad into it, bringing in the concept of
suicide or martyrdom operations. He mapped it out.
This is one of the most influential or significant
documents of the war so far.
KING: Michael Ware, another fascinating glimpse for
us. Gruesome, but very important to understanding the
story.
Michael, thank you. Joining us live from Baghdad.