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Length: 6:26
JOHN KING: We begin tonight with the kidnappings,
but, first, some perspective.
At least 1,600 people were murdered in Baghdad last
month. Hundreds more have been blown to bits. Nearly
every day, the river fills up with tortured bodies.
But, even by those standards, gruesome standards,
what happened today in Baghdad is something else.
With tens of thousands of troops patrolling the city,
a convoy of trucks somehow made its way into a
neighborhood right in the center of town, not far
from the Green Zone, right around 10 a.m. local time.
The trucks pulled up. Gunmen got out. And a bizarre
day of terror and mystery began. Reporting tonight
from a badly shaken Baghdad, here's CNN's Michael
Ware.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These
Iraqi security forces move in to seal off a Baghdad
university building, but it was too late.
Just a short time earlier, about 80 gunmen in similar
army or police uniforms had also set up a cordon,
before pouring inside this four-story research
institute, claiming to be on official business,
segregating men from women, and, within 20 minutes,
escaping in a convoy of more than 20 vehicles, taking
the men hostage -- the exact number, unknown; police
saying as many as 60, a government minister saying
it's up to 100 -- the only ones left behind, the
distraught women.
The sophisticated raid, executed at 10:00 a.m., just
after rush hour, was audacious -- so many gunmen, so
many hostages, possibly the largest mass kidnapping
of the war, all within the heart of the capital, with
more than 60,000 American and Iraqi troops on the
streets.
Hours later, the top police commanders in charge of
the area where the kidnapping took place were called
in for questioning by Ministry of Interior officials.
Then, overnight, a government spokesman revealed most
of the hostages had been released unharmed.
Mystery surrounds the affair, with signs of
paramilitary involvement, no claim of responsibility,
uncertainty as to the precise number of men taken,
and, of course, the men's sudden release, an uncommon
end to such incidents in Iraq. Yet the scale of the
kidnapping on the morning after a one-day visit by
America's top commander in the region, General John
Abizaid, a clear illustration of what still confronts
this ailing U.S.-backed government.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Michael Ware joining us now from Baghdad.
Michael, the first question is, how? And, I guess,
part of that question is, do they think this is
somehow an inside job?
WARE: Well, just looking at the size of this
operation, the degree of sophistication and
organization involved, it certainly suggests that
there was definitely paramilitary involvement. And,
of course, the first finger of suspicion points to
the ranks of the government forces themselves,
particularly the much-maligned police and Ministry of
Interior forces.
I mean, what we saw here, in the midst of the heart
of the city, in particular an area laden with the
security forces, because there are so many officials
living and working in that part of the city, you have
up to 80 gunmen in what the Minister for Higher
Education said was more than 20 trucks, some of them,
eyewitnesses claim, with police and government
markings, roll in, seize the kidnap victims, and roll
out again, without a checkpoint and cordons
established to cover their backs.
That suggests definitely something's going on --
John.
KING: And, so, Michael, viewers in the United States
might ask, with so many U.S. troops there, tens of
thousands in Baghdad itself, how could this have
happened? What are the U.S. rules of engagement? Are
they actively policing in areas like this, as of this
morning? And after this audacious, as you call it,
kidnapping, is there any talk there of changing the
way the United States operates?
WARE: Well, it just so happens, John, that the
broader area where this happened is within an area
known as Karada here in the city. That's the same
area where it's believed that the U.S. soldier who's
currently missing was seized by his kidnappers.
So, in the wake of the disappearance of the U.S.
soldier, that area was sealed off for just over a
week. And U.S. forces were ordered by the Iraqi prime
minister to lift their blockade and their checkpoints
in that area.
So, this is what happens in Iraq. Even with the tens
of thousands of troops that are here in Baghdad, with
their rules of engagement, with the size of this
city, with the complexity of the threat against them,
they simply are not everywhere all the time. In fact,
most of the time, they're simply not there at all --
John.
KING: And, as you know well, Michael, we often hear,
back in the United States, from political leaders,
talk that Iraqi training is getting better, that the
security apparatus is getting better.
Take our viewers up to 5,000 feet, if you will. To
get to this point in the city, how many barricades,
checkpoints, and other security lines and perimeters
should -- should -- these kidnappers have had to go
through?
WARE: Well, for example, I used to live, broadly,
within that area.
And there's checkpoints controlling access there at
each of the key bridges that you come off. Often, the
streets themselves, the avenues throughout that part
of the city, will be lined by government troops or
police forces of some kind or another, waiting for a
dignitary to come through.
I mean, the place is literally saturated with Iraqi
security forces. So, on one hand, the movement of a
large convoy would not attract so much attention.
But, on the other hand, this operation of this size
was able to slip through, control a part of the city
it needed to for at least 20 minutes, and then
withdraw, without anyone trying to stop them.
I mean, clearly, there's some kind of inside
operation going on here -- John.
KING: Michael Ware for us on this remarkable and
troubling story in Baghdad -- Michael, thank you very
much.