COALITION PROVISIONAL AUTHORITY BRIEFING WITH CHARLES HEATLEY, SPOKESMAN FOR THE BRITISH FOREIGN OFFICE, AND BRIGADIER GENERAL MARK KIMMITT, DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS, COALITION TROOPS LOCATION: BAGHDAD, IRAQ DATE: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2003 .STX (C) COPYRIGHT 2003, FEDERAL NEWS SERVICE, INC., 1919 M ST. NW; SUITE 220; WASHINGTON, DC - 20036, USA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ANY REPRODUCTION, REDISTRIBUTION OR RETRANSMISSION IS EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION, REDISTRIBUTION OR RETRANSMISSION CONSTITUTES A MISAPPROPRIATION UNDER APPLICABLE UNFAIR COMPETITION LAW, AND FEDERAL NEWS SERVICE, INC. RESERVES THE RIGHT TO PURSUE ALL REMEDIES AVAILABLE TO IT IN RESPECT TO SUCH MISAPPROPRIATION. FEDERAL NEWS SERVICE, INC. IS A PRIVATE FIRM AND IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. NO COPYRIGHT IS CLAIMED AS TO ANY PART OF THE ORIGINAL WORK PREPARED BY A UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT OFFICER OR EMPLOYEE AS PART OF THAT PERSON'S OFFICIAL DUTIES. FOR INFORMATION ON SUBSCRIBING TO FNS, PLEASE CALL JACK GRAEME AT 202-347-1400. THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. ------------------------- MR. HEATLEY: Good afternoon. Ambassador Bremer will be returning to Baghdad in a few days. Meanwhile, we've continued discussions here with members of the Governing Council and others on implementing the 15th of November agreement for the transfer of authority to Iraqis. We expect there to be a town hall meeting to discuss this in Basra in the next few days, which will be the next step in widening political consultations to a broader group of Iraqis. Now that we've captured Saddam Hussein, we want to capitalize on this to clear up the last remnants of the former regime. Capturing Saddam was, for many Iraqis, the final liberation of their country, and it has enabled them to focus now on building their new political future and on reconciliation. Therefore, we are now focused on capturing the final dozen or so of their oppressors who remain from the deck of 55, as well as other ringleaders of attacks against Iraqis and against the coalition. We expect to announce further rewards for information leading to the capture of these individuals in the next few days. And as indeed we have seen today in Karbala, there are clearly elements still in Iraq who are determined to try to undermine the peaceful and democratic future which all Iraqis want. We roundly condemn these acts of terrorism, which we have seen again today, and we pass on our heartfelt condolences to all those affected. We set out, when we came to Iraq, to bring Iraq from the hands of these murderers back to peace-loving Iraqis and to give ordinary Iraqis a chance for a fair future, which they have not had for generations. We will not be deflected from this mission or from this pledge. We will stay until the job is done and not a day longer. General Kimmitt. GEN. KIMMITT: Thank you. Good evening. Over the past week, there has been an average of 15 engagements against coalition forces daily, four attacks against Iraqi security forces and three attacks against Iraqi civilians. The coalition continues offensive operations to maintain a safe and secure environment, and to that end, the coalition today conducted 1,254 patrols, 23 offensive operations, nine raids and captured numerous anti-coalition suspects in the past 24 hours. We are aware of a series of attacks in Karbala and will provide details later in the brief. Major General Tyszkiewicz, the commander of Multinational Division Center South, will be holding a press conference later today to provide further detail. In the northern zone of operations, Iraqi police reported that Talil Salim al-Khalidi (sp), a provincial council member, and his son were killed in Mosul, and his brother was wounded yesterday afternoon. The Iraqi police have the lead for this investigation, and the investigation is ongoing. Two rockets detonated near the Qararah (sp) bridge and oil refinery yesterday, with no damage or casualties. Coalition forces searched the area and located six improvised rocket launchers responsible for the attacks. One hundred and seventeen new police officers graduated from the interim police academy in Mosul, and 10 additional officers graduated from a special reaction team course yesterday. Of note: the recently announced hazardous duty pay has had a significant impact on recruiting for the Iraqi police service. In the north central zone of operation, coalition forces conducted 160 patrols, one raid, capturing five individuals. Coalition forces captured two individuals attempting to avoid a traffic control point in Kirkuk yesterday. Seven million dinars were discovered in a false trunk of their vehicle. A sheikh from Samarra, targeted for suspected terrorist activities in the region, turned himself in to coalition forces yesterday. Four individuals were captured in a raid in Baiji by coalition forces, suspected of bombing attacks against the same coalition forces. In Baghdad, Operation Iron Grip continues. Of note: on the 24th of December, the 1st Armored Division in Baghdad launched its largest single-day operation since April. Sixty-six enemy personnel were captured, including 13 targets. The targets included two generals, one with close ties to the former regime's senior leadership and one with ties to a terrorist organization; two bomb-makers suspected of bomb attacks against coalition soldiers and Iraqis; a Wahhabist imam connected to a large terrorist organization; three former regime cell planners in Baghdad; two former regime planners; a financier of former regime cells; a former Iraqi Intelligence Service colonel; and one of Qusay Hussein's former bodyguards. Numerous weapons, arms and bomb-making apparatus were also confiscated. Reciprocally, 18 attacks were attempted against coalition forces during that same time period. All the attacks were ineffective, except to grab headlines. No coalition soldiers were injured, and only one Iraqi civilian that we are aware of was hurt. Although the enemy had advertised a large-scale offensive, the attacks were relatively benign. In the west, coalition forces yesterday conducted an airstrike near Khalidia (ph). The location was suspected of being the launch site for six separate attacks on coalition forces. The target was destroyed and no collateral damage was reported. Coalition soldiers conducted a cordon-and-search east of Ar Ramadi yesterday, capturing eight enemy personnel. One was injured during a firefight with the soldiers and was also captured. Ninety-four Iraqi border police cadets graduated from training in al Asad. This brings the total of Iraqi border police in the 82nd Airborne Division region to 672. In addition, 175 Iraqi Civil Defense Corps recruits begin training tomorrow. In the central-south region, coalition forces were attacked by bombs and small arm fires in Mahallo (ph) yesterday. Two coalition soldiers were wounded and transported to the 28th Combat Support Hospital, and they are in stable condition. Acting on a tip provided by local Iraqi citizens, coalition forces conducted a raid and detained an individual suspected of bomb attacks in al Kut yesterday. Numerous weapons and bomb-making material were also confiscated. Ninety-nine border police graduated in al Kut yesterday, bringing the total of Iraqi border police in the central-south region to 415. Now, regarding the attack tonight in Karbala, this is the information we currently have, and I'm sure more will be provided by General Tyszkiewicz at his press conference. But at approximately 1500 local today, three attacks were conducted in the vicinity of Karbala. The first attack against the coalition logistics base was initiated by two VB IEDs, followed by a small arms attack. And in that attack, 15 soldiers were wounded. At about the same time, a coalition battle group base camp was attacked by a VB IED and mortars. We are aware of four coalition deaths and 15 wounded. Also, a VB IED blew up in the vicinity of a military facility in Karbala, one co-located with an Iraqi police station. We are aware of five U.S. wounded in action. Three of those soldiers are in local facilities, while two have been evacuated to a U.S. Combat Support hospital. Thus, as of 1630, we are aware of 37 coalition wounded and four killed in action in these attacks in the vicinity of Karbala. That's all I have. If you have any questions, we'll take them at this time. Yes, sir? Q Hi, this is Richard Engel (sp) from NBC News. This week it seems that there's been a lot of upsurge of violence in Baghdad. There weren't a lot of casualties, but there were many attacks. And do you think we're seeing an increase of a campaign coming from the militant groups? And this Iron Grip, we're hearing lots of military activity at night. It really sounds like the war has come back to Baghdad. Thank you. GEN. KIMMITT: On the first, the number of attacks, the fact remains that the number of attacks that we have seen on a weekly basis continues to go down since the middle of September. In the middle of September, we were seeing as many as 50 attacks on coalition forces per day. In the last 24 hours, we've only had 14. The number is ranging around 14 to 15 per day. So with the exception of the minor spike we had on Christmas Day when there were 18, the numbers are going down. Now, that doesn't mean they can't start going up next week, and we don't think that today is a good prediction of what will happen tomorrow. But numerically, the numbers have been reducing since the middle of November. Yes? Q (In Arabic.) GEN. KIMMITT: No, we certainly are not going back to war. However, the terrorists have shown throughout that they do not discriminate between combatants and civilians, between soldiers and women and children. What we saw on Christmas Day -- on the 25th of December, for instance, we had about 18 attacks in the space of two hours. Clearly these were attacks conducted by terrorists to try to grab headlines, to try to demonstrate their strength. But I think what they really showed is that they will use any method, they will use any technique to terrorize the good people of Baghdad and the people of Iraq. We are not going back to war. However, we will continue to be on the offensive against anti-coalition elements that will attack us and anti- -- and enemies of the Iraqi people. So no, we're not going back to war. But if the terrorists choose to continue to attack coalition forces and the Iraqi people, we will take, based on actionable intelligence, precision attacks to go after them, to kill or capture them, to maintain our mission and to perform our mission, to ensure a safe and secure environment for the people of Iraq. MR. HEATLEY: Let me just add to that that -- you mentioned particularly an attack against a judicial institute. That was an attack conducted by the terrorists against a judicial institute. It's exactly what General Kimmitt has been saying; we are here to defend the peace and security in this -- in the capital and in the rest of the country. There was a gentleman in the back who had his hand up a second ago. Go ahead. (Inaudible.) Q (In Arabic.) GEN. KIMMITT: No, there's no change in our strategy going on, but there is a change in the amount of actionable intelligence that we are receiving, based on recent events. As we have said, we fight to earn and to gain intelligence. And once we get that actionable intelligence against anti-coalition and anti-Iraqi elements, we will attack to kill or capture those people. As I talked about, in the roll-up from just the 24th of December alone, there were a significant number of people that we captured that day who had clear ties to terrorist activities against the people of Iraq and coalition forces. This is not an escalation of activities. It is a continuation of offensive operations -- offensive operations that will continue as long as we get actionable intelligence to conduct precision operations to kill or capture those who will kill innocent civilians in Iraq and coalition forces. MR. HEATLEY: Back there. Yeah, go ahead. Q Tom Frank from Newsday. I wanted to ask you about civilian casualties or civilian attacks. You mentioned the trend going down for attacks on the coalition. Is there a trend in attacks on civilians? It seems like it might be going up. And secondly, can you address the reports that are going around about increasing numbers of attacks that are sort of revenge killings, either on former Ba'athists or by former Ba'athists on civilians who are seen as cooperating? GEN. KIMMITT: Answering your first question, yeah, we have seen the number of attacks -- we typically would see, on the average, one to two attacks against Iraqi civilians on a daily basis. About a month ago, we started seeing a shift where those numbers started to increase to about two or three per day. Those are VBIED attacks, IED attacks against civilians. And to a great extent, it shows what we believe to be the desperation of the terrorists to try to maintain their grip on the Iraqi civilians, to demonstrate to them that they are retaining some sort of control and some sort of capability to reach out and touch them. We -- there's very little we can say about that, other than it is clearly heinous activities on their part to go bring civilians into this confrontation. And we will continue to do everything we can, not only to protect the coalition forces but to protect Iraqi civilians, to maintain a safe and secure environment. MR. HEATLEY: Your second question asked about revenge attacks against Ba'athists and others. We have seen a few attacks appear to be by citizens against those who they've seen as their oppressors before. I would remind you, though, that these have been very few in number. Certainly if you take into account a historical perspective, where we saw after the end of the Second World War very widespread revenge killings of those French collaborators who had been working with the German occupation and the same in Italy after the fall of fascism, where there were tens of thousands of people killed, I think it's -- again, before the war, a lot of people were predicting there would be mass revenge killings. That hasn't happened. People have predicted there were going to be a massive civil war in this country. That hasn't happened. The Iraqi people have shown that they want to have a peaceful and a stable future. We are encouraging reconciliation, as is the Governing Council, particularly now, in the wake of the capture of Saddam Hussein. And that's clearly the desire of most Iraqi people. So while we have seen a few of these isolated instances, we're relieved that they have been isolated instances, and we will continue to promote reconciliation. Q (In Arabic.) GEN. KIMMITT: We have not captured Ibrahim Izzat al-Douri at this time. MR. HEATLEY: In the back. Q (Name inaudible) -- Romanian Radio. General Kimmitt, you keep on mentioning terrorists, and you said that you captured generals with ties to a terrorist organization. What terrorist organization, if you can be specific? And my second question: Do you know whether in the Karbala attacks were any Bulgarian casualties? GEN. KIMMITT: On the first issue, about terrorist organizations, we consider anybody that will attack innocent civilians as terrorists. They may be Iraqis that were former regime elements They may be Iraqis that were part of the former Iraqi army. When you cross that line and attack innocent civilians, then you become a terrorist. I would defer to General Tyszkiewicz down at MND Central South to announce any coalition force nationalities. And he may defer to the countries involved as well. MR. HEATLEY: In the back. Yeah? Yeah? Q (Off mike) -- evening. Two questions. One, for General Kimmitt, just kind of a quirky question. You know, there was a big, huge earthquake in neighboring Iran. Is there any plans whatsoever to use any of the U.S. military equipment or personnel here to possibly bring aid to Iran? And one for you, Charles: Just with regard to the upcoming imposition of customs and income taxes, can you give just a little bit of detail about that and if the coalition has any oversight or a regulatory role in that? Thank you. GEN. KIMMITT: On the first question, I am not aware that there have been any formal requests by Iran to the United States government or any of the coalition governments for assistance with regard to the earthquake. MR. HEATLEY: Well, I'd remind you that customs duties were suspended after the war and remain suspended. Our aim has been to encourage economic revival in this country. You've seen an enormous amount of goods and trade open up to Iraq, which wasn't clearly the case before. We've seen the price of consumer items drop and the price of industrial inputs drop as well. And that remains our intention -- to promote economic activity in this country. There are plans in the medium term to raise some revenue through low level of taxes and perhaps some customs duties, but no final decisions have been taken on that at the moment. Yeah? Q Phil Smucker, CBS Radio. For the two of you, when the coalition entered the country, there was the implicit understanding, I think, with the Iraqis that stability would come to Iraq. And it appears actually that Iraq has become a model for fighting the war on terror. And so my question is, A, do you consider what's going on now to be a guerrilla war, as was stated a couple months ago by one commander? And B, when do you expect stability to come to Iraq? GEN. KIMMITT: We certainly characterize what's going on right now as low-intensity conflict. If you take a look at the number of attacks, they are somewhat localized, primarily in the Baghdad region, in what is known as the Sunni Triangle. The one in Karbala is a little bit further south than we've seen. But it's important to understand that all of this is happening while the rest of the country is moving on. If you take a look -- and I will defer to Charles to give you the statistics, but if you take a look at the other missions that we have to restore essential services, most the essential services are back to where they were prewar or beyond; to restore the economy, the economy is starting to come along; to restore governance or to bring in a new form of governance, that is certainly moving along. So, yes, there is a low-intensity operation going on right now by a small, small minority of Iraqis and some foreign fighters who are trying to turn back the hands of time. The rest of the country and the coalition is getting on with business, which is to set up a functioning and free Iraq, and we will not be held back by the actions of a few. MR. HEATLEY: I totally echo those comments. I think there is stability in Iraq. Iraq is a stable country. There's no threat from the outside. And there's no threat internally to the future of this country; there's no threat from the former regime loyalists. What they are doing is killing people, they are not posing a threat to the future democracy of this country, and we are determined not to let them do so. Is the security in this country as good as we'd like it to be? No, it's not. And we will continue to work with the Iraqis to improve security. You asked about a guerrilla warfare. I think that's really something General Kimmitt has already answered. And the point I would make we've made before about the use of that term; it's not a term that we would often use because I think the term implies a degree of acceptance and support among the civilian population for those conducting attacks, and I think it's very clear that there is no support among the ordinary Iraqis for attacks against other Iraqis and against the coalition. John? Q (Off mike.) GEN. KIMMITT: John, I can't hear you. Q John Burns, New York Times. We're two weeks today, I think, from the capture of Saddam Hussein. And the question arises, given the continuing attacks, is there a migration here between a recidivist attempt to restore Saddam Hussein to something that begins to look like something else, namely, a terrorist war? GEN. KIMMITT: Well, we have always said that the capture of Saddam Hussein was a necessary but not sufficient condition to bring safety and security to Iraq. We knew once we captured him that we still had a lot of work to do, and we're continuing on with that work, John. We never declared that once we had him in prison that we could all go home. We have work to do; we'll continue that work. And while it's good news -- in fact, great news that we have Saddam in custody right now, there are still a significant number of foreign regime elements, some foreign fighters, some international terrorists present here in the country that haven't got the word, and we're going to help bring the word to them. Q (In Arabic.) GEN. KIMMITT: (Chuckles.) Quite a few questions. Let me see if I can answer them one at a time. You said that General Sanchez and Ambassador Bremer had been quoted that once we captured Saddam Hussein, that the attacks would increase. In fact, I believe what Ambassador Bremer and General Sanchez have said is, as we move closer to governance, self-governance by the people of Iraq, that there may be some uptick in violence associated with that. So I just wanted to clarify that, that we did not believe -- we had no reason to suspect one way or the other whether attacks would go up or go down in the wake of Saddam's capture. On the issue of some of the victims during these recent operations have been lost as a result of these operations, these are extraordinarily precise operations that we are running. I am not aware, with the exception of one or two instances, that in all of the operations that have been run recently that there have been any -- that there has been any collateral damage. There has been a very, very small instance of that. But we do have a recognized and comprehensive program for compensation for not only the victims of collateral damage, but even those cities where we run operations, such as Samarra, such as Fallujah, Ar Ramadi, where in fact we have run precision operations again enemy targets, we will typically finish those operations, the military aspect of that, with a very involved civil/military operation to bring additional money into that city, to rebuild schools, rebuild infrastructure that had not been rebuilt, and to try to legitimize and to help out the legitimate government inside those cities, to give them the foundation they need to break the grip of the terrorists and to move on to a better future. MR. HEATLEY: Let me just repeat what I said in my opening remarks. Whatever the intent of the terrorists who are carrying these attacks out, it will not change our mission nor our strategy, and our strategy is clear, which is to continue the political process and to work towards handing authority back to the Iraqi people on the 1st of July next year. We will, in the meantime -- or the military will in the meantime work with the Iraqi people to close down the terrorists who are conducting attacks. And once we hand over power to the Iraqis, it will be primarily their responsibility, with the assistance then of coalition forces, to continue to prevent these people playing any role in the future of this country. Yeah? Q General, I'm quite confused, so could you clarify if I make a misunderstanding? You mentioned that the resistance is a small minority. On the other hand, we see that the attacks are taking place in a quite wide range of area in the country, not only the Sunni Triangle, but following the Karbala, it is a little bit further south. I don't believe that they're super mobile to move around from one place to another. So then do you see that they're rather scattered around the country or the same people are extremely quick to move around once place to another? GEN. KIMMITT: It takes a very few number of people in the country to create the kind of damage that we're seeing. There are 27.5 million people in the country of Iraq; 5.5 million here in the city of Baghdad. As an example, we don't believe that there were more than 25 to 30 people that were involved in all the attacks that occurred in Baghdad on Christmas Day, on the 25th. Twenty-five people created those kind of incidents in a city of 5.5 million. I think those numbers indicate that it's a very small minority of this country, and the vast majority of this country wants to move ahead to a better future and a better life for their families and for themselves. Q So are they moving around, these small units, or we have various units all around? GEN. KIMMITT: I think it's fair to say that there may be different organizations throughout the country, very small numbers of them. I don't believe that we have a traveling group that's going from the north to the south, to the east, to the west. But again, we still believe those numbers to be very small as a percentage of the total population. MR. HEATLEY: We'll take just a couple more questions and try and get away a little bit from generalities and speculation. Yeah? Please. Q (In Arabic.) GEN. KIMMITT: The fact is that over the last month, the attacks have not increased, but they have decreased. What measures we will take? We will continue to use and develop actionable intelligence to kill or capture those responsible for these attacks. Q Alan Cyprus (sp), the Washington Post. With regard to Operation Iron Grip, can you tell us what it is we're hearing at night? Is that artillery tanks? Gunships? Aircraft -- bombs from aircraft? And secondly, what's the nature of the area there that you are striking? Is it agricultural, is it industrial area, it is a residential area? GEN. KIMMITT: Yes to all. Alan (sp), we've been using artillery, we've been using mortars. The artillery has primarily been used in a counter-battery mode to go against enemy mortars that have been fired against coalition forces and Iraqi people. The aircraft that you've been hearing, I'm not aware that we have dropped any -- that we have used any high-performance aircraft in the region lately, but we have had fixed-wing aircraft operating in the area of Baghdad. The targets are throughout the city of Baghdad. We go where the enemy takes us. MR. HEATLEY: We'll take one final question. Okay, last two. Go ahead. Q (In Arabic.) GEN. KIMMITT: That's a good question. The answer is, the systems that the coalition forces use are enormously precise. We're talking the capability to knock down one building and not affecting the building right next door. Some of those attacks are done with direct-fire weapons systems, observed by people on the ground. Some of them are done by systems in the air. But the nature of the systems that we bring to bear to kill or capture the enemy, within Baghdad and within this country, are very, very precise, very, very expensive, but they reduce the amount of collateral damage to an almost insignificant amount, compared to the type of damage and destruction, for example, an improved -- an improvised explosive device put on a road in the middle of a city in -- in the middle of the city of Baghdad does when it blows up, killing not only coalition forces, Iraqi security services and innocent Iraqi civilians. MR. HEATLEY: I just question your premise entirely when you say that just because an attack is intense, it can't be precise. I think General Kimmitt has answered that. Intense attacks can clearly be precise as well. Last question. Yeah? Q Tom Popick (sp) with ABC News. The attacks earlier today in Karbala suggest a certain amount of command and coordination. How would you describe the state of the militant network in Iraq right now, especially with regards to Saddam's capture two weeks ago? GEN. KIMMITT: That's a good question, and it's one that we constantly and our intelligence analysts consistently work on. And I'm not sure I've got a perfect answer for you, but we are -- we do believe that there are cells throughout the country, primarily concentrated in some of the larger cities, that have some loose form of coordination. Is it a centrally organized command and control network that if you cut off the head of the snake, everything underneath it collapses? We don't think it's that. At the same time, are they loose-knit, informal, uncoordinated? We don't think it's that. Tom, it's somewhere in between that, where there is some sort of loose coordination between them. And that is one of those puzzles that our analysts keep working on every day. MR. HEATLEY: Okay. Thank you very much. GEN. KIMMITT: Thank you very much. #### ®FC¯END ®FL¯