(17 May 2004)
1. Mid shot Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, Chief military spokesman in Iraq:
"In Baghdad at 0955 this morning a suicide car bomb exploded near a coalition checkpoint in central Baghdad, killing seven civilians including current council president Izzadine Saleem."
3. Journalists listening
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, Chief military spokesman in Iraq:
"The Iraqi Survey Group confirmed today that a 155-millimeter artillery round containing sarin nerve agent had been found. The round had been rigged as an IED (improvised explosive device) which was discovered by a U.S. force convoy. A detonation occurred before the IED could be rendered inoperable. This produced a very small dispersal of agent. The round was an old binary type requiring the mixing of two chemical components in separate sections of the cell before the deadly agent is produced. The cell is designed to work after being fired from an artillery piece. Mixing the dispersal of the agent from a projective like an IED is very limited. The former regime had declared all such rounds destroyed before the 1991 Gulf War."
5. Mid shot of journalist
6. Side shot Kimmitt and Dan Senor, coalition spokesman
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Dan Senor, Spokesman for Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq:
"The security considerations, that we provide, that we give to the Iraqi Governing Council members are second to none. Their security is highly important to us, that is why we repeatedly offer them financial assistance - body armour as I said, vehicles, weapons, repeated training programmes, and we are constantly evaluating their security and constantly looking at ways to improve it, as we are our own force protection."
8. Journalist
9. Side shot of Kimmitt and Senor - AUDIO journalist asking 'Do you have any idea at this point on whom might have done this?)
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, Chief military spokesman in Iraq:
"It would have been our first impression that this was classic Zarqawi network. I understand that 10 minutes before I came in here that another group has popped up and is on the internet taking responsibility for this. We don't know if that is a cover for the Zarqawi network or if it's an actual organisation. But the fact remains this is the classic hallmarks of what we've seen on Zarqawi attacks."
11. Side shot Kimmitt and Senor at podium
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, Chief military spokesman in Iraq:
(Responding to question on suicide attack that killed Iraqi Governing Council president Saleem)
"The only thing we know at this point is that we have pictures of what would appear to be the top portions of artillery rounds in the area where you stick the fuse in which still had the nose cap in it so we've got to let the forensics people work this out - but at this point the initial evidence would indicate that there were artillery rounds in the vehicle, daisy chained and detonated which caused the explosion that we saw today."
13. Journalist
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, Chief military spokesman in Iraq:
(Responding to question on details of bomb that contained sarin nerve agent)
"It was found in Baghdad, the area that was affected was very minor. Because the binary chemicals were not allowed to mix, there were very, very small traces in the people who went up, showed some minor indications of nerve poisoning, but it was so minor that the doctors already have these people released so it is not a continuing threat and the area needs no marking off, nor did it need additional decontamination."
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