Wave of Iraq Violence Kills Six People; More Monsoon Rains for Pakistan, Country Needs More Aid
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good Thursday morning to you. And thanks so much for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. I'm John Roberts. It's the 26th of August.</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Flying by. I'm Carol Costello in for Kiran today. A lot to talk about this morning. So, let's get to it, shall we? A violent statement to U.S. combat troops leaving Iraq. Insurgents had six people killed today. Dozens more were killed yesterday in a wave of violence. So, is this the future of Iraq? We're live in Baghdad.</s>ROBERTS: Alive and well for now, at least. Rescue crews in Chile are calling NASA and the Navy for advice on how to keep 33 miners trapped underground safe and sane in such close quarters. The rescue mission is likely going to take months. We'll take a closer look at the unprecedented drilling attempt that lies ahead.</s>COSTELLO: And with his ex-wife's tell-all interview to "People" magazine about to hit the newsstands, another mea culpa from Tiger Woods.</s>TIGER WOODS, GOLFER: My actions certainly led us to this decision. I wish her the best in everything.</s>COSTELLO: It's just painful to hear him talk now. Just painful. But we're going to tell you what else he said. You'll hear the rest of it coming up.</s>ROBERTS: And in contrast, in 20 minutes, we'll talk to Phil Mickelson, the number two golfer in the world, about work that he's doing with our troops. And the amFIX blog is up and running. Join the live conversation going on right now. Just go to CNN.com/am</s>FIX. COSTELLO: But first, an assault on the nation of Iraq just as U.S. combat troops come out. Earlier this month, President Obama warned there is still danger on the ground and we're seeing that now. Gunmen and a roadside bomb killed six people at a checkpoint in eastern Iraq this morning.</s>ROBERTS: The attack, just one day after coordinated bombings took place in 13 cities yesterday. They were aimed at mostly Iraqi police and soldiers. At least 48 people died. Our Arwa Damon is live for us in Baghdad. And, of course, Arwa, all of this raises the question that as U.S. forces come out, is Iraq going to fall apart?</s>ARWA ARMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, you know, that's the very question that Iraqis themselves are asking, especially after the type of attacks that we saw taking place yesterday. The issue is that these attacks were so widespread, over so many cities, 13 as you mentioned there. And some of these areas were, in fact, considered to be relatively safe. We were out yesterday evening speaking with the Iraqis, asking them how they felt following these types of attacks and really the mood amongst them was anger, frustration. There was very little hope. They were saying if the Iraqi security forces can't protect themselves, how are they going to protect us? The population here is exhausted. They are mentally and physically drained. They really want this war to come to a real end but they're just not seeing that happen yet, John.</s>COSTELLO: Arwa, Carol here. I just have a question. You know, American combat troops have drawn down, though we still have other troops over there. How does this affect them, this violence?</s>DAMON: Well, you know, the mission here is very closely defined by the security agreement between the U.S. and Iraq. And so last summer, we saw U.S. combat troops withdrawing from Iraqi cities and towns. The U.S. military has been very closely partnered with the Iraqi security forces, so they will not move into any of these areas unless the Iraqis actually ask them for backup. And while the U.S. is still currently in this combat mission status, come the end of the month, Americans are going to be moving into what is officially called a noncombat mission, a noncombat role. They'll be advise and assist units, but this doesn't mean that the war is going to be over for them or for the Iraqi people by any stretch of the imagination. Those Americans that are going to eventually be going out with their Iraqi counterparts are still going to, at the end of the day, be operating in a war zone.</s>COSTELLO: Arwa Damon live in Baghdad this morning, thanks.</s>ROBERTS: Arwa, thanks so much. We'll be talking more about this, by the way, in about 40 minutes' time when General Mark Kimmitt and General George Joulwan will be joining us here on AMERICAN MORNING. An emotional sendoff at Fort Hood, Texas for about 200 soldiers who are now on their way to Iraq. They're the first to deploy as an advise and assist unit. But they told CNN yesterday, just because it's a new mission doesn't mean that it won't be any less dangerous.</s>COSTELLO: And a reminder, President Obama will deliver a major address on Iraq next Tuesday night from the Oval Office. CNN special coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.</s>ROBERTS: With 20 percent of the country still underwater this morning, even more monsoon rains are drenching parts of flood-ravaged Pakistan right now. The United Nations says 800,000 people are stranded and they say more helicopters are desperately needed to reach them.</s>COSTELLO: Three and a half million don't have clean drinking water. And officials estimate at least four million people are now homeless. Tapping the global resources of CNN for more, our Sanjay Gupta is on the ground in Pakistan this morning. Sanjay, we're also hearing a warning that the Taliban could be targeted aid workers.</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Yes, isn't this something? We're hearing the same thing on the ground here. We're talking about the Pakistani Taliban, Tariq Taliban, they're specially called. And according to U.S. officials, they're coming out and saying that this organization is saying they plan on conducting attacks against foreigners who are helping out with the flood relief efforts. Now, we haven't seen any evidence of that, and it's unclear how just how significant this group is. But we heard the exact same thing coming again from U.S. officials who, you know, apparently have some knowledge of the situation. So everyone here is talking about that, and obviously a lot of the aid organizations, people who have a lot of people -- organizations have a lot of people on the ground are concerned about this. But, again, no evidence of any attacks or violence thus far.</s>ROBERTS: Sanjay, it's been about a month since this first started and we've seen this wave of water wash from the mountains down into the floodplains there along the banks of the Indus River. What's the greater threat now? Is it from the water itself, the threat of drowning, or is it from the threat of disease?</s>GUPTA: You know, the death toll is about 1,600 now. As you know, John, the vast majority of the early deaths were due to drowning. People who were simply stranded, could not be rescued and subsequently drowned. Now it is definitely disease. And you know, we talk a lot about what people refer to as a second wave of death after natural disasters. We talked about it after the Haiti earthquake, for example. And, fortunately, a lot of times that big second wave doesn't materialize because supplies can be brought in, most notably clean, drinkable water. This is a real problem here. As you mentioned, over three million people do not have access to clean water. It has been several weeks now with that going on and with all this floodwater around, what is happening is that people are starting to drink this contaminated water. There is significant risk of disease here. There's cholera, there's dysentery, there's typhoid, and just all the diarrheal diseases lead to significant dehydration and that's what's starting to cause the deaths now. They expect tens of thousands of cases of malaria as well, due to all the mosquitoes breeding in the water in this area. So from this part forward, it is really that. And it's just so hard, John, as people who have been in this part of the world know, it's difficult to get around in the best of circumstances. It is impossible in some of these areas now. You know, if you take a look at the map. Just to give you a little bit of context, there's a map of Florida superimposed on the flooded areas of Pakistan. Again, a fifth of the country. It's about the same size. The entire state of Florida was flooded, under water. Roads, communities, schools, hospitals, all the infrastructure. It's impossible to get anything done.</s>COSTELLO: Sanjay, you have the Taliban targeting aid workers. Aid has been slow coming into Pakistan anyway. They're not exactly getting millions and millions of dollars of donations from around the world. It just sounds so hopeless.</s>GUPTA: You know, it's interesting being here, Carol and talking to people. One of the things that became clear is that, you know, unlike with the tsunami, for example, or with the earthquake in Haiti, there wasn't a sort of, you know, pyrotechnic, you know, single event that caused this. This has been a slow burn over the last month, as was mentioned. And I think as a result, there's a lot of people who really didn't understand or recognize just how significant this problem was. That's one reason. In addition to the things you just mentioned, there is this underlying concern about violence. It is just very hard to get around. You know, I left, for example, Tuesday night from the East Coast, and we're still not at our final location. So simply getting in and around this country proves very, very challenging and I think that's part of the issue with aid as well. But you know, I don't know right now how they get clean water even to a lot of these places that are completely submerged. People literally standing on their rooftops. One thing that people are talking about is using lots of water purification tablets as opposed to just trying to drop lots of, you know, bottled water or containers of water down. That may be some type of solution. But you're right. Long term, I don't know exactly how this gets fixed.</s>COSTELLO: Sanjay Gupta reporting live from Pakistan this morning, thanks. To find out more about the charities you can donate to so you can help the flood victims in Pakistan, head to the "Impact Your World" section of our Web site. The address CNN.com/impact.</s>ROBERTS: Well, it's fair to say it's been a pretty bad month for Tiger Woods. He had his worst-ever tournament performance at the Bridgestone Invitational. His divorce was finalized on Monday and then, his ex-wife's tell-all to "People" magazine hits newsstands tomorrow. Yesterday, Tiger addressed her comments.</s>TIGER WOODS, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: My actions certainly led to us this decision. And you know, I certainly made a lot of errors in my life, and that's something I have to live with. I wish her the best in everything. You know, it's a sad time in our lives. And we're looking forward to -- in our lives and how we can help our kids the best we possibly can, and that's -- that's the most important thing.</s>ROBERTS: It's a big week for Tiger. The Barclay's tournament going on right now in New Jersey. Kicks off the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup playoff and, of course, he'd like to be there for the Ryder Cup as well.</s>COSTELLO: It will be interesting to see if his play improves after all of this has finally come out in the open. His now ex-wife is speaking out. And of course, she's become kind of a hero, hasn't she? People really admire her.</s>ROBERTS: I'll tell you, this whole thing has just got a huge ick factor to it. Once you acknowledge that there's a big elephant in the room, sometimes, you know, you take away the elephant's power. So we'll see how he plays starting today, this morning.</s>COSTELLO: We will see. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is reportedly in China. The exact purpose for his trip is unclear. Who knows why he's there? China is North Korea's strongest ally. As CNN's Beijing bureau reports, he could be there to ask for supplies or maybe introduce his son and heir apparent. The communist leader was just in Beijing last May. The latest trip coincides with former President Jimmy Carter's mission to secure the release of an American serving eight years in prison in North Korea. We're going to talk much more about this in the next hour of</s>AMERICAN MORNING. ROBERTS: In Brazil, a terrifying combination of strong winds, brushfires and a three-month long drought creating a stunning fire tornado. Sky-high flames racing across the highway in Sao Paulo, bringing traffic to a standstill. Look at that there. As quickly as it formed, it seemed, the fire tornado was gone. Just pretty amazing when you look at those pictures. You know, the way that the heat rises so quickly and the winds swirl around it.</s>COSTELLO: I know. It's not often you see a fire tornado. How often does this happen? We're going to the weather center, anyway, so let's just ask Jacqui Jeras that question. A fire tornado?</s>JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Sure. We've seen it before. We've seen them here in the United States. It happens, you know. When fires develop and they become very large, they kind of create their own weather. And so you get these little --</s>ROBERTS: It's a fire tornado. Nothing special.</s>COSTELLO: I know.</s>ROBERTS: Not every day.</s>JERAS: Happens all the time.</s>ROBERTS: I saw one this morning on my way to work, yes.</s>JERAS: It's amazing they catch it on video, though, because usually nobody is close enough to that intense heat so a lot of times you don't see it.</s>COSTELLO: Weather geek.</s>ROBERTS: Did she call you a weather geek?</s>JERAS: Did you just call me a weather geek?</s>ROBERTS: She did.</s>COSTELLO: Oh, come on.</s>JERAS: It's true. I know. All right. Anyway. Hey, you know, we do have fire danger here in the U.S. today as well. And we do have some fires that have been burning in southern California as well as in parts of Idaho. We've got red-flag warnings in effect across much of the intermountain west as a really strong tropic is going to be coming through here. And this is actually some good news because eventually that's going to sweep on through and bring an end to the heat that we've been dealing with across parts of the southwest. Now in the east today, you've got a cold front pushing through here as well. It's not going to do a whole lot today in terms of bringing some showers, spotty showers and thundershowers across parts of the northeast. It's going to be a lot heavier in parts of the southeast. But watch for that big change in the air. It's going to be feel a lot cooler for tomorrow. It's only going to last about a day before you heat up though for the weekend. We'll have details on the tropics. We've got Danielle and Earl to talk about in the next hour. Back to you, guys, the news geeks.</s>ROBERTS: And, Jacqui, you're not a geek, you're just you're passionate about what you do.</s>JERAS: There you go.</s>COSTELLO: She's a geek.</s>JERAS: I like that word better.</s>ROBERTS: She did call you a news geek, though.</s>JERAS: OK, I take that. I can take it.</s>ROBERTS: Still to come on the Most News in the Morning, the latest on the 13 men trapped in that mine in Chile. They're alive. They're well. But oh, they're going to have to hang in there for a long, long time because it could take months to reach them. How will they keep their heads about them for that long? We'll find out. It's 13 minutes after the hour.