U.S. Troops Ambushed after Helicopter Downed; Bush Calls for Sanctions Against Sudan; Five Hangings in Texas May Be Murder/Suicide
KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.</s>T.J. HOLMES, CO-HOST: And I'm T.J. Holmes, in today for Don Lemon, who's on assignment. We've got two developing stories we are working on right now in the</s>NEWSROOM. PHILLIPS: We're going to begin with a shocking story out of Texas. What police found inside a mobile home today is almost too horrible to even imagine: a 23-year-old mother and her four daughters, all found hanging in a bedroom closet. It happened in Hudson Oaks near Ft. Worth. The mother and three of the girls, ages 5, 3, and 2 are dead. The 8-month-old baby survived and is listed in good condition right now. Police say it looks like a murder-suicide, but they're still investigating what happened. They're also questioning the children's father, who is separated from the mother. We're going to bring you more on this developing story, straight ahead on the</s>CNN NEWSROOM. LEMON: The other story developing this hour, the CDC is investigating a medical scare in the sky. It includes an American passenger who flew on some transatlantic flights and is infected with a virulent form of tuberculosis. It's called XDR TB, and that stands for extensively drug resistant T.B. And health officials say passengers and crew who flew with the T.B. patient may have been exposed to the disease. The CDC plans to hold a news conference next hour, and we will bring that to you live.</s>PHILLIPS: Targeting U.S. troops and the people who try to rescue them. It's a devious tactic Iraqi insurgents have repeatedly used. Now, they've done it again, and the results are deadly. It started with a helicopter shoot-down in Iraq's volatile Diyala province, and it turned into much more. Let's get straight to Baghdad and CNN's Paula Hancocks. Paula, bring us up to date.</s>PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra. Well, unfortunately, those were not the only deaths on Monday. We understand from the U.S. military, ten U.S. troops were killed that day, bringing the total this month to 114, which means May is now the third deadliest month since this war began.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Through their sacrifice...</s>HANCOCKS (voice-over): As Americans around the world commemorated Memorial Day, more U.S. troops were killed in Iraq, eight of the latest casualties in the volatile Diyala province northeast of Baghdad. Two pilots were killed when their helicopters were shot down Monday with small arms fire, according to the U.S. military. A quick reaction force was called in to recover the chopper. One of the vehicles was hit by a roadside bomb, killing five. A second vehicle in the force was hit, killing another soldier. Three more were injured. This month, the deadliest for the American military since November 2004. Those killed were from Task Force Lightning, the force that controls parts of northern Iraq, including the Diyala province. It is at least the 11th helicopter to come down so far this year in Iraq with 30 deaths. Two more car bombs ripped through Baghdad Tuesday within an hour of each other, killing at least three dozen people and injuring many more. Meanwhile, at least three people were kidnapped from an Iraqi Finance Ministry building by gunman wearing police uniforms. This happened on Palestine Street in Baghdad.</s>HANCOCKS: And we're just getting an update from the British foreign ministry on that particular abduction. Five Britons have been confirmed to have been kidnapped from that Iraqi Finance Ministry. We understand that the British embassy here in Baghdad is assessing with the Iraqi authorities to find out exactly what happened and how to get these people back -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: All right. Paula Hancocks live in Baghdad. Thanks, Paula.</s>LEMON: Well, May has now become the deadliest month this year for U.S. troops in Iraq and one of the deadliest in the entire war. We want to go now to the Pentagon and CNN's Barbara Starr to talk first more about what we're learning about the Memorial Day incident in Diyala province. Hello to you, Barbara.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hello to you, T.J. As my colleague, Paula, on the ground there in Baghdad is saying, quite an ambush of sorts, if you will. That helicopter, once it was brought down -- the indications are now it was brought down by heavy machine gun fire, that from a wing man who was flying nearby. With the quick reaction force that went in, they got hit by an IED. The recovery force that went in to help them, they got hit by an IED. A very complex attack. Not clear if it was a preplanned ambush or simply a great deal of insurgent activity in that area of Diyala province. But it underscores, these Memorial Day incidents, just how deadly the current trend is in Iraq. We wanted to take a look at some of the statistics to try and demonstrate to our viewers what that trend is looking like. So we put together some statistics just about an hour ago that showed the month of May, not over yet, and turning into one of the deadliest months of the year. We had that at 112, and then the new report coming in of additional deaths, and so that correct figure now, of course, 114. If you look, that compares to the last time that it was that grim, back in December of last year, 112. And you have to go all the way back to November of 2004 to see the next deadliest month, 137. Of course, it's a little bit ridiculous to talk about how deadly it is. Each one of these fatalities for the U.S. military a very significant tragedy for the families and friends of those who have lost their lives --</s>T.J. HOLMES: That is a good way to put it, Barbara. Barbara Starr for us at the Pentagon. Thank you so much.</s>PHILLIPS: Taking a stand, President Bush orders economic sanctions against Sudan, four years into the bloody conflict in that Darfur region. An estimated 200,000 people have been killed there by the Janjaweed militia. Another 2.5 million have fled. The U.S. sanctions target Sudanese companies involved in its oil industry, preventing them from doing business with U.S. companies. They also focus on a rebel leader and two high-ranking Sudanese government officials believed to be behind the violence.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I call on President Bashir to stop his obstruction and to allow the peacekeepers in. And to end the campaign of violence that continues to target innocent men, women, and children. And I promise this to the people of Darfur: the United States will not avert our eyes from the crisis that challenges the conscience of the world.</s>PHILLIPS: White House aids say that the president wanted to impose the sanctions last month but has been holding off to give the United Nations secretary-general more time to find a diplomatic end to that crisis. The Sudanese government says that new sanctions imposed by the United States highlight Washington's, quote, "hostile intentions." This morning, President Bush announced the economic sanctions and blamed Khartoum for the continued violence in Darfur. His comments came ahead of a trip to Southern Georgia. And CNN's Elaine Quijano joins us now live with more -- Elaine.</s>ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Kyra. And here in Georgia, President Bush took a tour of a federal law enforcement training facility, a place where he talked about what he calls comprehensive immigration reform. Reform that, of course, conservative critics have blasted the administration over, as Congress considers that comprehensive bill, President Bush defending the bill, saying that it does not amount to amnesty. Now, earlier as you noted, before the president arrived here in Georgia at the White House, the president announcing those new expanded sanctions against the government of Sudan. As you noted, specifically targeting 31 companies and three individuals. It was almost three years ago that the Bush administration labeled the violence in western Sudan, in the Darfur region, genocide. Hundreds of thousands of people, as you noted, have been killed. Millions of people have been displaced. And today, President Bush said that Sudan's leader, President Omar al-Bashir, has not done anything to stop the violence.</s>BUSH: The United Nations believed that President Bashir could meet his obligations to stop the killing and would meet his obligations to stop the killing. Unfortunately, he hasn't met those obligations. President Bashir's actions over the past few weeks follow a long pattern of promising cooperation while finding new methods for obstruction.</s>QUIJANO: Now, President Bush also announced today that he is directing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to work with Britain and other allies in order to come up with a new U.N. Security Council resolution. Among other things, the United States wants to see a ban on any offensive Sudanese military flights over Darfur -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: All right, Elaine Quijano. We'll be talking about this throughout the day. We appreciate it.</s>HOLMES: If you wear contact lenses, you need to stay tuned. We've got the latest on that lens solution recall. That is ahead here in the NEWSROOM. And, make way for the humpbacks. A pair of wayward whales get closer to safety, closer to home. We'll bring you a live progress report. That's ahead, as well, right here in the</s>NEWSROOM. PHILLIPS: And a question of intelligence, a key pre-war report now back in the spotlight. Presidential hopefuls facing questions about how much reading they did before they voted to authorize the Iraq war. That's coming up in the NEWSROOM.