The Fight For Iraq; Najaf Front Lines; Surviving Charley
SPC JAMES TALLANT, U.S. ARMY: You're driving down the road and an IED goes off or something like that, it just makes it like, you know, why are we even here?</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A battle on sacred ground, the fight in Najaf. Troops among the tombs. It is Tuesday, August 17. This is DAYBREAK. And good morning, welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. From the CNN Global Headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello. "Now in the News." Charred store fronts and burned out cars in central Baghdad this morning. About two hours ago, an explosion killed at least four people. The blast happened on a crowded street. Some two dozen are hurt. More pressure on a radical Iraqi cleric whose militia has been fighting U.S. and Iraqi forces in Najaf. Members of Iraq's National Conference are talking to Muqtada al-Sadr today to try to end the crisis. Back home, Scott Peterson once told his former mistress that his wife, Laci, did not mind their affair. That's the latest detail from secretly taped phone calls between Peterson and Amber Frey. Jurors are hearing the tapes in his murder trial. A fifth day of clean up in Florida where the number of deaths blamed on Hurricane Charley has climbed to 19. Some 760,000 people still don't have electricity as they face 90-degree heat. To the Forecast Center and -- Chad.</s>CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And 100-degree heat index, too. It's the heat and humidity and very big bugs down there, Carol. And a lot of folks don't even have windows, let alone screens.</s>COSTELLO: All right, thank you -- Chad.</s>MYERS: You're welcome.</s>COSTELLO: A deadly explosion this morning in Baghdad. The blast comes as delegates to an Iraqi National Conference were meeting to pave the way for a January election. Let's go live to Baghdad and John Vause to find out more. Hello -- John.</s>JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol. I'd like to bring you up to date with that explosion in central Baghdad. We're now being told by the Iraqi Interior Ministry that the death toll stands at 5 people killed, 23 wounded. The Interior Ministry believes it was in fact a mortar which was fired into central Baghdad. It landed in an area around Rasheed Street, a very old street in Baghdad, an area where marketplaces are very common. This is a powerful blast. It damaged a residential building and destroyed as many as seven cars. There's also been a number of explosions heard here at the convention center in Baghdad. A few hours ago, we heard two very loud blasts. And the Iraqi police tell us that one mortar actually landed outside the checkpoint to the convention center where more than a thousand delegates are meeting. This is their third day of this National Conference. And we've heard from this conference that they are now sending a delegation to Najaf. But that is in fact being put on hold because of security concerns. There was intelligence earlier today that the road between Baghdad and Najaf had in fact a number of ambushes, there was a number of unexploded roadside bombs, that kind of thing. And so the Iraqi government is now saying it will provide security for upwards of 70 delegates to head to Najaf to try and convince Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi militia to lay down their weapons and leave the Imam Ali Mosque. For security reasons, we are not being told how the delegates will get there, whether it be by road or by air. We are not being told when they leave. We will only be told when they arrive -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: John Vause live in Baghdad this morning. And having said that, we want to go to the front lines in Najaf now for a look at what U.S. forces there are up against. Matthew Chance takes us to the sacred battleground.</s>MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The tombstones of the Valley of Peace, the ancient cemetery where U.S. troops have been fighting the Mehdi Army in Najaf. This has been an eerie battle on sacred ground that few want.</s>PFC BRENDAN HARTSBURG, U.S. ARMY: Actually, sir, it's very scary at night tell you the truth when you don't know where the enemy is. You don't know who they are, the insurgents, and it's an old cemetery so I kind of feel bad for the people in a certain way. It's their cemetery, their mosque right there.</s>CHANCE: And everyone is a suspect. Troops even open coffins yet to be buried in a grim search for weapons.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd like to pray especially today for the repose of the soul of all the Marines that have died.</s>CHANCE: In times of war the church has its own battles to fight. Soldiers and Marines attended this makeshift service to seek solace and advice. For some, the burden of killing or witnessing it is heavy.</s>CAPT. PAUL SHAUGHNESSY, U.S. NAVY: Last Friday night, it was during a mortar attack, it was a young corporal that was killed. It was about 50 feet from me. A lot of his friends were right there. We were trying to lift him out between two tombs so we could get him to the medical station and his friends had to do that and many of them because the blood was pretty profuse really affected them that somebody they had known that well kind of was dying before them.</s>CHANCE: And the threat of attack is constant. Here a network of IEDs or roadside bombs is uncovered, 43 in all, designed to kill. They're disarmed and destroyed this time but soldiers are killed and injured in attacks like this almost every day here.</s>SPC JAMES TALLANT, U.S. ARMY: Half the time, you know, you wave to somebody and they give you thumbs down and whatever, you know. You're driving down the road and an IED goes off or something like that it just, it makes it like, you know, why are we even here when most of the people don't, it seems like most of the people don't even want us here.</s>CHANCE: After nearly 16 months of post war Iraq it's a question many now ask. (on camera): Some of the troops here are uncomfortable about the idea of fighting in sacred places, especially ones that are so politically sensitive. But there is a more general frustration, too. For many it seems that the peaceful and stable Iraq they thought they were fighting for is getting more distant. Matthew Chance, CNN, Najaf.</s>COSTELLO: Talk a little bit more about the situation in Najaf and Muqtada al-Sadr. Our senior international editor David Clinch joins us now. We heard from John Vause about this delegation.</s>DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes.</s>COSTELLO: And actually it's been -- it's going but not yet.</s>CLINCH: Well they are not going. And I mean let me take you inside our little world here in Atlanta versus -- you know we're seeing a live picture from Baghdad now of this conference going on in Baghdad. And here in Atlanta today we're discussing our options in terms of covering this delegation going. Well in terms of discussing our options, we're also finding out that not only is the delegation having problems arranging their departure going to Najaf because no security has been supplied, any coverage of their departure and arrival in Najaf also requires, from our point of view, of their being some kind of security. Well a few months ago the U.S. military was supplying that kind of security. If we were to cover an event going on in a military zone, the U.S. military would approach us, we would go with them, with the U.S. military contingent, perhaps Iraqis as well. Safety, security supplied to a reasonable degree and we would go. Well that security and even a convoy of Iraqi military vehicles was nonexistent at the point at which the delegation was meant to depart.</s>COSTELLO: But isn't that in part because the Iraqis now have the say so in who guards who?</s>CLINCH: Well that's exactly it. I mean to be sympathetic for a moment, it's frustrating. But to be sympathetic, they're new to this. So when a delegation says we're going to Najaf, the Iraqi government is waking up to the fact that it is now their responsibility as well as of course the U.S. But Iraqi government involved in this process also has the responsibility to get that delegation not just simply stick them on a bunch of buses and go down the road.</s>COSTELLO: Right, media aside, and I know you're frustrated.</s>CLINCH: Yes.</s>COSTELLO: But really the more important people to go to Najaf are this group of people...</s>CLINCH: Absolutely true.</s>COSTELLO: ... that want to negotiate with Muqtada al-Sadr and whether they will finally have enough security to be able to go safely?</s>CLINCH: Right.</s>COSTELLO: Will that happen?</s>CLINCH: It is being worked out right now. All of it is being worked out. Their departure and the security for the journalists who will go with them is being worked out. Whether or not it will happen today, given that we're running out of daylight in Iraq, is another question. Violence tying everything together here. The conference that's going on in Baghdad wants to wait until the delegation comes back before they do anything. The delegation can't go until the security situation improves. Violence is the glue that's tying all of these parts together, so very complicated.</s>COSTELLO: David Clinch, many thanks to you. The recovery process now under way, but homes are gone and hundreds of thousands of people still without power. Coming up in six minutes, we'll get Chad's firsthand account of the devastation from Hurricane Charley. And in 12 minutes, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, we'll tell you how Michael Phelps fared in the 200-meter freestyle, which brings us to our e-mail "Question of the Day." Are you even watching the Olympics? Do you even know who this Phelps guy is? E- mail your response, DAYBREAK@CNN.com. That's DAYBREAK@CNN.com. But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Tuesday morning.