The New Iraq: Deadly Peace
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Yet another attack on U.S. forces this morning, this time someone lobbed a grenade at them. In all, eight troops have been killed there since Sunday in attacks and accidents. We take you live to Baghdad and Matthew Chance. Good morning -- Matthew.</s>MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was -- as well, Carol. A lot of incidents taking place, something of an upsurge in violence and attacks against U.S. Army units across the country. You mentioned that latest report that we have details coming to us at CNN from some of the soldiers who are actually involved in that attack. They say they were standing guard outside a police station in the west of Baghdad, this city, when a car drove past and the people inside it threw a grenade at the soldiers standing outside. Two of them were injured, along with an Iraqi child who was sort of talking to them at that checkpoint. So that just the latest incident in a catalog of incidents that have occurred over the course of the last 36 hours or so. The most serious, perhaps, occurring in the town of Fallujah, about 50 miles or so to the west of Baghdad, where a number of U.S. soldiers, two soldiers in fact, were killed when they were fired upon by a hostile force, according to the U.S. military officials, of unknown size. All these incidents really underlining just how poor the security situation remains in Iraq, not just for Iraqi people, of course, but for U.S. troops patrolling the territory -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: So are there any changes in the works to calm things down?</s>CHANCE: Well U.S. forces have made it their priority, of course, to protect their own personnel. Troop protection is their No. 1 priority they say. At the same time, they are trying to calm the situation, putting more and more patrols out onto the streets to make ordinary Iraqi people feel more secure in their homes. Iraqis have been complaining there's not enough security around them. The U.S. forces are moving to try and address that concern in the hope, at least, of winning some hearts and minds amongst ordinary Iraqis and isolating the extremists still at large.</s>COSTELLO: Matthew Chance live from Baghdad this morning. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com