Iraqi Insurgents Stage Simultaneous Attacks
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to go live to Samarra now, which is, what, 75 miles northwest of Baghdad. Nic Robertson is there. We've just heard a press conference from military commanders about the two big ambushes there in which 54 Iraqis were killed. Hello -- Nic.</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol. Well, we got the latest figures there from the coalition officials, who told now it is a confirmed 46 Iraqis killed in that shootout. The coalition says that they know that, because what they have done is debriefed their soldiers. Each soldier has accounted for the people he believed that he shot and killed. However, they did say that it is possible -- not being able to check the bodies, but it is possible that despite the fact that they think they shot and killed some of them, that perhaps some of those 46 may not, in fact, be dead. Also, we learned that there are 11 prisoners now. We had been told before there were eight prisoners. They say that they've gained information about the attacks from some of those captives. They believe that some of the members -- some of the people attacking them may have been Fedayeen; that from what they were dressed, we were told here. We heard before from intelligence officials that some of the captured attackers did have tattoos that were indicative of Saddam's Fedayeen. But the picture that has emerged here is one of a complex attack, as the officials laid it out just now. They were unloading substantial amounts of money at two different banks in the center of Samarra, when they were attacked at those two different locations. They came under sustained gun fire from a number of different directions from rooftops, from behind cars, from inside of a mosque. And then, that spread to attacks at a number of different locations as troops moved into the city to relieve those under fire. Indeed, we were told that explosive devices had been placed in the path of some of those troops coming into the city to relieve their colleagues -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: All right, Nic Robertson reporting live from Samarra. Five U.S. soldiers were injured in the attack, but no U.S. troops were killed. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.