WEBVTT 00:00.040 --> 00:03.930 Alright . How cool 00:03.930 --> 00:06.800 this is Courtney QB from NBC News , you 00:06.800 --> 00:08.830 mentioned the problem of intra Shia 00:08.830 --> 00:11.720 clashes in your area . Can you talk a 00:11.720 --> 00:13.553 little bit more about that where 00:13.553 --> 00:15.776 specifically you're seeing the greatest 00:15.776 --> 00:17.831 instances of this and in what way is 00:17.831 --> 00:19.887 manifesting are they attacks against 00:19.887 --> 00:22.450 civilians ? Iraqi security forces ? 00:22.460 --> 00:26.400 Just elaborate a bit on it right now . 00:26.410 --> 00:28.770 What I mean by that is there have been 00:28.770 --> 00:32.470 some attacks against police forces 00:32.480 --> 00:35.450 against government officials . 00:35.460 --> 00:39.220 Uh for example , down in southern 00:39.220 --> 00:41.550 Takhar province . Uh recently there 00:41.550 --> 00:44.310 have been a couple of attacks against 00:44.320 --> 00:47.800 police officers uh in police buildings . 00:47.810 --> 00:51.050 Uh We've also seen evidence and there 00:51.050 --> 00:53.120 have been attacks against uh 00:53.130 --> 00:55.241 reconstruction efforts that have been 00:55.241 --> 00:57.297 going on when the attack , a private 00:57.297 --> 00:59.940 security uh company that's moving 00:59.950 --> 01:02.910 officials around to uh go bring 01:02.910 --> 01:05.021 reconstruction efforts to some of the 01:05.021 --> 01:08.370 people . Uh those or what I mean by uh 01:08.380 --> 01:10.380 the interest year classes , clashes 01:10.380 --> 01:12.602 against government officials . And then 01:12.602 --> 01:16.490 also uh attacks against uh 01:16.500 --> 01:18.611 those reconstruction efforts that are 01:18.611 --> 01:20.222 going on by the civilian aid 01:20.222 --> 01:24.060 organizations . Is 01:24.060 --> 01:26.004 there any sign that that there are 01:26.004 --> 01:28.500 increasingly targeting the interesting 01:28.510 --> 01:30.510 classes are turning their attention 01:30.510 --> 01:32.820 towards the U . S . And the coalition 01:32.820 --> 01:36.740 like tom was asking now , I haven't 01:36.740 --> 01:39.620 seen the increases in attacking against 01:39.630 --> 01:43.150 coalition forces ? Uh if anything , 01:43.150 --> 01:46.400 the attacks that have been conducted 01:46.400 --> 01:48.456 have been against the Iraqi security 01:48.456 --> 01:50.400 forces , the police and the army , 01:50.400 --> 01:52.630 Although fortunately we have not seen 01:52.630 --> 01:56.460 any of those in um are to date . 01:59.040 --> 02:01.040 Uh Colonel Jeff . Sure , well , the 02:01.040 --> 02:02.651 stars and stripes , have you 02:02.651 --> 02:04.651 experienced them delay getting your 02:04.651 --> 02:06.484 certain funding and if so , what 02:06.484 --> 02:10.300 challenges is that posed ? Uh The 02:10.300 --> 02:12.522 only word I picked up in there is about 02:12.522 --> 02:14.633 challenges . The rest of it came in a 02:14.633 --> 02:17.170 little broken , you're afraid ? Sorry , 02:17.170 --> 02:19.690 I have a tendency to mumble . Have you 02:19.690 --> 02:22.070 experienced any delays in getting your 02:22.070 --> 02:24.430 cerp funding and if so , what 02:24.430 --> 02:26.790 challenges has that posed ? 02:28.460 --> 02:31.400 I have not personally experienced in 02:31.400 --> 02:33.289 this brigade any challenges yet , 02:33.289 --> 02:36.190 insert fundings . Uh I think as units 02:36.190 --> 02:38.190 come in , you know , sometimes just 02:38.190 --> 02:40.357 getting your arms around what projects 02:40.357 --> 02:43.250 you want to do the formalities of of 02:43.260 --> 02:46.920 getting the funding approved for those 02:46.920 --> 02:49.340 projects and then quite frankly finding 02:49.340 --> 02:51.910 those individuals in the population 02:51.920 --> 02:54.270 that you trust and you want to begin a 02:54.280 --> 02:56.710 relationship with and you're willing to 02:56.720 --> 03:00.710 begin those contracts with a recent 03:00.710 --> 03:02.599 development in the last couple of 03:02.599 --> 03:04.654 months has been an initiative called 03:04.654 --> 03:07.280 the eye serpents Iraqi funding and I 03:07.280 --> 03:09.502 find this to be the same process . It's 03:09.502 --> 03:12.160 very helpful , but it is Iraqi money 03:12.160 --> 03:14.880 being used and we take a number of 03:14.880 --> 03:17.910 those things to the provincial councils 03:17.910 --> 03:20.160 and they can determine where they want 03:20.160 --> 03:22.610 to put those uh those funds or what 03:22.610 --> 03:24.721 projects they want to put those funds 03:24.721 --> 03:28.450 against follow up . Are you saying the 03:28.450 --> 03:30.617 Iraqi government is providing you with 03:30.617 --> 03:34.590 money to do , what does 03:35.290 --> 03:37.660 the Iraqi government has provided each 03:37.660 --> 03:40.610 of the provinces with funding and what 03:40.610 --> 03:43.090 we do is we work with the provincial 03:43.090 --> 03:45.340 reconstruction team . The Chamber of 03:45.340 --> 03:47.900 Commerce and the provincial councils to 03:47.900 --> 03:51.590 just advise and assist in some of the 03:51.600 --> 03:54.620 places where as we get out and about in 03:54.620 --> 03:56.787 the in the province to give them ideas 03:56.787 --> 03:59.270 about some things that uh they may be 03:59.270 --> 04:01.580 able to better spend their money on 04:01.590 --> 04:03.380 infrastructure type items . 04:07.240 --> 04:11.180 Yeah this is joe to because uh can you 04:11.180 --> 04:13.402 give us small details about the weapons 04:13.402 --> 04:15.500 caches that you talked about in your 04:15.510 --> 04:19.340 opening statement ? Uh 04:19.350 --> 04:21.128 Those weapons are coming from , 04:21.220 --> 04:24.950 I think you asked me 04:24.950 --> 04:27.280 about weapons caches in um are is that 04:27.290 --> 04:29.660 is that what you just asked me about 04:32.330 --> 04:35.090 charlie ? You can get some further 04:35.090 --> 04:37.201 clarification on the types of weapons 04:37.201 --> 04:39.820 caches you found and specifically have 04:39.820 --> 04:42.160 you found weapons that seem to be of 04:42.160 --> 04:45.730 Iranian origin ? Well 04:45.740 --> 04:48.540 I just came back from um our early this 04:48.540 --> 04:52.440 morning . The first load of weapons 04:52.440 --> 04:55.360 that uh will be looked at by the 04:55.370 --> 04:58.040 experts is on the way to Baghdad today . 04:58.040 --> 05:00.207 So I can't really speak of whether any 05:00.207 --> 05:03.110 of the weapons that we found today are 05:03.120 --> 05:05.530 from Iran . Certainly this smuggling 05:05.530 --> 05:08.640 routes uh indicate that they would come 05:08.640 --> 05:10.307 from that direction . And the 05:10.307 --> 05:13.800 individuals that were in the city um 05:13.810 --> 05:15.754 that are no longer there . We have 05:15.754 --> 05:17.977 evidence that some have going back into 05:17.977 --> 05:20.140 Iran but the size of the caches are 05:20.140 --> 05:22.450 pretty significant . Uh We've gotten 05:22.450 --> 05:25.410 over in excess of 3000 mortar rounds . 05:25.420 --> 05:28.560 Uh Nearly 300 rockets 05:29.430 --> 05:32.020 and artillery rounds were approaching 05:32.020 --> 05:35.910 800 there's about 27 FPs 05:35.910 --> 05:38.077 that we're aware of right now . But an 05:38.077 --> 05:41.300 additional uh nearly 300 I . E . Ds of 05:41.300 --> 05:43.740 various types . So pretty significant 05:43.740 --> 05:45.851 amounts of ammunition . There's other 05:45.851 --> 05:48.018 things in there that I haven't touched 05:48.018 --> 05:51.150 on but a lot of cash A's and quite 05:51.150 --> 05:53.317 frankly a lot of people coming forward 05:53.317 --> 05:55.740 with more information about this . And 05:55.750 --> 05:59.060 if I might just add that is basically 05:59.070 --> 06:01.420 three days or four days of operations 06:01.430 --> 06:04.230 in the city limits of Amara , we're now 06:04.230 --> 06:06.341 beginning to go . Or I should say the 06:06.341 --> 06:08.563 Iraqi security forces are going outside 06:08.563 --> 06:10.810 of the city limits now to about nine 06:10.810 --> 06:12.921 objectives over the next four or five 06:12.921 --> 06:16.340 days . Looking for additional cash A's 06:16.340 --> 06:18.070 and criminals over 06:18.890 --> 06:21.320 uh 06:22.540 --> 06:26.490 progressive that we have a 06:26.500 --> 06:29.650 number of a 06:30.280 --> 06:34.240 2000 and uh have been 06:34.240 --> 06:37.800 discovering a much more 06:37.900 --> 06:38.600 uh 06:39.820 --> 06:43.540 uh I'm 06:43.540 --> 06:45.373 sorry , I'm still having trouble 06:45.373 --> 06:47.484 understanding what you're asking me . 06:48.490 --> 06:51.610 Okay , charlie , he says again , some 06:51.610 --> 06:53.610 slides that you provided to us that 06:53.610 --> 06:55.721 have a chart that shows the number of 06:55.721 --> 06:57.943 mortar rounds discovered in cash days , 06:57.943 --> 07:00.110 which seems to be higher than 3000 . I 07:00.110 --> 07:02.221 don't know if that was because it was 07:02.221 --> 07:01.380 the reference in the three day 07:01.380 --> 07:03.450 timeframe that he was wondering with 07:03.450 --> 07:05.339 the significance of the number of 07:05.339 --> 07:07.006 mortar rounds . How would you 07:07.006 --> 07:10.960 characterize that ? Uh 07:10.970 --> 07:14.150 of course the mortars are are used 07:14.160 --> 07:18.040 against our forces were in these combat 07:18.040 --> 07:20.670 outposts and forward operating bases . 07:20.880 --> 07:23.570 And uh I mean to find just that many 07:23.570 --> 07:26.110 mortar rounds in the city of Amara , 07:26.170 --> 07:29.320 we're happy to get those out of out of 07:29.320 --> 07:31.376 their hands . And of course the same 07:31.376 --> 07:33.653 munitions can be used to conduct I . E . 07:33.653 --> 07:36.360 D . Attacks against us . So we're happy 07:36.360 --> 07:38.582 that people came forward and turn those 07:38.582 --> 07:40.693 over to us . And uh we're going to do 07:40.693 --> 07:43.110 what we can to make sure that we reward 07:43.110 --> 07:44.777 the people that are providing 07:44.777 --> 07:47.760 information related to cash , finds 07:51.640 --> 07:53.940 Colonel luis Martinez of abc news . 07:53.950 --> 07:56.172 Question about your shift in operations 07:56.172 --> 07:58.780 back in april that occur in tandem with 07:58.790 --> 08:01.030 the Iraqi operation in Bosnia . Or did 08:01.030 --> 08:03.950 it happen afterwards ? And did you fall 08:03.950 --> 08:06.117 in behind other units that had left or 08:06.117 --> 08:08.172 were you the first American needs to 08:08.172 --> 08:10.450 partner up with Iraqi forces down there 08:10.460 --> 08:12.627 and set up joint security stations and 08:12.627 --> 08:14.880 cops . You know , there's a it's a 08:14.880 --> 08:17.710 unique set of circumstances there . We 08:17.710 --> 08:20.080 are partnered with the 38th Brigade 08:20.080 --> 08:22.590 from the 10th Iraqi Army Division . Uh 08:22.600 --> 08:25.880 the marines are have a 08:25.890 --> 08:29.790 transition team uh that is partnered 08:29.790 --> 08:32.830 with First Iraqi Army Division . We 08:32.830 --> 08:36.280 have special forces in the area that 08:36.280 --> 08:39.010 are partnered with Iraqi special forces . 08:39.020 --> 08:41.242 And then there's even a National Police 08:41.242 --> 08:43.500 brigade under the Ministry of Interior 08:43.510 --> 08:46.530 with the sixth National Police Brigade 08:46.540 --> 08:49.700 uh And they have their uh their uh 08:49.710 --> 08:53.450 police transition team . So it's really 08:53.450 --> 08:55.740 a unique set of circumstances there 08:55.750 --> 08:58.020 where we have M Y . And 08:58.030 --> 09:01.280 uh M . O . D . Forces from 09:01.280 --> 09:04.150 Iraq coordinating their efforts . They 09:04.150 --> 09:06.830 planned it well in advance and every 09:06.830 --> 09:08.941 day they're getting better and better 09:08.941 --> 09:10.941 at synchronizing their operations , 09:10.941 --> 09:14.080 sharing intelligence , uh , and 09:14.080 --> 09:15.969 coordination points to be able to 09:15.969 --> 09:18.191 conduct these operations successfully . 09:18.191 --> 09:21.980 So it's it's quite a uh , quite an 09:21.980 --> 09:24.091 event to see . And it's it's a really 09:24.091 --> 09:27.740 positive trend 09:27.750 --> 09:31.490 uh , back in 09:31.490 --> 09:34.330 april , the shift occur because of the 09:34.330 --> 09:36.386 operation White Knight that had just 09:36.386 --> 09:38.552 taken place in Bosnia , and that's why 09:38.552 --> 09:42.260 you were shifted to the ammunition .