First Iraqi Battalion To Graduate From Basic Training
Aired September 28, 2003 - 16:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOPHIA CHOI, CNN ANCHOR: The first eight weeks are the toughest and next Saturday the first U.S. trained battalion of the Iraqi army will graduate from basic trading. Meanwhile near the Iran border, other Iraqis are being trained as border guards to keep out terrorists. Jason Bellini has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Today it's hard to imagine a village as being quaint and lively as Twala (ph) being anything other than innocent and untouched from violence, unless you lived here the last ten years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): You could you look how happy they are and they feel freedom. It's much different.
BELLINI: Twaila (ph) is located within sight of the Iran Iraq border. After the first Gulf war the terrorist organization Ansar Al Islam encamped itself in the surrounding mountains bringing misery to these Kurdish peasants. Most men were at some point in the last decade imprisoned and/or tortured by Ansar Al Islam. Shop keepers had to pay extortion just to operate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): People are very happy and we have a lot of customers. Before, we had not too many customers because they were afraid to come to this area.
BELLINI: During the U.S. led war to oust Saddam Hussein, Ansar Al Islam was also a target. Most are believed to have either died or have fled across the border to Iran. U.S. soldiers here are treated as heroes. The bad news they're hearing from the villagers, however, is that Ansar Al Islam may be planning a comeback.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People that have family members on each side. These family members tell other family members what's going on the other side. And what they're saying is Ansar Al Islam is actually building back up.
BELLINI: No fence, only the mountains now stand in their way. It used to be that Kurdish peshmerga (ph) militia men did the job of guarding their border with Iran and villages like Twala (ph) albeit in a far less organized fashion. Now these men who roomed the hills and valleys here for years are being trained as Iraq's new border guard.
The training is urgent and necessary, accord together U.S. military. Currently only 63 trained Iraqi border guards protect a 700 kilometer stretch of the border. Back in Twaela (ph), rumors about Ansar Al Islan are shared on the street.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): They are on the other side. We know that, and we have information that the Iranian government is helping them.
BELLINI: Here in the small commercial village, villagers believe that the Iraqi border guards will provide them the security they need. Twaela borders on a painful past and a potentially promising future. Jason Bellini, CNN, Northern Iraq.
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