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Dozens Killed in Yemen Mosque Blasts; Heartbreak as Tunisia Marks Independence Day; Black Mississippi Man Found Hanging from Tree; Total Solar Eclipse Cast Shadow on Millions; Kerry Pauses Iran Nuke Talk Until Next Week; Obama to Netanyahu: I'll "Reassess" Ties. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired March 20, 2015 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAMEROTA: OK. She wins. I'm going to do that.

PEREIRA: Yes, we all are.

CAMEROTA: Giving us a great idea. I'll do that with my kids and spread the love as they say.

All right. Thanks so much for watching. Time now for "NEWSROOM" with Brianna Keilar in for Carol Costello.

Hi, Brianna.

[09:00:13] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: I love that. I love that. Spread the love.

All right, guys. Have a great weekend. NEWSROOM starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

KEILAR: Good morning, I'm Brianna Keilar in for Carol Costello. And we begin with breaking news in Yemen.

At least 48 worshippers have been killed in three separate suicide bombings at mosques in the capital city of Sana'a. More than 200 others have been hurt.

Let's get right now to CNN senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh in Beirut.

Give us the latest, Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, a staggering death toll here. Three blasts very close to each other in terms of timing. Two of them hitting key areas in Sana'a, the Yemeni capital. Two key mosques, the Al Badr Mosque and the al-Hashoosh mosque.

Now the technique used here redolent really of al Qaeda's practices across the region. Suicide bombers entering each mosque targeting worshippers. And then outside a car bomb exploded, and outside another suicide bomber exploded. Now we're hearing from officials from the Houthi group here who seemed

to have been the predominant target. They are predominantly Shia and these mosques targeted are predominantly from Zaidi Muslim group. So a clear sectarian motive behind this.

We're hearing from some Houthi officials the death toll may now be as high as 77, Brianna, with potentially 200 injured. Hospitals putting out an urgent appeal for blood on state TV.

Let me wind you back as to why this is such a significant attack. For months now there's been greater unrest than normal in the beleaguered country of Yemen. The government pushed aside by this group known as the Houthis who are predominantly Shias. Some say increasingly efficient because of the backing of Iran here. They've swept away the current government. They put in their own, not recognized by the West government of sorts, but we've seen violence escalate here.

And what the fear is potentially today that these mosques targeted are from that Shia Houthi grouping. Potentially this may mark if it turns out al Qaeda, a predominantly Sunni group, claim responsibility for the attacks. This may mark a worrying escalation in sectarian violence inside Yemen at a time, too, when the country is so close to collapse. It's barely caught off the ground, frankly, in terms of being a functioning state for years now.

But this lurch towards sectarian violence deeply troubling. At the same time, too, we're hearing of war planes above the presidential compound for the president who's still recognized by the West in the southern city of Aden. So, so much violence on so many fronts potentially here but this staggering death toll at these two blasts in Sana'a and also one potentially lesser blast in the north of the country that happened about an hour or so afterwards really causing deep fears of a further lurch towards sectarian conflict in Yen and an even greater sense of collapse there, Brianna.

KEILAR: Such a horrible scene there.

Nick Paton Walsh, thanks so much.

Just the start. That's the chilling warning from ISIS after the group claims responsibility for that brutal massacre in Tunisia that left 23 people dead and dozens wounded. This morning we're finding out new details about some of the suspects.

According to Tunisia's Security minister, two individuals linked to the attack traveled to Libya in December. And they received weapons training. Officials believed that both of these suspects were members of sleeper cells. And authorities now believe the attackers intended to launch an even bigger attack than they did. Two gunmen were actually laced with explosives but thanks to some fast acting security forces the attackers were unable to detonate them. So far nine people have been arrested, four of those with direct links to Wednesday's bloodshed.

Now while the country continues to mourn, many in Tunisia say they're unified when it comes to fighting terror. This is what it looked like in the capital city of Tunis Thursday as

demonstrators gathered to mourn the victims at the site -- at the site of the attack. And today there's a similar scene that's expected as citizens gather to mark the country's independence day.

Let's bring in CNN's Phil Black. He's on the ground in Tunis.

So we're expecting more people to gather there, right, Phil?

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna. We are seeing that. We're seeing big crowds here in the center of Tunis today as the Tunisian government reveals some more details as you've touched on about what they're learning about the buildup and the planning to this particular terror attack.

It is the two gunmen specifically who carried out the attack that the authorities believe received their training across the border in Libya before coming back, crossing the border back recently to carry out the attack itself.

It's a big concern, that particular scenario for the Tunisian authorities, because Libya is right next door, it is falling apart, increasingly fracturing, increasingly lawless and ISIS earlier -- ISIS groups close to ISIS are increasingly gaining a very strong foothold there as well.

[09:05:14] This as ISIS has claimed responsibility publicly for the attack and issued a pretty ominous warning about what Tunisia can expect in the future. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLACK (voice-over): This is just the start, says ISIS in an unverified audio message. The brutal militant group claiming responsibility for the deadliest attack on tourists in the Middle East in over a decade. ISIS claiming the attack targeted crusaders and Apostics when gunmen opened fire inside a museum in Tunisia's capital Wednesday. The gunmen killing 23 people and injuring dozens more, many international visitors.

DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: This is the latest example of extremist terror and we have to fight it with everything we have.

BLACK: Nine people have already been arrested according to Tunisian authorities. Four directly linked to the attacks, the prime minister identified two suspects by name saying on French radio station RTL one had been known to security services. The two gunmen killed, recruited at a Tunisian mosque in September and trained at a jihadist camp in Libya according to a Tunisian Interior official who spoke to Reuters.

Those attackers were carrying terrible explosives. Tunisia's president, Beji Caid Essebsi, told French broadcaster TFI their security forces worked quickly killing them before detonation. President Obama called Essebsi Thursday offering continued U.S. support in the investigation. LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: You're going to see

these low-level attacks but high impact attacks. This will not be long before this comes to the United States because it is so easy for ISIS, al Qaeda, any other of these groups to do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACK: So big crowds on the streets today, Brianna, not celebrating Independence Day, but they say it is an act of defiance against the terror groups which they say now pose a real threat to the continued existence of their country -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Phil Black for us in Tunis. Thank you so much.

Let's dig deeper now with CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank.

Paul, thanks so much for joining us. And you have ISIS now claiming responsibility for this massacre. We also know that two of the attackers, they trained in Libya. They received weapons training there. And you know, what does this tell us other than we know that this is very much a threat, the disaster really that is Libya right now coming across the border?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Here's the most interesting thing. These two individuals linked to the attack, they are trained in the Derna-Benghazi area according to Tunisian security officials. And we know that ISIS are running training camps in those areas in the green mountains between Derna and Benghazi. So it's quite possible that this terrorist cell linked up with ISIS in Libya and then came back and launched this attack.

ISIS have claimed responsibility. They have not offered any proof of this, however, at this point, but quite possible that the training happened in Libya. They're concerned about a lot of terrorist spillover from Libya. ISIS is very much on the march in Libya. They have a presence now in Tripoli which is just 60 miles from the Tunisian border. So a lot of concern about all of this.

KEILAR: OK. And so then you also have authorities who think that these two -- two of these attackers, that they were activated by sleeper cells. Do you -- is that how you read this?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, if they came back in December, they're hardly sleeper cells, that's just a few months ago.

KEILAR: Yes.

CRUICKSHANK: So may be that they've got training and then, you know, went into operation after just a few months. There seems to be some significant planning here. There was a lookout at the museum who alerted the gunmen to when these buses were going to arrive so they could start attacking the buses that morning. So some organization here. This suggests a more kind of sophisticated attack perhaps linked to a kind of more established terrorist outfit.

But ISIS isn't the only candidate here. There's also Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia. They have 40,000 followers in the country. And there's a North African al Qaeda affiliate which has a presence in the mountainous region near the Algerian border which has been the most active terror group.

Al Qaeda in North Africa also have a presence in Libya. So not impossible that they could have trained with another group, not ISIS, in Libya. The investigations I think will uncover more as we move forward.

KEILAR: Let's talk about Yemen now. We're having this breaking news today with these simultaneous or coordinated bomb attacks at mosques. Fifty -- we're talking about 50 people dead at this point that we know of. This is a place that has experienced some tremendous unrest lately.

[09:10:07] Absolutely. And in fact almost every single day al Qaeda in Yemen are targeting Houthis all across Yemen especially in the central areas of Yemen. They're sort of spiraling sectarian violence. The Houthis are essentially Shia. Other Sunni tribes are very angry that the Houthis have taken over Sana'a, the capital. And that's driving them towards al Qaeda. Al Qaeda are getting a lot more recruits, they're expanding that presence in Yemen.

This is, of course, the group that in recent years has been most active in plotting against the United States, especially United States aviation. They're getting stronger and stronger. That's a very worrying sign, indeed.

KEILAR: Yes. It certainly is, especially on that map where you see this sort of march of this extremism.

Paul Cruickshank, thank you so much.

Two officials tell CNN that the parties involved in discussions on Iran's nuclear program are closer to a deal that would limit the country to 6,000 centrifuges. Those are the machines that could be used to make an atomic bomb. And as discussions resume, the president is appealing directly to the Iranian people in this. It's a newly released message, and he says in it that a deal could transform the relationship between the two countries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Nuclear deal now can help open the door to a brighter future for you, the Iranian people. This is what's at stake today. And this moment may not come again soon. I believe that our nations have a historic opportunity to resolve this issue peacefully, an opportunity we should not miss.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: The deadline for a framework deal is March 31st.

In Mississippi, was it suicide or was it murder? The FBI has joined the investigation into the death of an African-American man. His body was found hanging from a tree in a wooded area of Claiborne County, that's near the Louisiana state line. Family members identify the man as 54-year-old Otis Byrd and the local NAACP wants to -- chapter wants to know if he was the victim of the same racial hatred that haunted this region for decades.

Let's go now to CNN's Ed Lavandera, he's in Fort Gibson, Mississippi. And he joins us with the latest.

What are you learning, Ed?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, investigators here in Claiborne County, Mississippi, Brianna, are still trying to figure out, as you say, whether or not the case of Odis Byrd is a case of murder or was it suicide?

The sheriff here in Claiborne County says that Byrd's body was discovered Thursday in a wooded area. He described what investigators and search teams found when they arrived on the scene yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF MERVIN LUCAS, CLAIBORNE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI: A wooded area about a quarter mile down in the woods. It was near an area where someone had been. We got down there and we see a man had a rope tied around his neck.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And Brianna, he was found about 500 yards away in a wooded area from where he lives here in Claiborne County. Now Otis Byrd, 54 years old, was last seen on March 2nd. Family members reported him officially missing on March 8th. So it's been about 2 and a half weeks and there obviously the time line he was last seen going into a casino in Vicksburg, Mississippi, which is about a 45-minute drive up the road here from Fort Gibson, Mississippi, on the western side of the state of Mississippi.

We spoke with a family member of Otis Byrd who said he was acting fine. There was nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing that they could pin point that he had been going to church, working his job and that sort of thing so everything seemed fine.

Now Otis Byrd was convicted of murder back in 1980. He served 26 years in prison for that offense. He was paroled back in 2006, so all of these elements playing into this investigation as investigators here in Claiborne County, Mississippi, try to figure out whether Odis Byrd was murdered or if he committed suicide -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Ed. We know you'll be following that.

Ed Lavandera for us, thank you.

And still to come, the images, spectacular this morning. A total eclipse seen by millions around the world. Why this is just part of a cosmic triple play that we'll be seeing today.

[09:14:27] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:17:46] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Consider today the Super Bowl of science. The sun vanishing in the sky as a total solar eclipse cast shadows around the world this morning.

One of the best views happened in London. This is a time lapse taken during the two-hour solar event. It's going to be another 75 years until this happens again in the U.K.

But the eclipse is just one part of what's really a cosmic trifecta. Today also sees a super moon and you have the spring equinox.

Chad Myers, you're in Atlanta. Are you totally geeking out today?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Today is a geek day. It truly is.

The moon got in the way of the sun. It is a super moon, so we had a complete total eclipse, not just the one where you see part of the ring around the sun still there. It was completely gone in Denmark, Finland, up towards Iceland.

We didn't see it here in the U.S. because the sun was already -- it was gone. The moon had already moved away from the sun by the time our sun rose. So, it happened over in Europe, but it was a complete dark umbral shadow as we call it, with a complete, full, total eclipse.

Now, the super moon -- the moon is not always the same distance from the earth. It moves back and forth. Right now, we're close to this perigee. We're the closest we'll get to the moon. The moon is closest to the earth.

But later on in the year, it's going to be farther away. So, it's a smaller moon. So, all of this happened at the same time, plus we get the equinox today from where we were last year in solstice. And now, we're to the equinox.

I've heard everybody, Brianna, say today -- today is the first day of spring. Technically, tonight is the first evening of spring because we don't get there until 6:45.

KEILAR: Got it.

MYERS: So, it's not really daytime, it will be the first evening. Tomorrow will be the first full day of spring, 12 hours of daylight, 12 hours of night. Most people won't see much daylight today.

Look at Philadelphia. Here's what the radar looks like. Here's what the pictures look like right now. Snow moving into New York City, but snow is already into Philly. We've had snow into parts of Maryland, also into northern Virginia. Little bit of snow coming down into D.C. at times, mixing in with rainfall.

But there could be 3 to 5 inches of snow in places across parts of the Northeast. I know it's a spring-type snow. We're hoping at least in some spots that the snow is over by 6:45.

[09:40:04] So, it's not snowing in spring. I think it's going to happen for New York. I think Long Island is still going to be snowing even though the clock says spring -- Brianna.

KEILAR: I'm so over winter. Just winter get out of here. Just go. And I'm going to -- I think I'm going to use penumbral shadow, is that what you --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: I'm going to throw that around today like I know what I'm talking about, that penumbral shadow.

MYERS: Fair enough.

KEILAR: All right. Chad Myers, thank you for teaching us that.

And still to come, President Obama calls Israel's newly re-elected leader. Congratulations. Also, some words of caution there. We'll break down that warning for Benjamin Netanyahu, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: This just in to CNN. Some big developments when it comes to the Iran nuclear talks.

Let's get now to Nic Robertson. He's in Switzerland to catch us up.

This is -- this is pretty significant. Tell us what's going on, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is. Secretary Kerry has just told us in the last couple of minutes that the talks are going into recess. He says it will be back next week.

He didn't give a specific reason, but certainly from following events very closely here over the past few days, even today, we can see there are a number of growing reasons. One is that they have made some progress but issues still remain.

President Obama reached out to the Iranian people, you know, saying that this was a time for -- you know, for their leaders to choose. This was an important moment. This was part of a new year's message. It is Iranian New Year on Saturday.

[09:25:00] So, there was always the expectation that the Iranian delegation might leave the weekend because of the Iranian New Year. That Secretary Kerry might leave because he would have to meet as expected and as planned with the Afghan president early next week. So, that has been in the air as well.

But when you add to that also and you understand better where the negotiations are, the response by the foreign minister here, Zarif, to President Obama's message, his message back tweeting was, this is time for the United States to choose pressure or agreement, an indication there that really, the pressure of these talks, United States needs to back off the pressure if there's going to be an agreement. So, you can tell there, that there's a real, been a real and continues to be a real tension and that some key compromises haven't been made.

But what perhaps finally pushed these talks into recess today, this morning the news that President Rouhani of Iran, his mother had died. His brother is on the negotiating team. He has gone immediately back to Iran.

And there was certainly talk in the past hour or so that perhaps because of the death of the president's mother, the whole Iranian negotiating team would leave and go back to Iran. So, there's always different factors and influences on it, but the bottom line is, the talks have made some progress but not enough. And I think everyone from the State Department has been hoping more progress would be made by now.

KEILAR: Yes. There's not much time left with this March 31st deadline for a framework. The clock is really ticking there.

Nic Robertson in Switzerland for us -- thank you.

Add another irritant to that tension between the White House and Israel's new re-elected prime minister just a couple weeks after House Speaker John Boehner invited Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress, we're learning that the Republican leader will now visit Israel. Boehner's trip will take place in the next two weeks, just days after Netanyahu's surprisingly strong win. Newspapers in the Middle East predict that Boehner will receive red carpet treatment and one paper says the trip amounts to a victory celebration.

After waiting two days, President Obama makes a congratulatory call to Netanyahu but the message maybe after two days you're not surprised. It's lukewarm at best. The president is warning that the U.S. will reassess some of its relationship with Israel after Netanyahu rebuffed a longstanding agreement on creating a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu, by the way, later backed off on that statement that further strains U.S./Israel ties.

CNN's Michelle Kosinski is at the White House. She joins us with the latest on this.

There's certainly some tension her when you wait a couple of days to congratulate someone, Michelle, to call and congratulate. You know, that's telling, isn't it?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I don't think lukewarm is the word for it, not even close. It may have been the most uncomfortable congratulatory call ever.

It has been truly stunning over the past few days to hear this level of criticism by the White House of those things that Prime Minister Netanyahu said, leading up to his reelection. That there would never be a two-state solution with the Palestinians while he is prime minister, that his supporters should mobilize because Arabs were heading to the polls in droves.

I mean, the White House has called this now cynical, divisive saying that it erodes the foundation of the relationship between the U.S. and Israel, that it erodes the shared values between the two countries. So, even though Netanyahu has now tried -- it seems like he's working overtime to walk back virtually everything he said saying, no, no, no, I didn't mean it that way, I do support a two-state solution, ultimately -- the White House just isn't buying it. The President Obama absolutely raised these issues in that call.

And the press secretary mentioned no fewer than 19 times in the same press conference that the U.S. is now re-evaluating its position.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Now, the prime minister of Israel says, earlier this week, days before an election, that this is a principle that he no longer subscribes to and that his nation no longer subscribes to. That means the United States needs to rethink our approach, that this -- that steps that -- that this principle has been the foundation of a number of policy decisions that have been made here, and now that that foundation has been eroded, it means that our policy decisions need to be reconsidered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: The White House made it very clear, too, that that re- evaluation includes the White House's stance to stand up, back Israel at the U.N., Brianna.

KEILAR: Certainly does. And a beautiful scene behind you, I just have to say, Michelle Kosinski.

KOSINSKI: Yes, snowy, and --

KEILAR: So gorgeous. Thank you so much for your report there at the White House. Tensions very high as you can see.

We have the opening bell in just moments.