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Afghanistan Mourning Victims of Recent ISIS Attack; Munich Attack Investigation Continues; Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine Campaign Together; Turkish President Continues Crackdown on Opposition; Wikileaks Leaks DNC Emails, Causing Uproar; Rio Olympics Previewed. Aired Midnight-12:30a ET

Aired July 24, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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

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NATALIE ALLEN, HOST: Chaos at a demonstration in Afghanistan. Kabul sees one of its deadliest attacks in months and ISIS says it is responsible.

People in Munich lay flowers for those killed in Friday's shooting as police uncover troubling details about the 18-year-old gunman.

Plus --

HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Please join me in welcoming the next Vice President.

ALLEN: Hillary Clinton unveils her running mate and Senator Tim Kaine is already going on the offensive against Donald Trump.

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ALLEN: It's all ahead here on "CNN Newsroom" thank you for joining us. We're live in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.

ISIS claims responsibility for the deadliest attack in months in Afghanistan's capital city.

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ALLEN: The terror group's media wing says two of its fighters blew themselves up among a crowd of peaceful protesters in Kabul Saturday. They were just wanting more electricity for their region. At least 80 people were killed. 260 wounded. Here's video from the moment of the blast.

CNN's Senior International Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh has more on the attack.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This devastating blast in the center of Kabul targeting the Shia minority of the Hezaras. Now they had been peacefully protesting events crowd there of civilians hoping to pressure the government to get them more electricity in the area where they predominantly hail from.

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WALSH: Bamyan, a remote of Afghanistan. But the peaceful nature of this protest did not stop ISIS from sending two, at least, of their fighters, suicide bombers into that crowd. The ISIS statement released through their news against saying those two belts detonated there. An Afghan security official telling us there may have been a third bomber, in fact, shot dead by law enforcement during those explosions there.

So potentially this attack could have been even worse. The death toll rising hour by hour. The hospitals dealing with over 200 injured now. Well-practiced institutions, Kabul's hospitals, but never as well equipped as they'd like to be, appeals for blood now so people can simply try and prevent the death toll from rising yet further. This certainly ISIS' worst attack yet in Afghanistan.

They're very quick to claim responsibility for it and the Taliban were equally quick to say they weren't part of it. These two insurgent groups really fighting for supremacy as well in Afghanistan too.

But the Taliban while accused of more brutal tactics recently haven't tended in the past to target such vast civilian demonstrations like this and try and seek such a large civilian toll.

ISIS however a different story. They're under pressure in the East of the country no doubt, they have lost a lot of territory to a concerted Afghan military campaign backed with U.S. air power and drones. But perhaps been in a bit of a resurgence in the past weeks or months or so. This devastating attack in Kabul the worst for months if not possibly years, as the death toll continues to rise. And perhaps their bid to try and show they are still, "in the fight so to speak in Afghanistan" disgusting and callous as the particular method of attack they've used here is.

But Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, dealing with yet another devastating blow against that Shia minority of the Hezaras and that sense again of persistent insecurity. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Beirut.

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ALLEN: This bombing just the latest in a string of ISIS attacks or ISIS inspired attacks in Afghanistan over the past year.

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ALLEN: On April 18th last year, a suicide bomber on a motor bike blew himself in front of a back in the eastern city of Jalalabad, at least 33 people died there and more than 100 others wounded.

In that same city, three ISIS fighters launched an attack on the Pakistani consulate in January of this year. Officials say six people died as well as the three assailants.

And just last month, 16 people were killed during a suicide attack on a bus carrying security guards in Kabul. ISIS claimed responsibility but so did the Afghan Taliban.

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ALLEN: For more on ISIS in this Afghanistan What does this mean? We're joined now by CNN military analyst, retired Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona. Rick, as always, thank you for being with us. A deadly, deadly attack there on this minority sect. They were just doing a peaceful rally to try to get more electricity. What does this mean about ISIS encroachment on the capital?

RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, this is interesting. We're starting to see more activity from ISIS in Afghanistan and they've moved their area of operations from the east as you were talking about, the attacks in Jalalabad.

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FRANCONA: This is the first major attack we've seen in Kabul by ISIS that they've actually taken credit for. And the way they went about this, going after this peaceful protest by the Hezaras which really are a real small sect, but they're Shia. And it looks like they're going after them because they were Shia.

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FRANCONA: It also demonstrates the problems the Afghan government has with securing Kabul. It also demonstrates the lack of intelligence that these security services are able to gather on ISIS. You know, ISIS has proven itself to be very resilient, although they're losing territory in Iraq and Syria, we see them striking out all over major cities. Now, and you read off some of them but you know, Istanbul, Paris, Nice, it goes on. And we're going to see more of this as we feel pressure to find somewhere to go because they know, they see the handwriting on the wall. Soon they're going to be out of a state. They're going to have to figure out what they're going to be and they're looking for failed states, Yemen, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia. These are all places they could go.

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ALLEN: So even though they're getting severely pushed back in the Syrian region and Iraq, they still are quite organized it seems. Because this area here in Kabul, the police had sealed it with shipping containers trying to keep suicide bombers at bay. Helicopters were overhead. They did kill one alleged bomber but still, ISIS has some organization.

FRANCONA: They've got organization and they've got an excellent intelligence network and obviously the Afghans have not been able to penetrate that. It's not just the Afghans, I'm not throwing stones at them.

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FRANCONA: All of the western security services, all of the regional security services have trouble with ISIS because they're so - - their operational security is so good. I mean, they operate right under the nose of the Turkish intelligence service in Istanbul. Under the French intelligence service in Paris and Nice. You know so they've demonstrated capability and, of course, everybody is wondering, where are they going to strike next? Is it going to come here? That's what everybody's concerned about. Are we going to see an ISIS-directed attack, not an ISIS-inspired attack, inside the United States?

ALLEN: It's hard to tell where they would go, but as far as Afghanistan goes, what about the mix of the Taliban versus ISIS in that country?

FRANCONA: Yes, and as Nick, was alluding to, there's a power struggle inside of the Taliban. Some groups are willing to work with ISIS and other groups are not. So far, the leadership has been against working with ISIS. But ISIS is demonstrating itself to be a very capable organization and nothing brings success like success.

So they're going to be able to recruit more people, get smaller groups of the Taliban to come over to their side. That's what they're hoping, anyway. That's their game plan. So I expect to see more friction between ISIS and the Taliban.

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ALLEN: Rick Francona for us in Oregon. Thank you, Rick.

FRANCONA: Sure.

ALLEN: In Munich, Germany, police raided an apartment in connection with the shooting rampage that left nine people dead.

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ALLEN: Neighbors say 18-year-old Ali Sonboli lived in the apartment. He's been identified as the gunman who opened fire at a McDonald's in a shopping mall Friday and then killed himself.

Authorities say he had no apparent religious or political motive or ties to terror groups, but police found several documents on rampage killings among his belongings.

Our Will Ripley is live in Munich now for us.

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ALLEN: And will, certainly whatever the motive, more families in mourning over a senseless massacre.

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WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, i mean, it really strikes me, Natalie, standing here this morning and you see this, yet another spontaneous memorial behind me that continues to grow. And we have seen far too many of these spontaneous memorials in Europe. There have been three major attacks against civilians in the last just over a week. Nice, France, of course, where we just came from. Now we're here and

in the same state of Bavaria just a few days ago, there was an attack against passengers on a train. And so the scene of the crime is closed off. You see a Turkish flag hanging there because some of the victims were dual German and Turkish citizens. And the investigation continues into why, what happened, what provoked yet another attacker, in this case an 18 year-old who apparently been bullied, going back as far as 2011, 2012 when he would have been 13, 14 years old. Beaten up by a group of young people. Things were stolen from him. Neighbors described Ali Sonbali as quiet, kind of kept to himself.

But apparently whether people knew or not, police are questioning his parents right now. So we expect to perhaps learn more information about what they did or didn't know. But he was researching these rampage killings. Researching why students kill. Somehow obtained a weapon illegally here in Germany which has very strict gun laws. People have to register their weapons. But the serial number was scratched off. And was able to shut down this city, essentially shut down, lock down a city of 1.5 million people for more than 7 hours and he took 9 other lives before taking his own and injured more than two dozen people.

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ALLEN: It's terrible. And of those seven hours, Will, what was the police response like in that time?

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RIPLEY: Well, the police say that they were exercising the utmost caution to ensure that people were safe and there were a lot of rumors flying around here in Munich that there were multiple gunmen because there were so many different locations. This McDonald's being one of them.

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RIPLEY: You can pan over here to see the Olympia shopping center that this is the other location. That's where many of the people died. And so people thought there were more gunmen. Police told everybody to avoid public areas. They had the city on lockdown. And it wasn't until they actually found the body of this 18-year-old attacker that they then realized that the situation was over and that was, again, more than seven hours later.

So it just goes to show the state of -- the state of mind and the police said, look, they were just trying to make sure there were no other casualties after a really horrific scene here.

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ALLEN: All right. Thanks so much, Will Ripley for us live there in Munich. Thank you, Will.

The German Chancellor describes the attack in Munich as a night of horrors. Angela Merkel says she shares the pain of the families who will never see their loved ones again. And people across Germany are devastated. Our Frederik Pleitgen has more now from Munich.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Mourning the dead. Many clearly overwhelmed by pain, sadness and anger. At the makeshift memorial near the scene of the killings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm so glad that no one of my friends is affected and they are all alive and safe and for them, so sorry for the people who were here at the moment.

UNIDENTIFIED MAKE: I mean, I'm scattered in pieces. I don't know. I haven't foreseen, like, that happening in your own neighborhood, you know?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pray for Munich. Pray for the world.

PLEITGEN: The shooter identified by CNN as 18-year-old Ali Sonboli killed nine and wounded more than two dozen when he opened fire here on Friday afternoon. Police are still trying to determine what may have motivated the shooter to go on this rampage, but they say there are strong indications that he may have specifically been targeting younger people.

So far, none of those killed or wounded have been publicly identified.

PETER BIBERTHALER, PROFESSOR, MUNICH HOSPITAL: We have all the equipment inside you need for airway management.

PLEITGEN: At Munich's biggest hospital, Professor Peter Biberthaler and his team remember all too well the mass casualty situation they were confronted with. Treating several wounded but unable to save one of those rushed here.

BIBERTHALER: Really it makes me sad because I want to fight for every life. And especially in young victims this is - this is not a good thing for the physician.

PLEITGEN: The aftermath of this crime weighing heavily on Munich and all of Germany as this country grieves for those killed and struggles to understand the man who took their lives.

CNN, Fred Pleitgen, Munich, Germany.

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ALLEN: America's political spotlights shifts to the Democrats as they head to their Philadelphia convention.

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ALLEN: How the democrats are reaching out to a crucial voting bloc. That's a little hint. Coming up here.

Also just as a new development threatens to revive the bitterness of the parties, primary fights. We'll have more about that. (END VIDEO CLIP)

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ALLEN: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom." Turkey's President is stepping up his crackdown again after last week's failed coup.

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Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued his first presidential decree since imposing a three month state of emergency. Erdogan is increasing the maximum amount of time criminal suspects can be detained without charges from four days to one month. The government can also listen in on all conversations people detained have with their lawyers. The parliament is expected to approve his decree.

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, TURKISH PRESIDENT: (As translated) This coup attempt was not only against the state, the government and the parliament, but it was also against Turkish armed forces. Turkish armed forces and our soldiers are cherished by us. On July 15th, we also rescued our armed forces from these terrorists in military fatigues. With the failure of this armed coup attempt, Turkey has entered a new era.

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ALLEN: And Turkish authorities have arrested a top aide of the cleric the government accuses of last week's failed coup.

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ALLEN: Turkey's President is requesting the U.S. to extradite that cleric seen here Fethullah Gulen whom you see. Gulen denies any involvement. Gulen's aide entered Turkey two days before the coup attempt and was arrested in the country's north.

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ALLEN: Hillary Clinton and her vice presidential running mate are campaigning together ahead of next week's Democratic convention.

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ALLEN: Virginia Senator Tim Kaine is bilingual and he spoke in Spanish at times to the crowd in Miami. Republican Donald Trump has angered many Latinos with his call to build a wall on the U.S. border and make Mexico pay for it. Clinton and Kaine both attacked the Republican presidential nominee in their first rally together.

TIM KAINE, U.S. PRESUMPTIVE DEMOCRATIC VP NOMINEE: From Atlantic City, to his so-called university, he leaves a trail of broken promises and wrecked lives wherever he goes. We can't afford to let him do the same thing to our country, and folks, we don't have to because Hillary Clinton is the direct opposite of Donald Trump. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Donald Trump tweeted this, "just saw crooked Hillary and Tim Kaine together. ISIS and our other enemies are drooling. They don't look presidential to me."

As if Trump were not enough to handle the Democrats have a new problem as they get set to nominate their ticket next week. Wikileaks has now released nearly 20,000 e-mails from staff members of the Democratic national committee.

Chris Frates looks at why they're creating such a stink in the party.

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CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bernie Sanders and his top aides have complained for months that the DNC under chairwoman Debbie Wasserman- Schultz was putting its finger on the scale for Hillary Clinton and these e-mails add fuel to that fire.

Now take this one from May 13th just days after Sanders won West Virginia. An aide to Wasserman-Schultz informs her that Sanders' campaign manager, a guy named Jeff Weaver, thinks Sanders should take his fight all the way to the convention floor. And she responds that Weaver, "is an ass."

A few days later on May 17th, that same aide tells Wasserman-Schultz that in an interview with CNN, Weaver was asked about violent behavior by sanders supporters at the Nevada Democratic Convention and he then criticized the Nevada state party. Wasserman-Schultz reply, "Damn liar. Particularly scummy he barely acknowledges the violent and threatening behavior that occurred."

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FRATES: Now, it's worth repeating that CNN has not independently established the e-mails' authenticity. The e-mails could flare attentions ahead of this week's Democratic national convention in Philadelphia.

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FRATES: They could threaten a truce between Sanders and Clinton and that includes a more progressive party platform in exchange for Sanders dropping his fight to replace Wasserman-Schultz as the DNC Chair.

Republican Donald Trump really tried to stoke the flames of discontent this morning by tweeting about how the e-mail showed the DNC was planning to destroy Bernie Sanders and for Clinton and other Democrats who were hoping to unite the party in Philadelphia this week, these e- mails are really bad news.

Chris Frates, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ALLEN: Democratic National Committee secretary, Stephanie Rawlings- Blake, is denying any suggestion that Clinton received favorable treatment and a top Democrat close to the committee says Wasserman- Schultz no longer plans to speak at the convention next week.

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ALLEN: A wildfire in southern California is threatening homes and growing by the hour and the weather for that area will make it extremely difficult for firefighters to get a handle on it. Let's get the latest from our meteorologist, Karen Maginnis. Same one yesterday and it's still going.

KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGST: It is, and it is amazing the hot, dry conditions, also the terrain of this area which is very hilly, makes it extraordinarily difficult for firefighters to battle this blaze. And we've got this heat dome. We've talked about this over the last several days as a ridge of high pressure dominates much of the United States.

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MAGINNIS: Now, we saw some fairly hot temperatures across the central U.S. and the southeast, the Midwestern U.S. That starts to break down just a little bit, but that heat dome remains across the west. I mentioned this because the hot temperatures are going to be a factor for firefighters. On top of that, we're looking at blustery conditions and very low relative humidity.

Take a look at these images. Coming out of Southern California. Where is this? This is about 60 kilometers or around 30, 35 miles just to the north of Los Angeles. There is a home, if you look closely just about at the center of your screen, there is a home that is on fire. Now, they are spreading retardant. There have been mandatory evacuations.

This is an area that is known for farmland, also these beautiful neighborhoods. But the visibility's gone down greatly. About 20,000 acres, or an 8,000 hectares, have already burned and this has been very difficult for firefighters. People have had to flee their homes because the flames are just moving in closer and closer to these populated areas.

I want to show you quite a different story. This in Hawaii. This, thanks to tropical storm Darby that made landfall several hours ago. What you're looking at is the paradise park coast land and we have seen some wave heights between 15 and 25 feet. Now, tropical storm Darby is losing some of its strength, but not before it made landfall earlier in the day across Hawaii.

There's really no clearly defined center associated with this, but it continues to move toward the west. It's going to encounter little more in the way of shear. Also we're looking at colder water temperatures. Those are kind of the key ingredients that will cause a weather system like this, a hurricane or tropical system to kind of fall apart. Here are the Hawaiian islands. This looks to be the precipitation. We could see the potential for mud and landslides across the region. So they're not out of the woods just yet. Natalie?

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ALLEN: All right, Karen. Thank you.

Olympic athletes will soon be heading to Rio for the summer games. We'll get an inside look at the place where they'll be staying and we'll tell you why some call Olympic Village "austere."

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ALLEN: Well ready or not, here they come. The Rio Olympic games are less than two weeks away. And, of course, Olympians aren't going for gold, they'll need to chillax and our Shasta Darlington gives us a tour of where they'll be relaxing in the Olympic village.

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SHASTA DARLINGTON: 31 17-story towers.

PAUL RAMLER, CEO IGS EVENTS: So this is a typical apartment. This is the social space surrounded by the bedrooms, bathrooms. Minimal amount of seating.

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DARLINGTON: Getting a tour of the athletes village from the man who's been providing the Olympic furniture for them since Sydney, 2000. 3,604 apartments. 18,500 beds. Disposable wardrobes. With Brazil in recession and the Olympic budget tight, these rooms being called basic, even austere. Definitely cold.

There was a discussion about whether or not there would be air- conditioning. They didn't want to pay for it, but with the Zika scare, they had to put it in the rooms. Is that right?

RAMLER: Well, they put air-conditioning in all the bedrooms. Fans in nine bedrooms. But no televisions.

DARLINGTON: In the bathrooms, shared mirrors and 13,000 toilet seats. But no drawers for the 42 condoms per athlete?

RAMLER: No, I guess that's going to be stuck in the bedside tables.

DARLINGTON: But what it lacks on the inside, it makes up for on the outside.

RAMLER: Swimming pools, tennis courts. Everything you can imagine. This is a five-star accommodation environment that you've never -- I've never seen in the games really before.

DARLINGTON: Also bike lanes, a massive cafeteria, and gyms. And with all this space for pool parties and barbecues, you got to wonder who's going to miss all of those television sets.

Shasta Darlington, CNN, Rio de Janeiro.

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ALLEN: Again, two weeks the athletes will be moving in to those digs.

An aircraft powered only by solar energy has begun the final leg of its flight around the world.

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ALLEN: Solar impulse 2 took off from Cairo Sunday morning on its journey to become the first ever fuel-free flight across the globe. There it goes. The plane is en route to its final destination of Abu Dhabi. The same city where its voyage began in March of 2015.

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ALLEN: The worldwide phenomenon, Pokemon Go, has descended on the streets of London.

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ALLEN: Check it out. More than 1,000 gamers marched 5 kilometers through the British capital passing popular landmarks like the London Eye and Big Ben. Nintendo's immensely popular game has players walk around real-life locations to hunt down virtual cartoon monsters of their smartphones. The company's value has doubled since Pokemon Go launched in the U.S. Last month.

Download the app and good luck.

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ALLEN: That's "CNN Newsroom." I'm Natalie Allen. "On China " is next and our top stories.