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Turkish Forces to Remain in Syria Until ISIS is Gone from Border Area; Italy Mourns Earthquake Victims; Gun Violence and 2016 Election; Trump Aide Under Fire for Alleged Anti-Semitism. Aired 3- 3:30a ET
Aired August 28, 2016 - 03:00 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: A blow to ISIS: After seizing a town inside Syria this week, Turkish forces say they'll stay as long as needed to cleanse the terror group from the Syrian border.
Saying goodbye, thousands gathered to say farewell to victims of Wednesday's earthquake in Italy.
And the issue of gun violence on the campaign trail. U.S. Republican candidate Donald Trump said the shooting death of a mother in Chicago reaffirms what he said about African-American's needing safer communities and needing Trump to help.
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ALLEN: It's all ahead here on CNN Newsroom. Thanks for joining us, we're live in Atlanta, I'm Natalie Allen.
Turkey continues to ramp up its military operation inside Syria.
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ALLEN: Earlier this week its forces helped Syrian rebels re-take the city of Jarabulus from ISIS. That cloud of dust you see is coming from a Turkish tank moving in. It's part of an operation to secure the border area and keep Kurdish militias from taking the ground ISIS is losing. For more on this complexity, here's Nick Paton Walsh.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Speaking just recently on Turkish television the Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus was pretty clear in suggesting a fairly wide scope to this operation now. He made a reference to something called the (Maraya) Jarabulus line, Jarabulus, that's a substantial town taken from ISIS on the border. Maraya is another town substantially to its west which actually is located right below the major border crossing known as Babel Salam.
Now that area has had Turkish friendly Syrian rebels in it for quite some time but it's been separated from Jarabulus obviously because ISIS have controlled that turf. What we're hearing is that Turkish backed Syrian rebels have been moving west into villages along that border area and according to the Deputy Prime Minister appear to have an end goal of reaching Maraya, establishing this Maraya Jarabulus line.
Now that's a pretty big sway obviously the Turkish Syrian border is over 1,000 km long but it's a pretty big sway of territory for them to hold and it would of course give those Syrian rebels who often lack a proper foothold quite a bit of border as their own territory and that would then enable them potentially to move southwest towards Albab also held by ISIS, their major last stronghold in that area. But also potentially too out east towards Manbij.
Now Manbij after U.S. assurances has technically been released or given back to the local population by the Kurds that are backed by the United States known as the SDF. A force that the U.S. put together to fight ISIS because they were effective because they were disciplined on the ground. It had some Sunni Arabs in it but it's mostly Kurdish.
There are people left behind in control of Manbij who the Kurds say are basically local fighters. Now we're hearing also that there may be new clashes south of Jarabulus potentially between these forces the Kurds left behind who are partially Kurds and Kurdish backed and also the Syrian rebel units that have moved into Jarabulus.
That still playing out know but it's yet another dangerous dynamic here, but most importantly we're getting a sense really of the sheer scope of this Turkish operation and it's about taking a pretty big part of this border.
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ALLEN: Nick Paton Walsh for us there. Earlier my colleague Jonathan Mann spoke with CNN Military Analyst retired Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona about the offensive by Turkey.
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LT. COL RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: That was very critical to ISIS because that's their important mechanism to bring foreign fighters in from Turkey into Syria. Now what we're seeing is that being closed off to them. But the Turks are very wary of the Kurds. And I think this is what prompted the Turks to move when they did is fear of the Kurds and them controlling that entire border. If the Turks had not intervened eventually the Kurdish with their Syrian Democratic allies, but it's mostly Kurdish as Nick said would control that entire border. The Turks are very, very wary of this so they decided to intervene.
JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, because the timing of it - the timing of it is interesting. We have a map which shows the territory that ISIS held and now holds and I want to draw our viewers' attention to it because everything you see in green is territory ISIS has lost. The Turks have watched this war across this border and not intervened and now that ISIS is really on the defensive, or so it would seem, the Turks are moving in now. It really does suggest they're much more nervous about the Kurds. FRANCONA: Exactly. And they don't want a unified Kurdish front across
that entire border. So they're going to position themselves in between that and keep a west enclave and an east enclave and they believe that will allow them to control that.
The Turks are not worried about what's happening right now in Syria, they're worried about what's going to happen a year from now, two years from now when ISIS is defeated. And I think everybody understands that at some point ISIS is going to be defeated.
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FRANCONA: You can see it happening in Iraq probably in the next year and soon after that in Syria. Everybody is vying for positions on what's going to happen post ISIS. And the Kurds are also doing this as well. They're staking out as much territory as they can in both countries because they're angling for much more territory, much more autonomy, some say even some sort of a unified Kurdish area up there across northern Syria and northern Iraq. So you look at Rian also working with the Turks now very concerned about this.
MANN: I'm going to jump in for a minute because I want to ask you about Washington not about Iran. I mean Washington is allied with Ankara, I mean the Turks are our NATO allies, and the Obama administration has been helping the Kurdish fighters. Now both of Washington's allies are really preparing for a battle between themselves. They've been fighting already actually. I mean what is Washington doing in this situation?
FRANCONA: Washington is fast being marginalized Jonathan. You see who the power brokers are emerging in this whole situation. It's the Russians, the Iranians and now the Turks. And each of them want to be the power broker when this is all over and they're moving Washington out. Unless we get in there and start representing ourselves much better than we are, the Turks after this coop attempt which they still blame on the United States and their worsening relations with NATO are pivoting toward Asia. They're pivoting to the Iranians, pivoting to the Russians and leaving us out. So we have got to make ourselves more relevant in this and if that means getting more involved militarily, we need to be doing that.
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ALLEN: Rick Francona for us. Rockets were fired at the Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir Airport Saturday night.
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ALLEN: Turkey state run news blaming a Kurdish militant group known as the PKK for the attack. No casualties or injuries have been reported. Flights have not been disrupted.
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ALLEN: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says dual bombings hit a wake in Aleppo on Saturday. At least 16 people were killed. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: The wake was for several children killed in a barrel bombing in the same neighborhood on Thursday. Activists say that bombing left at least 15 people dead.
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ALLEN: Meantime hundreds of Syrians are starting a new life. They have been trapped in a town under siege for four years. Buses starred to arrive this weekend bringing them to their new settlement.
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ALLEN: The Syrian government prepared nearly 300 apartments here. The families were essentially cutoff from food and water supplies after rebels took over the town near Damascus.
SAMER SHEIKH RAJAB, EVACUATED FROM DARAYA: (As translated) At first they scared me in Daraya. Yes I was afraid because the rebels told me that the government would take me and kill me. But when I got out and saw the situation here, everything changed. The situation is very good and they treat us very well here.
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ALLEN: The Syrian government now has control of the town under terms of the deal for the evacuation of both civilians and rebels.
Officials in Libya say they have nearly regained control of Sirte. It's been under ISIS control since last year.
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ALLEN: The city was the hometown of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Libyan troops say U.S. air strikes are helping. Reports also say the last group of militants are now confined to just one area in the city center.
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ALLEN: Italy has begun to bury some of the victims of Wednesday's massive earthquake. Hundreds of people attended a state funeral on Saturday in the town of Ascoli Piceno.
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ALLEN: Nearly 300 people died in this week's disaster. The quake reduced hundreds of homes to rubble leaving thousands of people homeless. But the funeral service had a note of hope.
GIOVANNI D'ERCOLE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP: (As translated) The earthquake is like a plow when the plow plows the land it breaks the land. It fractures the land violently. But afterwards a new spring and a new birth comes.
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ALLEN: Our Atika Shubert was at the funeral services, she has more now.
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ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The school gymnasium turned makeshift chapel fit for a state funeral. Three rows of coffins, 35 in all, each with a bouquet of flowers and a photo of the person lost in Italy's devastating earthquake. Beside them, family members, many of them survivors themselves, their broken limbs in casts, their faces bruised and bandaged, their eyes red and swollen from crying.
Italy's Prime Minister and President attended offering condolences to those who lost loved ones, conveying their gratitude to the firefighters, police and emergency medics that pulled survivors from the rubble.
Bishop Guiseppi D'ercole, led the service mentioning victims by name including Julia Rinaldi the young girl who died shielding her four year old sister Georgia as their summer home collapsed around them. Georgia survived with minor injuries, Julia did not.
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SHUBERT: (Maria Kamatchi) lost friends and family in the earthquake. She and her husband used their bare hands to dig neighbors out of the rubble. Community is very important she told us. The small villages like this, the relationship with the land with those you love, with your family is very, very strong. It will be even stronger. We won't give up she says.
There will be more funerals. The death toll from the earthquake continues to climb into the hundreds as more bodies are discovered in the rubble. This funeral is only among the first. A national day of mourning for the country to come together and begin the process of healing and rebuilding.
Atika Shubert, CNN, Ascoli Piceno, Italy.
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ALLEN: In Paraguay, an ambush killed eight soldiers during a routine patrol on Saturday.
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ALLEN: Government officials suspect the attack was carried out by the gorilla group, the Paraguayan Peoples Army or EPP. The leftist group formed a decade ago was loosely modeled after a gorilla group in Columbia.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia or the FARC recently agreed to end the longest running military conflict in Latin America.
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ALLEN: Donald Trump is ramping up his push for African-American voters, but some say a tweet he posted may backfire.
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ALLEN: We will have that for you ahead here. Plus Chicago's gun violence makes it on to the presidential campaign center stage. Why many are saying enough.
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ALLEN: The shooting death of an NBA all-star's cousin has drawn fresh attention to U.S. gun violence.
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ALLEN: Nykea Aldridge was shot in the head in Chicago on Friday while pushing her infant in a stroller. She was the cousin of the Chicago Bulls Dwayne Wade. Aldridge was an innocent victim in the wrong place at the wrong time when police say a dispute led to gunfire.
Wade has been an outspoken critic of gun violence and used twitter to mourn. He said "my cousin was killed today in Chicago, another act of senseless gun violence. Four kids lost their mom for no reason. Unreal." He finished with the hashtag #enoughisenough.
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ALLEN: At least 455 people have been shot to death in Chicago in the first seven and a half months of this year, that's according to the Chicago Tribune Newspaper which tracks the city's homicides.
ALLEN: Nykea Aldridge's death has become a talking point in the U.S. Presidential election as issues of gun violence and race takes center stage.
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ALLEN: Republican Donald Trump is reaching out to minority voters now with an emphasis on economic growth but he's also citing the violence in U.S. inner cities as a reason why African-Americans should vote for him.
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ALLEN: Saturday he tweeted about Aldridge's death and its possible effect on his campaign saying "Dwayne Wade's cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago. Just what I've been saying, African-Americans will vote Trump."
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ALLEN: Many of Trump's opponents have criticized his response to her death. Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Kaine told reporters in Florida a different reaction was needed.
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TIM KAINE, U.S. DEMOCRATIC VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We ought to just be thinking, we just ought to be extending our sympathy to the family. That's the only - that's the only reaction that's appropriate right now. And maybe a sadness about this gun violence issue which we know is complicated, But that is you see something like this, and we should redouble our efforts to really adopt and promote smart strategies on that. The sympathy issue is the one that that ought to be our strong first reaction.
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ALLEN: On top of the backlash over Trump's tweets, one of his top aides is under fire for alleged anti-Semitism. The ex-wife of new Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon claimed that in 2007 he didn't want his daughters attending a school because of the number of Jews who attended.
Our Diane Gallagher looked into this.
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DIANE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is important to note that those charges of anti-Semitism do come from his now ex-wife during a child custody case back in 2007. Now she said in a court statement that Bannon did not want his daughters to attend a certain girls' school that they were considering due to the number of Jewish students.
Now the document show her stating "he says he doesn't like Jews and that he doesn't like that they raise their kids to be whiney brats and that he didn't want the girls going to school with Jews."
Now again, these are his now ex-wife's words from a court declaration involving a dispute over child support.
CNN has reached out to the Trump campaign, we haven't heard back from them just yet but Bannon's a spokeswoman tells us that "at the time Mr. Bannon never said anything like that, and proudly sent the girls to Archer for their middle school and high school education."
Now of course all of this does come as the newly appointed campaign CEO is already facing scrutiny about his background. We learned this week just that 20 years ago, Bannon faced multiple charges including misdemeanor domestic violence stemming from an incident involving his ex-wife.
Now those charges were eventually dismissed because his ex-wife didn't show up to court. She said later that it's because Bannon's attorney threatened her saying she wouldn't be able to support her children if she did. That is a charge that that attorney has denied. Of course it is just another chapter in what has been a controversial career for Steve Bannon.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ALLEN: All right, Derek is here because a storm system is brewing in the tropics and that has people in Florida a little on the edge.
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Tropical Wave Invest 99L. A bit of a mouthful. I know Natalie, I know, I know, but people wonder what is this thing? There has been a lot of hype about it on social media.
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VAN DAM: Well, there it is in all its glory. Not a lot going on with it at the moment. But that's good news.
ALLEN: It looks messy.
VAN DAM: It looks messy, that's a good way to describe it. Yes, no that's a great - I think you just put me out of a job Natalie, come on.
No, it's disorganized maybe that's a better word to say Natalie because what we're looking for in order for tropical development to actually take place is that rotation. Right, we want to start to see that counterclockwise rotation in the cloud cover because that starts to form the center of the storm, of in essence the eye of the hurricane.
Well what I want you to notice in this cluster of clouds that's called Tropical Wave Invest 99L is the last few frames. I'm starting to notice this kind of a spit, do you see that, it's tough to see but anyway the point of this is that we are starting to see some slight organization in this cluster of clouds that looked so disorganized on a satellite map that the National Hurricane Center has actually just upped its probability of development here within the past few hours. We have been a 50 and 60% chance of development with this cluster of clouds as it passes through the Straits of Florida, just south of Miami. And then it starts to enter into the Gulf of Mexico. Waters there are ripe for development and that could potentially allow for this storm to develop into a tropical storm, maybe a hurricane into the first half of next week. Something we're going to monitor very closely.
In the meantime, the short term, 24 to 48 hours out including today by the way, rough surf, gusty winds flash floods from the Bahamas through much of Southern Florida. Look at the rainfall totals going forward. Hispaniola easily with 150 millimeters or more.
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VAN DAM: This is not the only parts of the tropics that we're watching. We've had a big typhoon across the western pacific. Look out if you are in Tokyo or (Syndai) that is going to get interesting over the next several days, potentially landfall.
I want to take you to Turkey quickly because some amazing video coming out of an under pass. People got stranded in flash flooding. Natalie not the place you want to be. The water rose from five centimeters of water to almost two meters inundating vehicles. Very dangerous situation. Fortunately no-one was injured but scary moments for those residents.
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ALLEN: Absolutely. All right. Thank you Derek.
VAN DAM: Absolutely Natalie.
ALLEN: The nephew of a leader of Mexico's powerful Sinaloa Cartel was killed in a shootout Friday.
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ALLEN: The victim's uncle took over the Cartel's operations when Joaquin Guzman El Chapo was recaptured in January. The shooting is just the latest attack on family members of the drug cartel . One of El Chapo's sons was kidnapped from a restaurant in Puerto Vallarta two weeks ago, he was later released.
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ALLEN: a couple of stranded boaters are safe now after being rescued from an uninhabited pacific island that got the attention of a U.S. Navy plane with this bit SOS message written in the sand.
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ALLEN: The plane alerted a search and rescue team from Guam. The boaters were stranded for eight days with limited supplies and no emergency equipment. Aircraft and marine patrol teams had them looking for them that whole time.
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ALLEN: So they're off the island.
Well it's a little early to start forecasting the next summer Olympics. Tokyo 2020 but the addition of a few new sports including rock climbing will bring in a whole new cast of sports stars.
Patrick Snell introduces us to a young phenom.
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PATRICK SNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At only 15 years of age Ashima Shiraishi may well be the best rock climber the world has seen. Four years from now there's a good chance she'll be a household name in the U.S. as she's considered one of America's best prospects for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics where climbing has just been sanctioned as an official sport.
ASHIMA SHIRAISHI, 15 YEAR OLD ROCK CLIMBER: It's really interesting because the format that's going to be in the Olympics has never been, you know has never been happened ever before in any other competition. But basically there's three disciplines of climbing and it's sport climbing and bouldering and speed climbing. So for sport and bouldering, it's basically just getting to the top
that's the most important thing and just getting higher or just completing the climb. But then tor speed climbing, it's about time. So you have to go up the wall as quickly as you can. But then at the end they're going to combine the scores of how well you do on all three of the disciplines. So basically you have to be good at all of them which is going to be a challenge.
SNELL: As for the challenge of growing the sport, rock climbing has benefitted from the rise of climbing gyms that have popped up. Beforehand it was really only a sport attempted by those close to mountain ranges. But by being brought up in New York City, Ashima started her climbing career on the rock walls of a Brooklyn gym before graduating to the real rocks found in Central Park.
SHIRAISHI: Since you are a baby, you walk or just crawl, then you climb. It's just something that's very natural. And for me that's how I found climbing so interesting. It's because you don't really need to know much to be able to climb. All you have to do is just climb up the rock.
SNELL: Memory described as a phenom Ashima is particularly excited by the Tokyo games because it's taking place in the country of her parents' birth. Nevertheless the inspirational moments that just took place at the Rio Olympics have clearly left an impression.
SHIRAISHI: There are so many athletes that I'm really inspired by. But I would say Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt and Simone Biles probably are the most inspirational for me. They inspire me because they prove that there are no boundaries in sports and I guess history and all these barriers are meant to be broken.
SNELL: History beckons for the teenager who may well inspire the next generation of rock climbers to break barriers of their own.
Patrick Snell, CNN.
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ALLEN: We'll see her in four years I guess.
Kenya is becoming renowned as an important flower exporter and Japan is a key part of that. Take a look at how one specialty flower shop in Tokyo is creating a buzz for selling Kenya's unique roses.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you look at the petal, it is pale green and pink and it's soft color pattern that is very, very popular and it's our bestseller.
REPORTER: This Japanese flower shop in the Hiroo district of Tokyo carries 15 to 20 different types of roses selling for an average of $8 a stem, all from Kenya. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We tried to import unique roses that we don't normally see in Japan.
REPORTER: (Megumi Hagiuda) started Africa Rose in 2012 as an online store, selling 500 stems each month. And now that she's opened a shop in this high end neighborhood she says her business has expanded 10 fold.
(HAGIUDA): These roses from Kenya are so energetic, we can't find any other - this energetic flower in the world but Kenya.
REPORTER: Kenya is already the largest supplier of cut flowers to the EU. Flower growers here are hoping the country's reputation for thick stems and long vase life will boost business in markets like Japan.
JUNE MUGAMBI: They have a special taste in flowers and if you can meet the Japanese market demand, you are sold for other markets.
REPORTER: Redland's roses located just outside Nairobi sells around 140 varieties of roses.
MUGAMBI: Lovely pink as you can see. Pink is a very important color for the Japanese market.
REPORTER: The company started in 1996 and was one of the first to sell directly to Japan 16 years ago.
MUGAMBI: So Japan is a very important market for us because they take up to about 5% of our production and we are talking about just one client being able to take up all that. We rank them third in our portfolio.
REPORTER: Redland's Roses says the successful partnership is thanks to its environmentally friendly systems from hydroponic growing to integrated pest management. And the company says corporate responsibility fair trade and transport are very important to the Japanese consumer.
MUGAMBI: One of the key things would be having a direct flight between Kenya and Japan. That would really help.
REPORTER: Japanese florists say the delivery time can take more than a day. But for Megumi Hagiuda offering her customers the unique patterns, colors and experience of Kenyan roses is certainly worth the wait.
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ALLEN: They're beautiful. Thanks for watching. I'm Natalie Allen, Inside Africa is coming up here and your top stories.
