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Dozens Killed in Istanbul Bombings; Nigerian Church Collapse; Trump Risks Adversarial Relationship with Intel Agencies; ExxonMobil CEO Brings No Diplomatic Experience to White House; Inside Eastern Mosul; Frosty Gets Slashed. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired December 11, 2016 - 04:00   ET

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

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GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Nigeria in mourning. Dozens of people feared killed in the collapse of a church during a bishop's ordination. We'll have the very latest for you.

In Kenya, a fuel tanker loses control and sets fire to everything in its path. We'll have the details of that story.

Plus, twin blasts in Istanbul: 29 people dead and nearly 200 people wounded. Turkey's leader now blaming the PKK.

Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers around the world. I'm George Howell. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

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HOWELL: Good day to you. Twin bombings in Istanbul, Turkey. That nation's deputy prime minister is suggesting that the PKK seems to be responsible. Officials say that it was a car bomb, not a suicide bomb, that detonated near a football stadium, killing 38 people and wounding more than 150 others.

The second of the two attacks appears to have explicitly targeted police officers. The Kurdistan Workers Party, a left-wing rebel group, has been behind attacks like this before. But we have yet to see evidence that that is, indeed, the case except for the word from the deputy prime minister.

Let's go to CNN's Muhammad Lila, following this story in Istanbul.

Muhammad, you were there near this blast when it happened. Set the scene for us. This was a very busy area.

MUHAMMAD LILA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, absolutely, George. And I will set the scene for you.

We were roughly a kilometer away from the blast when it happened and, immediately, as the blast happened, we could feel the ground shake beneath our feet, walls shaking, even the window panes in the hotel were shaking. Immediately we knew that this was a major blast.

In fact, where I'm standing right now on this side of the, screen you can see the round building, that is the Besiktas Vodafone arena, where these explosions took place. One happened at the exit of the arena and another happened in the park.

You can see the treeline of the park just behind me but this is how one eyewitness who was very close to the blast describes what happened.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I entered the coffee shop five minutes before the blast. I heard two explosions in 30 seconds. They were loud. I saw the flames as well.

I walked towards bus police and public vehicles and I saw policemen inside the bus that was on fire. I think there were many wounded because it was a big explosion. I saw the windows were broken at the mosque where I work.

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LILA: Yes, you know, broken windows, a lot of panic in the immediate after attack, people running, trying to figure out exactly what happened. As far as the death toll goes, George, you mentioned it just a short time ago, 38 people killed.

Out of the 38, we understand that 30 were police officers, seven were civilians and one body has yet to be identified; 155 people are injured and in hospital at this very moment, George.

And a number of those, more than a dozen of them, are in critical care and being treated under intensive medical conditions, so we may see that death toll rise yet again today.

HOWELL: The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan calling this the ugliest face of terror but we're also hearing again from the deputy prime minister, who is suggesting that the PKK is behind this. We have not yet seen the evidence to support that.

But what more are you hearing from officials about this?

LILA: Well, at this point the deputy prime minister has said that it seems as though the PKK is behind this. But, again, we haven't received any evidence of that and also the PKK has not come out and openly declared and claimed responsibility and said they are behind this.

You have to remember that Turkey is in an area where there's a lot of volatility and there are a lot of enemies here that Turkey has been fighting. One is the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, that's been waging a low-level insurgency for the last three decades.

But then you have also ISIS in the neighborhood and what's going on in Syria. And ISIS has attacked Turkey in the past and, of course, Turkey just went through a failed coup in July, where they say a group called the Gulenist group that tried to overthrow the government.

So there are a lot of nonstate actors here that have, you know, a vendetta or a reason to attack Turkey. What we're waiting for now is a confirmation, some kind of evidence or even a claim of responsibility from any of these groups. And so far we haven't received that yet.

HOWELL: Also important to point out that the second of these attacks did seem to target police officers there. And you set the scene earlier but this was a very busy area when this all happened.

LILA: Well, absolutely a very busy area. Look, it was a Saturday night in Istanbul when people were out.

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LILA: The weather happened to be very nice. So that would have led more people to being on the streets. And this happened at the end of a very big football match. The football match had just finished and people had already started coming outside.

And because of the football match, there was a very heavy police presence on the streets. We were out in that neighborhood just an hour before the blast happened and we saw dozens and dozens of officers just on one intersection alone.

So the police officers were definitely very visible and they would have made very easy targets, because they were on the street on patrol, effectively standing there, guarding those areas around the stadium. And so when that blast went off, there were many, many police officers, tragically, in that immediate vicinity.

HOWELL: Muhammad Lila, following the story live for us in Istanbul, Muhammad, we're thankful that you're OK, your teams were OK, we understand you were very close to this when it happened. We'll stay in touch with you to learn more as you continue to talk to investigators there.

LILA: Thank you.

HOWELL: Tragedy at a church in Nigeria has left an unknown number of people dead. The roof of the Reigners Bible Church collapsed. Its steel pylons caving in onto the worshippers there, people who had gathered at the church for what should have been a very joyful event, the consecration of their pastor as bishop.

But now the search is under way, search crews there pulling bodies from the debris and trying to find any survivors. CNN's David McKenzie is following the story live for us from Johannesburg, South Africa, this hour.

David, I know you've been at touch just to understand what's happening on the ground there.

What do we know about the situation as it stands now, these efforts to find any survivors? DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, George, the efforts for survivors continue; as you've seen in some of those pictures, there were large-scale cranes, heavy lifting equipment on the scene.

And that's because this church, the Reigners Bible Church, was still under construction when they held this event. And already questions being asked by witnesses I've spoken to, by people who live in that city in Southern Nigeria, why were so many people piled into that church for this event when the building wasn't finished.

Still too early to tell what exactly happened and what caused this to happen. But there were horrifying scenes as that sheet metal and steel roof of that church collapsed during the ceremony.

The governor of the state was there. He managed to escape, help with the rescue efforts. But there were horrifying scenes of people trapped under those steel girders as they desperately tried to pull them up and release the people to get out.

But at this stage, unclear what the death toll is. Scores believed dead and those details still coming out today -- George.

HOWELL: We're looking here at these images from the scene. Again, as you point out, the cranes are there. There are efforts to try to find people who may still be, you know, stuck underneath all of that, in fact, the pylons, the parts of that building.

But I do want to get a sense from you, David, it's still very early to ask this question.

But is there any indication about what could have caused this collapse to have happened?

MCKENZIE: I don't think it's too early to ask the question, because there's also precedent in Nigeria with these kinds of issues. You had in 2014, a tragic incident in Lagos when a church collapsed, killing more than 100 people and dodgy construction was blamed in that case, so that question is already being asked in this case.

And there's been an inquiry set up by the government. The president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, has reached out to the governor and expressed his condolences. He said that a tragedy that hits any part of Nigeria affects all Nigeria.

And these megachurches, these huge churches, sometimes these kinds of airport, hangar-like construction, where hundreds, sometimes thousands of people worship across Nigeria, it appears this was that sort of a construction church, not finished. And now it's certainly ended in tragedy.

HOWELL: CNN's David McKenzie, following this story, live in Johannesburg, South Africa. David, thank you for the information. We'll stay in touch with you as this search and rescue effort continues there.

At least 33 people in Kenya have died after a fuel tanker crashed. Authorities say that tanker, it was full of highly flammable gas. It lost control and started to roll downhill.

This happened Saturday night north of Nairobi on a highway near the town of Naivasha. The tanker rammed into several vehicles and then it burst into flames. At least 11 vehicles were burned. Many people there reported injured.

In Somalia, the death toll has now risen to at least 20 people killed in a car bomb attack at that capital's --

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HOWELL: -- port area. The Al Qaeda-linked group Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility on the group's radio station.

Somali authorities say that a loud explosion was heard about 7:30 in the morning local time, when a vehicle packed with explosives rammed into the main entrance of Mogadishu's largest port. Police say that the blast was then followed by heavy gunfire.

"Move on," says the Trump team. That's what they are saying, "Move on." The president-elect pushes back against reports that Russia helped him to win. What the Kremlin is saying about that -- still ahead.

Plus: this man could be the next secretary of state of the United States. Rex Tillerson is a big man in oil. Find out why he is a star on Donald Trump's cabinet list, still ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM.

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HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, I'm George Howell.

Donald Trump and the U.S. intelligence community are off to a rough start. The president-elect's team has mocked a CIA report, claiming that Russia tried to steer the election toward Donald Trump --

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HOWELL: -- comparing that report to the agency's misjudgments over weapons of mass destruction in Iraq years ago. Former CIA operative Robert Baer says if the agency can prove that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, then the U.S. should vote again.

Russia, for its part, though, has demanded evidence of any involvement. A source says that the review of foreign hacking ordered by President Obama will not look at whether Russian interference affected the outcome of the election; rather, the source says it is solely about lessons learned.

We have more now from our global affairs correspondent Elise Labott.

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ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: President-Elect Donald Trump's comments, questioning the quality of the intel provided by the intelligence community about Russian hacking, could set up an adversarial relationship with a commander in chief, who's going to rely on the intelligence community to make monumental decisions about U.S. national security.

If it's an isolated incident, it could be worked out. It seems as if President-Elect Trump is very sensitive to any charges that he didn't win the election fair and square when, in fact, the intelligence community is really only looking at whether Russia did try to interfere in the U.S. election.

And about 17 intelligence agencies did conclude that they did with high confidence.

If there's a larger question about whether Donald Trump does not have confidence in the intelligence community, in the intel that he's getting in his daily briefing, that could set up a much larger issue.

Now the investigation that the Obama administration is engaged in is not about whether Russia affected the outcome of this election. Administration officials tell me it would be impossible to know what swayed a voter.

The investigation is really about looking at past practices of all foreign states, not just Russia, but other foreign actors, perhaps in 2008, 2012 and in the 2016 election, to see what kinds of techniques they used in their hacking, in cyber attacks, to use that as a lessons learned for the next administration.

But it would also give credence to any measures that the Obama administration could take on its way out the door. Officials tell me that there are a wide range of measures being considered against Russia, such as sanctions, other types of cyber measures that we probably wouldn't know about.

But if this incontrovertible proof is made public, it would be very difficult for President-Elect Trump, once taking office, to question that.

And if President Obama does impose measures and Donald Trump overturns them, that could -- he could face a lot of heat from members of Congress, not just Democrats but Republicans, who are very skeptical about Russia and say they're going to lead investigations.

As one senior administration official said, there would be a real price to pay once the president-elect takes office -- Elise Labott, CNN, Washington.

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HOWELL: Elise, thank you. Now let's bring in our senior international correspondent, Matthew

Chance, live for us in Moscow this hour.

Matthew, Russian officials seem interested to see the findings of this investigation, saying, if there is evidence, prove it.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this has been the response of the Russian government since these allegations were first floated several months ago at the height of the U.S. presidential election campaign, that Russia engaged in hacking and the releasing of those Democratic National Convention e-mails, which sort of damaged potentially the standing of Hillary Clinton.

And, you know, they have a point in the sense that, look, these are very serious allegations, that Russia may have been involved in trying to tip the balance in the U.S. presidential polls.

But what we've not seen at the moment is anything other than anonymous sources, people who are speaking off the record in the sort of dark passageways of the U.S. security services.

We haven't seen any concrete evidence. And that's something that the Russians are looking for and, of course, many other people are looking for as well, that want to see these very serious allegations backed up by some kind of concrete proof.

Now whether or not the Russians are involved in it, though -- and, of course, they've denied that they have any involvement in this hacking -- certainly the Kremlin will be extremely happy with the outcome.

For months, now we've been reporting that Donald Trump is the favored candidate of the Kremlin, not least because he wasn't Hillary Clinton, a figure who is seen as being very anti-Russian here in Moscow.

And, of course, now Donald Trump is picking his team and that team looks like it will have a lot of experience, shall we say, and a lot of high-level contacts with Russia as well.

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CHANCE: And so from a Kremlin point of view, this is looking like a very positive election outcome in the United States.

HOWELL: And the Kremlin in this case, deferring to Donald Trump, who, again, has slammed U.S. intelligence, pointing back to misjudgments with weapons of mass destruction. So seemingly the Kremlin having an ally with the president-elect in this particular investigation.

CHANCE: Yes. Look, one of the reasons the Russians, you know, like Donald Trump is that he voices opinions which are very similar to the Russian official position on issues like NATO.

He's expressed doubts about the alliance. On issues like Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, Trump during the campaign said, look, he'd look again at recognizing that and he made a priority in his campaign, the idea of building a bond, yet re-establishing good relations with Moscow.

So, obviously, the Kremlin is very supportive of that and is very satisfied that Donald Trump has come to power.

It's really interesting now to look at the choice of secretary of state, because Rex Tillerson has emerged as the latest possibility to become Donald Trump's secretary of state.

He's, of course, the CEO of Exxon and he himself has very, very close ties with the Kremlin. He's done a lot of business in Russia over the years. He's actually been ordered, given one of Russia's most -- highest civilian honors, the Order of Friendship by the Kremlin, because of the business dealings he's had in his country. So it could be a very pro-Russian administration about to take office in the United States.

HOWELL: We want to talk more on that here just in a moment. Matthew Chance, live for us in Moscow. Matthew, thank you so much.

Donald Trump's choice for secretary of state, he's narrowing it down. It seems to be that he's reaching a conclusion for Rex Tillerson at the top of the list. He's a major name in the oil industry, who may be America's next top diplomat.

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RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's looking more and more like President-Elect Donald Trump is leaning toward ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state.

CNN's John King reporting that Tillerson left a meeting on Saturday at Trump Tower, feeling confident that he would be named to the post; Trump telling Chris Wallace from FOX that Tillerson's global business interests and his ties with countries around the world make him a very strong candidate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me ask you about Rex Tillerson.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Out of ExxonMobil.

Why does a business executive make sense as the chief diplomat?

TRUMP: Well, in his case, he's much more than a business executive. I mean, he's a world-class player. He's in charge of, I guess, the largest company in the world. He's in charge of an oil company that's pretty much double the size of his next nearest competitor. It's been a company that's been unbelievably managed.

And to me, a great advantage is he knows many of the players and he knows them well. He does massive deals in Russia. He does massive deals for the company, not for himself, for the company.

NOBLES: Now some of those same attributes that Trump views as positives have some concerned, including Republicans like Senator John McCain. McCain told me that he would want answers from Tillerson about his ties to Russia and his view of the world as it relates to the country before he gives him his vote in a confirmation process.

Republicans hold only a four-seat majority in the U.S. Senate. So Donald Trump will likely need almost all those votes if he is to get Tillerson confirmed -- Ryan Nobles, CNN, Baltimore.

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HOWELL: Ryan Nobles, thank you.

We are now live in England, where Scott Lucas is a professor of international politics at the University of Birmingham, live via Skype with us, to talk about the latest in the Trump transition.

Let's talk about this likely pick for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. We've heard there Senator John McCain expressing some concerns with Tillerson's ties to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

SCOTT LUCAS, UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM: Oh, I think that's just the start of the concerns. Tillerson, as your correspondent noted earlier, received the Order of Friendship from Putin in 2013, one of the highest Russian awards.

ExxonMobil is deeply entrenched in relationships with Russian companies, including the large energy giant, Rosneft. Its attempt to develop those relations have stymied by U.S. sanctions with Russia.

So expect that if Tillerson becomes secretary of state, that he and Trump will try to lift the American sanctions that were imposed, for example, over Russian support of the breakup of Ukraine in recent years.

So like I said, the -- concern is a mild word for what might happen but there's a bigger concern here. And simply put, Rex Tillerson is a businessman. He is not more than a business man; he's a business executive. He runs a very large company but he has never been involved with U.S. foreign policy, he's never been involved with U.S. diplomacy.

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LUCAS: I cannot recall in recent history a business man heading up the State Department. Whether there will be a conflict of interest between Tillerson's companies and between U.S. diplomacy, I wouldn't venture to say. But I would say it's extraordinary to put diplomacy in the hands of someone like a Tillerson rather than a career diplomat or a politician who has experience in foreign policy.

HOWELL: We heard Trump just a moment ago, though, pointing out that that business background is the key reason that right now he's at the top of the list, that that would be considered a pro and a fresh approach to the job.

Your thoughts on that? LUCAS: Well, that's Mr. Trump's approach but that approach is troubling in itself. Look, American diplomacy is not just dollars and cents and getting the best deal for a private company.

American diplomacy is trying to deal with conflicts, such as the Syrian conflict, where Russia is involved; such as the Ukraine conflict, where Russia is involved.

It's dealing, for example, with a changing European Union, which Mr. Trump has actually welcomed with the British departure. It's dealing with Americans' relations with Latin America, an area where Mr. Tillerson has no experience.

So, no, I find no reassurance in the president-elect's statement.

HOWELL: Soon to be president, though, January 20th. Scott Lucas, live for us in England, Scott, thank you so much for your insight. We'll stay in touch with you.

This is CNN NEWSROOM. Still ahead, ISIS may have just been dealt a setback to Syria's military. We'll have the very latest on new fighting in Palmyra coming up.

Plus, rare footage from inside Eastern Mosul. The battle to take the city from ISIS has raged for almost two months. We'll show you the toll on civilians and on soldiers -- still ahead here.

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HOWELL (voice-over): Welcome back to our viewers around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. It is good to have you with us. I'm George Howell with the headlines this hour.

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HOWELL: We also have some rare footage to show you from inside Eastern Mosul. The battle to retake the city from ISIS is nearly two months old. Ben Wedeman now shows us how difficult it is for civilians, as well as soldiers.

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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dazed and terrified, a young girl flees her neighborhood, now a war zone in Eastern Mosul. Soldiers from Iraqi special forces try to console her as the battle rages nearby.

The offensive to retake the city is almost into its third month but progress has been slow, as this rare footage obtained by CNN shows. ISIS is fighting back with the usual means -- snipers, suicide bombers and booby traps -- while hundreds of thousands of civilians are caught in the middle, trying to survive one day at a time. "A woman was killed by shelling here," says this man, "another woman was wounded. We just need this random shelling to stop and then we can get on with our lives."

Prior to the offensive, Iraqi officials advised Mosul residents to stay home if they felt safe. Those who stayed behind, like this bearded young man, are able to provide Iraqi forces with real-time intelligence on the enemy, just a few buildings away, as he explains.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kill one from daish and now the situation now is very good.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): The battle for the city is now a street-by- street slog. Troops must clear every building. And they never know if what awaits them is an ambush, an IED or an anxious family huddled inside.

Residents have come out to greet the troops. This young man has a poem ready, extolling the army and cursing life under ISIS.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

WEDEMAN (voice-over): "Because there was no electricity, no fuel, no medicine," he says. He finishes his poem with a kiss.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

WEDEMAN (voice-over): While almost everyone is quick to curse ISIS or daish, as they call it here, bicycle repairman Yasser (ph) has a nuanced view.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

WEDEMAN: "Fifty percent of the people in Mosul don't have a problem with ISIS. Only recently, it's been hard to make a living. Life was normal. But they imposed on us how to shave and how to dress. If you conformed, it was fine. But if you didn't, they whipped you."

Among the houses in one East Mosul neighborhood --

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WEDEMAN (voice-over): -- Iraqi troops found a training center for fighters, the walls full of diagrams of various weapons.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

"It's like a school for new recruits," says this officer. "Most were boys between the ages of 12 and 14," with clothing to match what many Iraqis insist is an alien ideology.

For now, the authorities are struggling to provide the basics. This health care center is now up and running, but it's not enough.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are many patients with renal failure, chronic disease, leukemia. We have no hospital for treatment of such cases.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): On the edge of the city, relief workers hand out water, food, blankets and clothing. Volunteer Mana Hajej (ph) is also trying to repair the damage to the country's soul.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am from Mosul. I am Christian. But I decided to help my friends, my brothers from Mosul, after daish leave.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): The process of healing, of reconstruction could take a very long time, but there is hope -- Ben Wedeman, CNN.

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HOWELL: Ben Wedeman, thank you.

Time may be running out for Syrian rebels in Eastern Aleppo. The advance of government forces, seen here on the map in dark red, is rapidly overrunning rebel-held areas. Syrian military commanders predict they will have complete control of the city within weeks.

In Paris, the U.S. secretary of state, John Kerry, and other diplomats are renewing calls for a cease-fire. They are asking Syrian government officials to let opposition fighters leave the area unarmed.

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JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: Fighters who are being bombed and who have been mercilessly prosecuted by the Assad regime in ways that, as we all know, defy the laws of war, don't trust that, if they indeed agreed to leave to try to save Aleppo, that, in fact, it will save Aleppo or that, in fact, they will be, in fact, unharmed and free to move and able to go to a destination where they also will not be immediately attacked.

The choice for many of them as they think about it today is die in Aleppo or die in Idlib, but die. That's the way they see the choice.

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HOWELL: Dozens of people have reportedly been killed in Aleppo since Friday.

Also in Syria, Russian state media reports that an ISIS offensive has been repelled in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. CNN's Fred Pleitgen is following the story live from Damascus.

Fred, what more do we know about the situation?

Russian state media that this has been repelled. This coming in, though, just after the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights indicated that ISIS took control of a mountain near Palmyra's ancient Citadel.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's a very confusing situation, George, and I think one thing we have to keep in mind when we talk about the situation in Palmyra is, out there in the Syrian desert, forces like ISIS tend to make rapid gains and then also tend to get pushed back very quickly, as well.

Now piecing the information together, it seems as though ISIS did make an advance all the way to within the city limits of Palmyra, it was in some of the outskirts there.

What they did was used a time of very heavy fog over the Palmyra area, which really limited the Russian and Syrian air force airstrikes that were going on there and simply overwhelmed the Syrian forces that were on the ground.

Of course, we know that the Syrian military has put most of its forces in and around the Aleppo area, leaving really only a skeleton force out there in the Palmyra desert.

What's happened since then is that the Syrian military has moved in some of its elite special forces, called the Tiger Forces to oust ISIS back from that (INAUDIBLE) and the Russians have also flown massive airstrikes as well.

They say they hit ISIS some 64 airstrikes overnight and thus driving them back. It seems though now everyone can agree that ISIS has now been pushed back out of Palmyra. How far and whether or not it's for good, that's something that we'll still have to wait and see -- George.

HOWELL: All right, from Palmyra now to Aleppo, let's talk about the situation there, with people, civilians trying to leave, trying to escape.

Do we have any new indication on how many had been able to leave and, Fred, how many may still be trapped there?

PLEITGEN: You know what, it really is an absolutely dire situation there in Aleppo. Now the Syrian official news agency, Sanaa, claims that some 20,000 people had left the rebel areas there --

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PLEITGEN: -- since Saturday. Russians say it's about 10,000.

I was personally there on the front line in Southern Aleppo just yesterday morning. And we literally saw thousands of people walking our way. It was a complete exodus, it was people who were very weak, who were very tired and who, of course, were also very scared.

Because we have to keep in mind right now there is a full-on war raging there. And the only way for people to try and get out of Aleppo is to just walk straight through that front line, with all the dangers that that encompasses.

And you can expect that a lot of the children who were there were crying, were scared, were weak, tired; a lot of the adults there seemed very malnourished. It's impossible to tell how many civilians are still inside those rebel-held districts. Presumably could be tens of thousands who are still left, as well. At least that's something the U.N. and the U.S. are saying but exact numbers are difficult to come by. But it's certainly true that there is a mass exodus as the battle heats up and if anything, from what we saw there, when we were on the front line, the battles have escalated rather than there being any sort of halt or lull in the violence.

HOWELL: Fred, I want to ask you, given you were there, you saw this firsthand.

When you talk about this mass exodus, is there a sense that the humanitarian aid is, indeed, in place for many of these people, who have been living in a hellish situation for so long and have now gotten out?

PLEITGEN: You know, it's not enough. What we saw is that the Syrian government does try to provide some aid for these people. They have a camp in a place called Jibrin (ph), which is right by the airport in Aleppo, where there is a little bit of shelter, it's a former cotton factory, so people are inside those factory warehouses with some mattresses, with some food.

There's also some Iranian agencies trying to provide aid as well and also the Red Crescent also really working overtime to try and provide for those people.

Now, of course, with the mass exodus like the one we're seeing right now, it simply isn't enough. People need a lot more than they are getting. The shelters there, very much substandard. It's people with mattresses on the floors, if they can get mattresses at all. They don't have enough blankets.

It's extremely cold in Aleppo right now, so there are efforts by international aid groups, also by the United Nations. There's efforts also by the Syrian government and even by the Syrian military to help people at least get away from the front line.

But by far it isn't enough and many of these people, of course, know that they are walking into an uncertain future and really many of them have no idea how they are going to survive the next couple of months.

HOWELL: Fred Pleitgen, following the story, live in Damascus. Fred, thank you so much for your report. We'll stay in touch with you.

A prominent French tsunami (ph) ISIS -- Tunisia (ph), I should say, operative has been confirmed dead by the Pentagon. Officials say that a U.S. airstrike targeted this person in Raqqah, Syria, on November 26th. He was suspected of enabling a deadly attack on tourists in Tunisia in June of last year, when it killed 38 people.

A Pentagon spokesperson says that Hakim's (ph) absence diminishes the terror group's experienced leadership.

North Korea has released new video of leader Kim Jong-un apparently presiding over military drills. It is not known whether these drills, when they took place but, according to North Korea's news agency, Kim praised his troops afterward saying, quote, "The enemy troops will have no space to hide themselves."

Still ahead here on NEWSROOM, most of North America is in the grip of a frigid arctic blast and dangerously winter weather. I'll get some honey and tea for my voice and will be right back after this.

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HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell.

We are talking about bitter cold on the way for much of North America. The polar vortex, a giant mass of frigid air over the North Pole, will push south over the next few days. Canada and the upper U.S. could see temperatures plunge in minus 20 degrees Celsius.

The phenomenon comes on the heels of one of the warmest Novembers on record. Accompanying the cold air across the U.S., the first real snowstorm has arrived. Let's bring in our meteorologist, Derek Van Dam, to talk about it -- Derek.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And accompanying the snow is the flight delays. Welcome to winter. Just a heads-up according to flightaware.com, Chicago O'Hare has cancelled 600 flights today alone.

HOWELL: Wow.

VAN DAM: That's going to have a snowball effect. And even 80 flights cancelled already for Monday.

HOWELL: No pun intended there.

VAN DAM: No pun intended.

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VAN DAM: Didn't even realize I was such a jokester. Thanks, George, for pointing that out, I appreciate it.

We have over 65 million Americans under a winter weather advisory, watch or warning, and that includes Chicago. We talked about the delays possible there. Look at the system moving through the region. Quite a potent snowmaker and it's not only Chicago but it stretches to the northwest towards Minneapolis; Grand Rapids, Michigan; into Detroit; all the way to Cleveland.

This storm's going to slowly move eastward and impact the New England region just outside of New York City.

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HOWELL: So it seems -- [04:50:00]

HOWELL: -- a real-life Scrooge is trying to deflate the Christmas season after being caught on camera, stabbing an inflatable snowman in someone's front yard.

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HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, I'm George Howell.

Just in time for the holidays, a real life Grinch is being blamed for stabbing a cartoon icon, Frosty the Snowman, and it was all caught on video. CNN's Jeanne Moos has details on this attack.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's kind of chilling to hear that --

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Frosty the Snowman --

MOOS (voice-over): -- has been stabbed?

JEFF DIGGS (PH), SNOWMAN STABBING VICTIM: It's just mean spirited. I mean, it's silly vandalism.

MOOS (voice-over): St. Louis resident Jeff Diggs (ph) discovered the diabolical attack on his inflatable snowman when he came home from work.

DIGGS (PH): That's when I saw the big hole that had been gashed in his side.

MOOS (voice-over): He immediately checked his surveillance camera video and, at 11:22 pm, a masked passenger jumps out of a pickup and makes a beeline for Frosty, viciously stabbing him, then trying to cut the rope and finally escaping in the getaway vehicle.

What could be sadder than watching Frosty --

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MOOS (voice-over): -- slowly, slowly, ever so slowly deflate?

The good news --

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FROSTY THE SNOWMAN: I am alive.

MOOS (voice-over): But he did require extensive surgery.

DIGGS (PH): Put nine stitches in him. And he's doing well.

MOOS (voice-over): To pay Frosty's medical bills, Diggs jokingly set up a GoFundMe page. The modest proceeds will actually go to charity.

And he used "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" to attack the attacker by posting the surveillance video with a sound track.

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MOOS: Diggs (ph) didn't bother to call police, figuring they had more important things to investigate. So the Frosty slasher remains at large.

MOOS (voice-over): And you can't blame Frosty for being nervous after experiencing this.

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MOOS (voice-over): Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

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HOWELL: Jeanne, thank you.

All right. There's a little bit of a galaxy far, far away, now in Los Angeles. Saturday's world premiere of "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" shut down streets in Hollywood. That films is a stand-alone prequel to the first "Star Wars" movie, that tells the story of rebels that steal the plans to the Death Star. Stormtroopers, aliens and even an X-wing turned out for the premiere. The film begins its global release on Wednesday.

Thank you for being with us this hour for CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell at the CNN Center in Atlanta. Another hour of news is just after the break. Stay with us.

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