it began as a food drop and turned into a rescue mission. >> this has been one chaotic aid distribution. >> as cnn correspondent ivan watson and his crew got their first glimpse of the yazidi

people stranded on mt. sinjar in northern iraq, they suddenly found themselves witness to a scramble for survival. >> we made a second pass where we came down. >> here they come. >> they're just hurling themselves into the helicopter. at that point it was just insanity, just people piling in, screaming, running for their lives to get on this helicopter. and they were -- they were frightened. they were horrified. and that was like a punch to the gut. >> i can't describe to you how relieved people are right now. they're just shocked in the chaos of that moment. but we've got little aziza here. she is not happy because she says her father got left behind. >> i couldn't get my eyes off of aziza, because she just looked

so innocent and just this kind of picture of innocence. and shouldn't be in this position. it's just not right. >> she had this face of panic and sheer horror. those things will never leave you. >> reporter: aziza, frightened and confused. the little girl's tears begged for answer. how did she end up on the top of this mountain? where was her family? and for the thousands of families trying to escape massacre, how had it come to this? when watson and his team set out to report on the plight of the yazidi people in early august,

the humanitarian disaster had been unfolding for months. more than half a million people displaced since june alone. >> we'd heard about yazidis being trapped and on the run, but the people we were encountering were iraqi christians and they were arab shiites and members of other ethnic and religious groups. so the initial crisis that had prompted us to come to iraqi kurdistan was superseded by another one unfolding in front of us. [ gunshots ] >> iraq is being ripped apart by islamic militants trying to set up an islamic state. known as isis, they're invading iraq from the north, killing anyone in their path who doesn't comply with their severe brand of islam. the yazidis are an ancient religious sect with its own set of beliefs about god.

they fled to the mountains in northern iraq, praying isis wouldn't follow. >> there was a piece of video that came out from on top of sinjar mountain from a news agency, and it was really the first sort of awakening we had. it was bauna bunch of kids on tf the mountain, and they were crying and wailing. and it was just a horrific video. i think that really sort of set things in motion, that we need to get there. but it was logistically a difficult thing to do. >> we landed in a city that was very much on edge. and then i pieced together in the days that followed that the leadership of that city feared that it would fall that night. people were actually running for the mountains as we were picking up our suitcases and our equipment off of the luggage carousel. >> all along the journey, signs of people fleeing for their

lives. >> and it was an eerie sight to see just these rows of scores of tents there on this sun burnt plain, and they were all just empty. it's an eerie, eerie feeling to see that empty no-man's land, and to recognize that the people who triggered that exodus are only a couple miles away from where you're standing. the response to the american air strikes was immediate relief, not only the kurdish leaders who realized how vulnerable they had been, but also the fighters on the front lines got an immediate injection of morale boost and new confidence. and in the subsequent days, they actually went on the offensive and recaptured territory that they had lost just days before. >> the cnn crew arrives in the

town of erbil and finds families camped out in a catholic church. >> seeing these people sleeping in the pews, seeing these babies and children and elderly people in this house of worship because they had nowhere else to go was deeply emotional. and at one point there, i'm walking around. i'm trying to wrap my head around this thing, and i almost stepped on this baby sleeping on the floor. and it was the first time in this week of kind of human misery and a suffering that we've been documenting, that was the first time that i choked up and started crying. i was personally very surprised to see these people just kind of showing up and walking in to these unfinished buildings, these office buildings or apartment buildings and just starting to camp out there, not having any other place to go. >> no water, no food? >> no water, no food, nothing.

>> nothing. >> anything. >> and it just i think illustrates how overwhelming these scenes of people on the run have been. >> what we do? what we do now? we want negotiation to the problem, please. >> and beyond the towns and the makeshift shelters, there are thousands more still stranded on mt. sinjar. >> we were hearing that there were aid drops taking place. >> we had to get on that helicopter. our crew had to get on that helicopter.

where the reward was that what if tnew car smelledit card and the freedom of the open road? a card that gave you that "i'm 16 and just got my first car" feeling. presenting the buypower card from capital one. redeem earnings toward part or even all of a new chevrolet, buick, gmc or cadillac - with no limits. so every time you use it, you're not just shopping for goods. you're shopping for something great. learn more at buypowercard.com but now that we have the tempadjustable base,ile, it's even better. [alex] when i put my feet up on this bed, my stress just goes away. [evie] i go up...heeeeyyy... [donna]our tempur-pedic is the best thing in our house, 'cept for my husband.

[lauren] wait,wait,where are you going? [announcer] discover how tempur-pedic can move you. and now through september 7th,save up to $500 on a tempur-pedic mattress and adjustable base.

infinally, the purple pill, the #1 prescribed acid blocking brand, comes without a prescription for frequent heartburn. get complete protection. nexium level protection™ everyday thousands of people choose nexium twenty-four hour for frequent heartburn. i'd always wanted the protection of the purple pill® now, i have it. get nexium level protection ™ for a limited time save six dollars at nexium24hr.com

for days cnn correspondent ivan watson and his team had been hearing about a humanitarian crisis unfolding on a mountaintop in northern iraq near the city of sinjar. when isis moved in, the civilians moved out and up to sinjar mountain. little water, even less food. it was a crisis the team needed to see for themselves. >> i'd been offered two ways to try to go see the yazidis trapped on mt. sinjar. one was to cross the border into syria and come back into iraq and then hike for miles to mt. sinjar and then hike up the mountain. the other was to perhaps try to get some kind of a helicopter to the mountain. we were hearing that there were aid drops taking place. >> it was sort of the only way to get on top of this masada

like mountaintop that the yazidis were in. and, you know, it was surrounded by isis. >> after days of waiting, the cnn team was granted permission to accompany a mixed crew of kurdish peshmerga and iraqi air force personnel on an aid drop mission to mt. sinjar. >> i knew that this was a dangerous trip. but i thought that going to see what was taking place was worth that risk. 15 minutes into the flight, they are just unloading their machine guns. and they're picking out targets down below. and we can't see what is going on. we can't communicate with them. we don't have the headphones. but they're really going through ammunition.

and their shell cases raining out of these machine guns and landing on the helicopter floor. the gunners are kicking the shell casings off the aircraft, and they're tumbling down into space. and i realize that these guys are scared. these guys are frightened. they're laying down suppressing fire. and for all i know, somebody is shooting at us. we can't tell. so that started to really freak me out. >> they're opening fire at targets down below. they say they regularly exchange fire on these trips. and they're clearly trying to defend the aircraft. >> they'd been shooting for a while, and then i could see in the distance through the big gunner door, and knew immediately that that is mt. sinjar. and as we moved further in and started circling over, for the first time i spotted humans on the mountain.

and we knew that we were definitely here, and we were getting our eyes on these people for the first time. and get a glimpse of what they had been going through. you can see the people below trapped on sinjar mountain. they're clustered under olive trees right now, waving to us. a lot of women and children waving. >> i couldn't believe my eyes. one of the gunners kicked this bag of food out the door. and we were at least -- at least 60 feet up. it was insane. >> this has been one chaotic aid distribution. i mean, i really hope we didn't hurt anybody with the bottles of water we were throwing down from a height of 20, 30 feet. >> finally, the helicopter touch down for a minute. >> here they come. >> they surged in, and they began piling into the

helicopter. the people we were with, the crew and the peshmerga didn't have a plan in mind for how they were going to handle this. and it was just madness. at that point, it was just insanity. just people piling in, screaming, running for their lives to get on this helicopter. >> i was trying to get in position where i could shoot them without actually being knocked down by them. the helicopter was moving around. you're trying to hold on to something. i could see ivan in front of me helping people on. but my job was to make sure i could record what was happening. >> they were frightened. they were horrified. and that was like a punch to the gut, because here you are trying to get people in, and trying to be happy for them. we're going to try to get you out of here. but they're terrified and they're weeping and they're screaming.

then there was this beautiful little girl right in the middle of this who was just crying and crying and weeping and weeping. >> we've got little aziza here. she is not happy. she says her father got left behind. >> how do you comfort a child that has been through this ordeal? and there is a machine gun blasting away next to you. and god knows we could get hit by incoming fire. i don't know. >> i'm here to give people a voice. if i can't give them a voice, then who will? >> you empathize with them very much. what would i do if i were in their position? how would i continue on? and i think for ivan, i could see him looking at that going what if that was me. what if that was my family, how would i cope with that? >> we landed, and that -- that

was a tremendous relief. and the people started coming out of the helicopter. i went up and i talked to aziza's older brother, and i kind of spoke a little bit more and i exchanged phone numbers with him. and they were getting loaded up on to a bus when i said goodbye. i said we're going to stay in touch. all of us felt so drained by the ordeal. everybody in our team has been around the block a few times. but none of us had experienced anything quite like this before. >> getting off that flight, the guys knew that this was a family that they immediately cared for deeply. it wasn't a decision made on any intellectual level. it was well, we're going to go and we're going to follow the girl in the purple. event sinks a hole-in-one,pga t

quicken loans will pay your mortgage for an entire year. that is how it's done. truly amazing! get in the hole-in-one sweepstakes. enter today at pgatour.com/quickenloans and you could have your mortgage paid for an entire year. do you guys have identity theft protection? [ male voice ] i'm sorry, did you say identity distribution? no. protection. identity theft protection. you have selected identity distribution. your identity will now be shared with everyone. thank you. no, no, no -- [ click, dial tone ] [ female announcer ] not all credit report sites are equal. [ male voice ] we're good in here, howie. yeah, have a good night, brother. experian.com members get personalized help plus identity theft protection. join now at experian.com. with enrollment in experian credit tracker.

join now at experian.com. of swedish experience in insidperfecting the rich,ars never bitter taste of gevalia. we do it all for this very experience. [woman] that's good. i know right? gevalia. so i can reach ally bank 24/7, but there are24/7branches? it's just i'm a little reluctant to try new things. what's wrong with trying new things? feel that in your muscles? yeah... i do... try a new way to bank, where no branches equals great rates.

it is perhaps hard to fathom, but aziza and her family were the lucky ones. scores of other yazidis were forced to flee isis by foot, a brutal journey some would not survive. >> this unbelievable sight at the peshka river crossing between syria and iraq where hundreds of people were streaming across this dingy little bridge.

>> it was this kind of silent procession of very tired and very sad people. >> we've been watching a stream of desperate families carrying little more than what's on their back. >> i was about to do a live report with a crowd shuffling past. and some reunion happened there, some young, thin man with a beard i think saw his family. >> oh, this is beautiful. >> they clearly had been separated. he was there waiting for them. he just started weeping and embracing them and hugging them.

>> i don't know. i just kind of kept crying over and over again. >> those people coming across were people who had just experienced all of that. and some of them had left their babies behind because they couldn't carry them anymore, or because their babies had just died in the desert on the march. there was one family we met that they didn't go 50 feet beyond the end of the bridge. this is where we're sleeping tonight. a kurdish security guard tried to move them. they would not move. that was where they were going to sleep that night. and everybody else was just homeless and going to find some patch of if they were lucky grass to sleep on that night somewhere here in iraqi kurdistan. they're safe, but they're refugees now. >> can we see?

>> in the midst of such suffering, ivan and the team make it their mission to find aziza's family. >> i don't think it was ever a question of whether or not we go and find aziza. i think it was just a matter of when do we do it. >> sure enough there is this giant derelict building. i walk up and then i see this little kid with this ridiculous red hair, a carrot top sitting there. it was the same baby i held. i remember you. hi! hi! it's good to see you. >> and nobody is crying finally. it's a normal chance to get to know each other for a couple of hours. and it's wonderful. and we get to hear the family's whole story. but early on i ask about their father. first of all, he is one stubborn old man, because when isis was rolling into sinjar and every

yazidi in the town is packing up their cars and running, his oldest son says my dad refused to leave. he said it would be a humiliation. if they kill me, let me die here. i'm going to stay in my house. and that family, can you imagine the gut-wrenching decision they had to make to leave their dad behind. >> we all tried hard to convince my dad, but he reviewsed to go. he said it would be a humiliation. i decided i couldn't let them capture the girls and women, so we left. >> but a day after they landed in safety here in iraqi kurdistan, the oldest son gets a phone call. and it's a fighter from the coast guard stan workers party, pkk, and he passes the phone to his father, and his father is alive. the pkk fighters came in to sinjar and rescued that stubborn man from the house that he had been trapped in and brought him up the mountain. and the latest news that the

family got was that the father was up there on that mountain. the kids are smiling. they're delighted. what are they going to do with that? fabid, the oldest son, he said dad, don't do the walk of death. don't walk to syria. stay there and you'll get a flight out. that's our plan. so that's the plan. and i said how is the dad doing? how is he? is he okay? they said -- he said he is strong. he can survive up there. there is food and water that has been delivered by the aid flights. he can survive up there. until he getres reunited with t family. you ask the kids, what do you want most right now, and dunia, who turned into this 17-year-old chatter box said my dream is to see my dad again. once he gets here, everything is going to be okay. >> when we walked way, you did consider what future they had,

what was the next step, what was tomorrow going to bring. and you wish him all the best. >> there is a family sleeping in the mud there. they had a house a week ago. that's insane. and it's not a natural disaster that caused that. that's other human beings made that. and are responsible for that. i fell to pieces and i know that some of the other guys on the team did too. it was just -- it doesn't get easier. it just gets worse, because you know that these people are going to have a terrible probably not just couple of months, but couple of years. and you know that that's what is in store for them. and it just -- it is just so awful.

♪ the enemy of freedom has chosen to make this year the decisive one. >> something is going to happen. but change is on the way. >> we can change america. we can change the world. >> what we need now is a reconciliation in this land. >> there's not anything wrong with you that a good hair cut wouldn't cure. >> rest assured we democrats will stir it up. >> this election year of 1968 has touched emotions. assaulted logic as never before. >> i think we have a little too much violence in this country. >> we go