and it's ending. stewart says he's leaving the show later this year. future plans unknown. >> i don't have any specific plans. got a lot of ideas. i've got a lot of things in my head. i'm going to have dinner on a school night with my family who i have heard from multiple sources are lovely people. >> no word yet on exactly when jon stewart is going to tape his final show. but his contract with comedy central ends in september. bon voyage fella. thanks for watching, everybody. "wolf" starts right now. hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. 6:00 p.m. in london. 8:00 p.m. in cairo. 9:00 p.m. in mipgs. minsk. if left unchecked, isil will pose a threat beyond the middle

east including to the united states homeland the exact words of president obama sent in a letter to the united states congress today along with a formal request to grant him sweeping war powers to fight isis. in just a few hours, the president will speak to the american public indeed to the world about his proposal which limits operations to three years. it allows limited use of ground troops and does not restrict a battlefield to only iraq and syria. for more on all of this let's bring in our white house correspondent, michelle kosinski and our chief congressional correspondent dana bash. michelle this authorization, this language that the president submitted, he's seeking requests powers to fight isis terrorists without an enduring offensive combat role. those are his words. so what exactly is he seeking? >> reporter: that's open to interpretation to some point, isn't it? that's the language that was put in there. that's really the biggest limitation included in this request for the authorization of

use of military force. those words, enduring offensive ground combat operations. that's really the only thing listed that is not authorized. the word "enduring" is what is somewhat vague. and the president spelled it out in plainer language in the letter he included with this aumf saying it would not authorize long-term large-scale ground combat operations, similar to what had been done in iraq and afghanistan. so you would think that could leave the window open, then to shorter-term smaller-scale combat operation isn't that right? the briefs going on right now, the press secretary said yes, that language is intentionally somewhat vague because the presidents wants to preserve the ability to act militarily if necessary. however, when pressed on what would that be? what about, say, a large-scale troop deployment in a defensive capacity? whatever you can imagine along those lines. and the press secretary said,

that's not really within the president's plan. that's not really what he envisions this as. but because if this is approved this would last beyond president obama's term. that window still exists there for the next president. but you see the balance. the checks and balances here it has a three-year limit. but there are still some windows open for example, geographically. doesn't set any limits there. and it also includes the possibility of going after groups aligned with isis, wolf. >> yeah doesn't limit -- it does have a big loophole in one of the lines that the president used you saw this in his letter to the united states congress. he says it would also authorize the use of u.s. forces in situations where ground combat operations are not expected or intended. in other words, if something were to develop, he would have the authority to launch combat ground troops into that region if something unexpected or unintended were to occur. that's a huge, huge loophole. what's the reaction, dana, up on

capitol hill so far? >> reporter: members of congress wanted a debate and they're going to get one big time. it is not any way, shape or form for certain how this is going to end because there are very different opinions here. and it's bizarre the way they're shaping up. republicans want to give the democratic president more latitude, as commander in chief. democrats want to shrink that latitude and want to narrow this to make sure that things don't get out of control. let's start with republicans. listen to what john mccain told us in the hallway earlier today. >> if the congress of the united states wants to prevent the commander in chief from acting you can cut off funds. we've done that in the past. but to place prohibitions on the commander in chief, then you have 535 commanders in chief and that's deeply concerning to me. >> reporter: now, the flip side

of that is the president's fellow democrats who are saying they are very concerned that the lesson of 2002 and the last time congress approved the war in iraq, it got out of control and they think that the way that this is written is better but still not perfect. listen to democrat chris murphy. what you have to vote on isn't tighter when it comes to authority for troops. will you vote for it? >> it's going to be hard for me to vote for anything that allows for us to repeat the mistakes of the past. and i worry that the languages that exist today is not going to allow for this president but for the next president to put major combat troops back in the middle east. that's something i'll have a hard time supporting. >> reporter: he's talking about the next president because the length of this is three years, which is of course, after president obama is gone from office. will this actually pass? will something pass? i spoke to senator bob corker, chairman of the foreign

relations committee. he's going to be taking this up at the helm of the debate in that committee first. he told me in the hallway, if we can't find bipartisanship on facing isis, i don't know what we can do. he's confident he can but it's going to take a while and a lot of creative ways to try to bridge those two very, very different points of view. >> the debate is only just beginning on this sensitive issue. war powers. doesn't get more important than that. michelle and dana, thanks very much. let's dig deeper right now. joining us from capitol hill texas republican congressman mack thornberry. thank you for joining us. you've read the president's letter and read his proposed legislation, the war powers legislation, giving him the authority to go after isis in this war-type situation. do you support what the president wants? >> well i'm concerned that the president is more focused on threading a political needle here rather than how to be

successful in beating isis. so for example, you were just hearing these words, offensive ground combat operations enduring -- there is no precedent for any of those words. so if you're a soldier or marine on the ground in iraq or somewhere, what do they mean for you? and one of our key questions, i think, is how that translates to those soldiers and marines on the ground who actually have to live with this language not just the political aspect of it but they've got to make life-or-death decisions based on whether it's enduring or not, whether it's offensive or not. that troubles me. >> so basically the language that the president submitted today, you could not vote in favor of that is that what you're saying? >> well, i've got real concerns about it. we are really going to investigate deeply about what this means and especially how it affects troops in the field. what i would feel better about

is if the president really shows the commitment to win rather than just trying to again, thread a political needle. remember the president has always said he has the authority to do this anyway. so now the language he sent up to us today restricts the authority that he said he's already had and has been using for months and months. not all of that fits together to me. >> what do you think of the request for three years' authorization to use force in this war against isis? because the language he uses specifically says it would be for three years. >> yeah. i think it's okay to have either a sunset or a requirement that we revisit this to see if it keeps up with changing times. we did not revisit the 2001 aumf and so the courts and administrations have stretched that language out of all meaning. so i think a requirement to look at this or a sunset makes sense. what i have much more problems with are these restrictions that

are going to apply to our troops that they've got to live out. >> well, it's going to be a sensitive debate. i'm sure you'll have hearings on this. your colleagues in the senate will have hearings. we'll see what kind of changes are made if the president is ready to accept those changes. we'll cover it obviously. i want to get your quick reaction to the united states abandoning its -- the u.s. embassy in sanaa, yemen, those marines, all of the marines now have been effectively forced to leave and we're now getting reports they couldn't leave with their weapons. they had to hand over their weapons and their military vehicles to these rebels if you will these houthi rebels, the shiite rebels backed by iran. it's pretty humiliating what's going on in yemen right now, isn't it? >> yeah, two things come to mind. number one, the most serious threats against our homeland in recent years have emanated from al qaeda in yemen. and now that essential presence that we've had there to try to

reduce that threat has been eliminated in the capital at least of sanaa. secondly, this is what the president has touted as the poster child for his successful counterterrorism efforts. that's part of the reason when we go to this aumf a lot of folks on our side of the aisle have doubts about whether his heart is really in it or not because his success story really hasn't turned out very well. >> mac thornberry thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me wolf. >> this note to our viewers, at 3:30 p.m. eastern later today, the president is set to make a major statement on his request to congress to authorize the use of military force against isis. this is the first war powers authorization that american president has sought since 2002. this war powers resolution was approved and led to the war to remove saddam hussein from iraq. cnn will have live coverage 3:30 p.m. eastern. that's coming up. also coming up this hour as

we just mentioned, while american personnel and marines evacuate the u.s. embassy in yemen, rebels there have seized their vehicles, their ammunition, their weapons. we'll discuss what's going on. plus we're getting new details on a series of failed attempts to save kayla mueller's life, the american kidnapped by isis in syria. one rescue attempt even included a man claiming to be her husband. ♪♪♪ stouffer's mac and cheese with real aged cheddar now in a convenient cup. new stouffer's mac cups. made for you to love. ♪

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the chaotic security situation in yemen has just taken a very serious and troubling turn. a senior u.s. official says shiite houthi rebels in yemen are expected to enter the empty united states embassy in sanaa within the next 24 hours. an official at the sanaa airport says rebels have taken u.s. embassy cars left at the airport. all this comes just hours after the u.s. embassy suspended operations ordered all staff, diplomatic and military all personnel out of the country asap. our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto is joining us with more on this very disturbing development. what is the very latest? what are you hearing? >> this is what i'm hearing. this was a necessary departure because of the declining security situation on the ground. but it was an orderly departure. for instance the embassy personnel including u.s. marines flew out commercially. they were able to take the time to destroy sensitive things inside that u.s. embassy in

sanaa, critical documents, computer files and also weapons they left behind. in fact i'm told when they got to the airport, they gave their weapons, sidearms smaller weapons to a yemeni security detail that escorted them to the airport. before they did that they disabled them. and the reason they did is because they were getting on a commercial flight. there was some order to it. but they wouldn't have taken out u.s. embassy personnel and much of the military personnel unless they thought the situation on the ground was too dangerous for them to remain there. >> this is just the latest u.s. embassy to be forced to shut down. it comes on the heels of other critically important embassies that are no longer in business. >> that's right. this is a really important point. there is no u.s. embassy in yemen right now. already none in syria because of the war there for a number of years. withdrawal post-benghazi from libya and also no presence for a number of years in somalia. these are all failed states states that have a serious

terror problem, aqap as well as other groups in libya right now. you don't have a diplomatic presence there. you will have military operations under way. but keep in mind an embassy is more about issuing visas. these are key political contacts. they go to military cooperation, they are listening posts for intelligence services. so to not have those listening posts on the ground is a major loss in light of how key these countries are to u.s. national security. >> we remember the effort that the u.s. and coalition partners did in trying to get gadhafi out of libya. but now the u.s. is out of that embassy. and we have some video. it's so disturbing every time we see it. this is video, the swimming pool at the u.s. embassy, resident there is the ambassador's residence in tripoli. you see these rebels there enjoying the united states embassy there, swimming in the pool. >> no question. this goes to a debate that followed benghazi as he does his

swan dive there, embarrassing images risk management versus risk elimination. you can't eliminate the risk in any embassy around the world. there are greater risks here. there are concerns among diplomats and former diplomats that when you pull out of these places that there's such a fear that you're erring on the side of leaving rather than staying. you don't want to be the one who stays and then you lose someone as you did for instance in benghazi. on the other hand when you do pull out, there's a real loss there. and the pentagon has acknowledged that. while counterterror operations will continue in yemen, the pentagon acknowledged there will be an impact on those operations. >> and in 1979 we remember with the u.s. embassy in tehran it was shut down and still shut down to this very day in iran. thanks, jim. quite a turn of events in yemen. let's bring in retired lieutenant colonel mart hertling. general, you've been involved in the evacuation process at u.s.

embassies overseas. there's a lot of sensitive material at those embassies. walk us through what the u.s. embassy staff in yemen had to do to shut down that embassy and get out of there. >> anytime you're talking about an embassy in another country, you're talking about sovereign ground of the united states. so everything within that compound belongs to the u.s. and most modern nations understand that. but when you are looking at potentially evacuating an embassy, it is a phased approach. you first allow nonessential people to leave, which we saw starting to occur in yemen about two weeks ago. then you start reducing services because as jim just said there are everything from visa allocations to businessmen who were working with the embassy to resources to treasury department to the military to in the case of yemen, links to intelligence agencies. but when you get down to the final decision-making, a lot of things have to be done.

you have to burn documents. most embassies have incinerators or burn bags within the embassy compound. you have to destroy hard drives. you know you're going to leave some equipment within the embassy compound. and that's probably what's been happening, because you know it's going to turn from sovereign u.s. ground to being taken over by the local citizens when the people depart. in the case of yemen as what's occurred in the last 24 hours, it's been a phased relief operation. and the very fact that the remaining personnel used the sanaa airport as opposed to the helipad tells me things were tense but calm. and that's an important consideration. the decision was made we can no longer be viable let's leave. >> general, i'll have you stand by. we have more to discuss coming up later this hour. stand by general hertling. coming up next, horrific,

horrific story. three young muslim students in the united states gunned down in chapel hill, north carolina. why police say the suspect's facebook page may reveal his real motives. stand by. we'll have details. rma. checking your credit score is for chumps. i have great credit. how do you know? duh. you know those change, right? tattoos don't change.

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what's that thing? i moved our old security system out here to see if it could monitor the front yard. why don't you switch to xfinity home? i get live video monitoring and 24/7 professional monitoring that i can arm and disarm from anywhere. hear ye! the awkward teenage one has arrived!!!! don't be old fashioned. xfinity customers add xfinity home for $29.95 a month for 12 months. plus for a limited time, get a free security camera call 1800 xfinity or visit comcast.com/xfinityhome. we're also following a truly shocking story out of north carolina. three muslim students are dead. they're dead after being shot in an apartment near the university of north carolina at chapel hill at the campus there. the victims, 23-year-old,

21-year-old who were married back in december and mohammed's sister, all three were shot in the head. the man accused of the horrible shooting 46-year-old craig steven hicks appeared in court after turning himself in to police last night. joe johns is with us as well as our senior legal analyst, jeffrey toobin. joe, this is really really horrific, this story. it's hard to believe this could happen in the united states. but tell our viewers what the police are saying what we know. >> the latest information is that we have been able to hear some of the 911 calls that came in around 5:00 last night in the chapel hill area. two callers tell essentially the same story. one caller says she heard about eight shots. another caller says between five and ten shots. a series of screams and then silence. the police arrive and they discover these three people

dead. the suspect in this case has turned himself in, in fact. craig hicks. he's 46 years old. he is cooperating with the police. and they're trying to determine exactly what it was. they were told initially that this was a dispute over a parking space. however, the police said in a statement that came out just a little while ago that they are aware of the community's concerns about the possibility of this being a hate crime and they intend to investigate that angle to the fullest. so all of the answers are not in yet. police haven't finished their investigation. the suspect is charged with three cases of first-degree murder and we're expecting to know more. he did appear in a court today. >> and basically what the allegation is is that the suspect took a weapon, a handgun in this particular case and effectively executed these three young students shot them in the head is that right? >> right, all three apparently were shot in the head.

the husband and wife and the man's sister the victims were very young, between the ages of 19 and 23 years old, all in the dentistry field there. so it's a very sad story for chapel hill right now. >> it's a horrific story. jeffrey, the suspicion is -- of course it's valid given the fact that apparently on this suspect's facebook page social media, there's a history of awful things that are said about muslims, for example. so it raises the question that the federal government could get involved and charge this as a hate crime. what does that mean? >> the state has a hate crime statute as well. murder is illegal under all circumstances, obviously. intentionally killing another person is, of course, the crime of homicide. but states and the federal government in recent years have said when crimes are motivated by hate racial hatred religious hatred those crimes

can be enhanced the penalties can be enhanced and the federal government can step in. obviously in this circumstance it's well worth investigating whether this is a hate crime as well as what you might call an ordinary murder. >> if he's charged with capital murder for example in north carolina that's one thing. but if he's also charged with a hate crime, what would that add? >> it certainly puts the death penalty on the table. even in north carolina when you have a death penalty case there are factors that the jury is supposed to consider in determining whether to impose the death penalty. if in fact a crime is racially religiously motivated, that can be one of these enhancements that would make someone more likely to be executed. but those are all to be determined as the investigation unfolds. >> nobody really believes because of a parking dispute you go ahead and execute three young students at the university of north carolina. >> right. it's a very shocking crime. it's also important to say that this individual appears to be an

outspoken atheist. facebook postings are very difficult to authenticate especially where the individual who allegedly posted them is locked up behind bars with the police. nonetheless, he was outspoken and critical of religion including christianity as well as islam. so that should factor into it a bit. >> and the police chief there, chief chris blue of the chapel hill police department said in a statement, our investigators are exploring what could have motivated mr. hicks to commit such a senseless and tragic act. we understand the concerns about the possibility that this was hate motivated and we will exhaust every lead to determine if this is the case. our thoughts are with the families and trends of these young people who lost their lives so needlessly and our thoughts and prayers are with the families as well, our deepest condolences to them. a lot more on this story coming up today in "the situation room" as well. just ahead, what has the united states done to try to rescue an american aid worker

taken hostage by isis in syria? we have new details on the failed effort to save kayla mueller and new information about her time in captivity. if you suffer from a dry mouth then you'll know how uncomfortable it can be. but did you know that the lack of saliva can also lead to tooth decay and bad breath? well, there is biotene specially formulated with moisturizers and lubricants... biotene can provide soothing relief and it helps keep your mouth healthy too. biotene, for people who suffer from a dry mouth.

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rescue her. intelligence suggests that mueller may have been paired with a male isis fighter while she was being held hostage, according to u.s. intelligence and government officials. one official suggests she may have been given, yes, given to the isis fighter as some sort of bribe. as for the attempts to rescue mueller, president obama rejects the idea that the u.s. government didn't do enough. here's what he said in an interview with buzzfeed. >> yeah i deployed an entire operation at significant risk to rescue not only her but the other individuals that had been held and probably missed them by a day or two, precisely because we had that commitment. >> let's bring in cnn's brian todd, he's up on capitol hill. what more do we know more about the rescue operations that the president may have been

referring to? >> reporter: wolf we're getting new information about some extraordinary things and extraordinary operations that took place in various efforts to try to rescue kayla mueller from isis captivity. you mentioned the raid and president obama talked about that raid on july 4th of last year when they went in, delta force and navy commandos went into an abandoned oil refinery near the syrian city of raqqa. the hostages, including kayla mueller, had apparently been moved. there was a firefight there. i just spoke to the republican from arizona who represents the district around prescott, arizona, where kayla mueller's family is from. he knows the family and has been in contact with them since she was taken captive. he says he got this information from sources saying there was a man at some point after kayla mueller was taken captive, she was being held in some kind of an isis camp somewhere, probably in syria. there was a man who came into the camp posing as her husband

asking for them to hand her over to him. but apparently kayla mueller was not in on this ruse and told her captors, i'm not married. and so that effort failed. we don't know what exactly happened to the man. the congressman said it could have been one of the men captured with kayla mueller when she was captured in aleppo in august of 2013. when she was captured, there was another aid worker captured with her and then he was released. the congressman says he's not certain but says he thinks it could have been that man who was released who took an incredible risk to go back into an isis camp, pose as her husband and try to get her out. that was one instance we're learning about now. another, the congressman's own staff members have taken risks. his chief of staff was on a trip to turkey and they decided that in an effort to try to win kayla mueller's release, they were going to exhaust all efforts. he sent his chief of staff to a

refugee camp just across the turkish border from kobani a very dangerous place, just to get any information, find out anything he could about kayla mueller's whereabouts. that mission also failed. the chief of staff was not able to get that information but the congressman says just sending him in there was worrisome because it was a very dangerous place with a lot of terrorists around. so you're talking about just various efforts that people have made. this congressman and his staffer, other people who have taken incredible risks to try to get kayla mueller to be released from isis captivity. of course we now know that none of them worked. but they were valiant efforts. and even with that the congressman just as i left him a moment ago said you know what i failed i failed to get her out. john mccain has said the same thing. he led exhaustive efforts to try to win her release. they all say, we failed her. and i said these were incredibly risky missions. but he said we didn't get here and that's the bottom line.

dramatic stuff. >> unfortunately they did not succeed and she is now dead. brian, thanks very much. i know brian's working this story and will have more in "the situation room" later today. kayla mueller wasn't the last american missing in syria. the fbi's put out posters for two missing american journalists in syria, kevin patrick dawes went to syria in august of 2012 the last known contact with dawes was in october of that year. austin bennett tice was working as a freelance journalist and photographer. the fbi says he was kidnapped in damascus syria, on august 13th 2012 several journalists from other countries have also been reported missing in syria. just ahead, we'll talk with our analysts about how the united states handles these kinds of hostage situations. we're also getting their take on an alarming number, more than 20,000 foreign fighters may have joined isis on the battlefields in syria and iraq.

what's that thing? i moved our old security system out here to see if it could monitor the front yard. why don't you switch to xfinity home? i get live video monitoring and 24/7 professional monitoring that i can arm and disarm from anywhere. hear ye! the awkward teenage one has arrived!!!! don't be old fashioned. xfinity customers add xfinity home for $29.95 a month for 12 months. plus for a limited time, get a free security camera call 1800 xfinity or visit comcast.com/xfinityhome. the death of the american aid worker kayla mueller, raising serious questions about how the united states handles hostage situations. we just spoke about that with brian todd the unsuccessful attempts to try to rescue her. let's get some additional perspective now from our panel. joining us our national security analyst peter bergen

lieutenant general mark hertling and bob baer intelligence and security analyst, former cia operative. general hertling how risky are these rescue operations from a military standpoint? >> always tough, wolf, always tough. first of all, the intelligence has to be perfect, the timing has to be perfect, the intelligence has to be updated even while the operation is ongoing. the commandos, special operations forces has to continue to receive intelligence even while the mission is going on before they hit the target. so you always have difficulty in executing these things and it's always very very dangerous for the commandos who are doing it as well. >> how good bob baer is u.s. intelligence on this kind of issue right now in syria and iraq? >> not very good. in fact, it's lousy. when i used to work with delta force many years ago, they had a requirement. they didn't trust any

intelligence. and they needed a u.s. soldier with eyes on the target. in a case like isis you can't do that can't get people in there. and the military doesn't like these things when the intelligence isn't 100% right. you almost have to see the hostage, not just see what the defenses are before you go in. people remember desert one, we went into iran and it was a catastrophe for the military because they had the crashes in the desert and the rest of it. so it's always risky. it's even riskier in a place like syria where you can't put people on the ground. >> the director peter, of the national counterterrorism center here in washington testified up on capitol hill today about the growing number of foreign fighters joining isis in iraq and syria. he sid more than 20,000 fighters from 90 countries, 3,400 from western countries, 150 from the united states have joined isis on the battlefield. you buy these numbers? >> i do, they're not surprising.

the head of special operations command last month gave the estimate of 19,000 foreign fighters. we've seen u.s. officials saying about 1,000 foreign fighters come in every month. so just do the math. unfortunately the campaign against isis if you take the numbers, about 1,000 isis fighters are being killed every month. but it's a wash because you're getting 1,000 foreign fighters being recruited every month and coming in. so in terms of did the head of centcom hadsaid isis is suffering a manpower shortage. >> what do you make of those numbers, general? >> wolf i'm always suspect, first of all, of numbers that end in a lot of zeros. i would beg to have the intelligence analysts show me where they were receiving those numbers since they're so rounded off. but they are concerning. and it shows what is going on in

the recruiting efforts of isis. i think that is the more important thing. how are they getting these kind of numbers, even if they are large like this? the recruiting effort is very different. in the past, al qaeda would recruit by saying, come join the jihad, fight the occupiers. today they're talking to others saying come join our lifestyle. we will promise you all these things pay, fighting the infidels infidels sex life all the things associated with a bucolic lifestyle. and we have to counter that by indicating how terrible this organization is. that's the first thing. but also part of this math is -- we talked about this a few weeks ago -- how many of these individuals that are coming are not well-trained or just jihadis and they're going to be killed very rapidly on the battlefield? so that math isn't included with the numbers coming in versus the number that are killed on the battlefield. >> but they're successful with social media. they have a sophisticated

propaganda machine. >> they do, wolf. i talked to somebody who just came back from the front in the kurdish front in iraq. what has struck the kurds as surprising is they've been intercepting isis on low-power communications. and they're hearing a lot of russian, they're hearing a lot of usbzbekistan languages, people from different parts of the world. intercepting these communications they don't understand what's going on on the radio and isis does it for that reason, so they can't be intercepted. these great numbers of people coming in -- this is an epidemic of ideology of radicalism that frankly i've never seen ever before. and it's difficult to get your mind around. >> certainly is. bob, mark, peter thanks very much. ten men beheaded in egypt by a group claiming to be affiliated with isis. is this proof isis is expanding its reach? we'll go to cairo for a live

report. that's coming up next.

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the terror group isis is doing everything this can to spread its hate to other countries and it's gaining a strong foothold in parts of egypt right now. it attracts western tourists every year. let's go to cairo. we're learning more about a new video purportedly showing the beheading of ten men in egypt and an isis affiliate is claiming responsibility. you're on the scene there for us. an isis threat now emerging in

egypt? >> reporter: they call themselves the state of cyanide, a reference to the isis caliphate. like isis in iraq and syria, their tactics are brutal. they beheaded people who they accuse of spying for egypt or israel. they have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers and they carried out two massive attacks that killed over 30 people and each time in the northern part of the area. they almost exclusive target security personnel although civilians have been killed in the cross fire. numbers are unknown but estimates put it in the hundreds. the real key to success is they're winning the hearts and minds of the local population in the northern part of sinai. where the military has gone in and accused of rights abuses and destroyed homes. militants have compensated these people for their losses which

stirred animosity toward the government here in cairo. >> i assume there's been a major crackdown by the egyptian military, the president, they are going after these guys and most of these attacks are in the northern part of sinai. >> reporter: we have seen attacks in other parts of egypt as well. their tactics do go directly toward the security force. we haven't seen them expand to civilian targets, tourists targets. the thinking behind that is they would lose more popularity or any popularity that they might have if they do target civilians, target tourists sites. there's a lot of animosity toward the central government after out ofsting the former president but if they go after tourism, that will hit the pocketbooks of millions of egyptians and they could lose that support. you go to sinai.

they do not support it and they get money from tourism and they don't want this crackdown to spread into their territory, wolf. >> ian lee will stay on top of this development in egypt. thanks very much. a last resort for ukraine as peace talks begin the ukrainian president says the region could soon spiral out of control. we'll go live to ukraine coming up.

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let's go to ukraine. peace talks are under way as fighting intensifies in eastern ukraine between pro-russian separatist and the ukrainian military military. petro poroshenko said martial law could be next if no agreements are reached today in belarus. let's go there. our senior international correspondent nick paton walsh is in donetsk, which has been bombarded brutally in recent weeks and months. nick set the scene. the leaders may be talking in minsk but the fighting continues where you are. >> reporter: it started badly today when a shell slammed into a bus stop here in central

donetsk around morning rush hour frankly killing four. we went to the scene and saw how a driver had been hit in his seat in that bus there. they continue violently. we traveled to shelling and a very violent sound across the farmland and as we came back to donetsk, we heard incoming and outgoing fire repeatedly here just again now in the last hour or so. a little backdrop. we're hearing that a key town while ukrainians claim they got a supply convoy through to it whereas separatists claim they circle it. there was a chance to take police headquarters by the separatists today. nothing like a backdrop for peace here at all and frankly unless we see a solid cease-fire coming out of minsk, it could

get worse. that's what ukrainian president petro poroshenko is referring to. you can hear in the background there what sounds like impact explosions here in donetsk. it could get messy quickly. wolf? >> what does poroshenko mean by martial law if there is no deal in minsk? >> reporter: there would be a tightening of security issues across the country. they have a military cordoned as best as they can, they are concerned about acts of sabotage. we have seen random explosions to the north. martial law would be intended to stop this separatism spreading elsewhere in ukraine. >> nick paton walsh, be careful over there. we'll check back with you. that's it for me. thanks for watching. i'll be back during our 3:00 p.m. eastern hour for our live special coverage president obama set to make a statement on his request to congress to authorize use of military force against

isis in iraq and syria. for our international viewers, "amanpour" is coming up next. for viewers in north america, "newsroom" with brooke baldwin starts right now. hi there. i'm brooke baldwin. president obama is getting ready to speak about isis after asking congress to authorize a war. something that's not been done in 13 years. the authorization for the use of military force, otherwise known as aumf has now officially been sent to lawmakers on capitol hill and i know you might be thinking hang on a second why isn't he already dropping bombsisis? we've been doing this for months. the president has authority to start military force which he's been doing in syria and iraq but the president cannot keep using that military force indefinitely without