hello, i'm dana bash in for wolf blitzer. it's 2:00 a.m. in beijing and wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks for joining us. >> we begin with the dangerous weather sweeping through the south just as millions of americans head out to celebrate the holidays. a deadly storm system killing ten people in three states, some of the worst damage in mississippi where at least 14 tornadoes touched down. the governor declaring a state of emergency. so many families are now facing scenes like this one on the day before christmas.

roofs ripped off trees down and debris scattered for miles. take a look at this, a driver capturing the moment when powerful winds blew over a big rig sending it barreling into the median. cnn meteorologist is tracking the storms but we begin with victor blackwell with a closer look at the destruction left behind. >> ten dead across three states and state of emergency also in tennessee. authorities statewide have been spending the morning flying over the hardest hit areas trying to get a real handle on the worst of the damage as people on the ground and families and the local first responders are trying to sift through what's left and trying to salvage their holidays. >> reporter: this christmas eve, parts of the south and midwest are destroyed after an overnight outbreak of violent tornadoes. officials fear the death toll could rise, dozens are hurt.

mississippi suffered the worst of the assault, the storm prediction center said 14 tornadoes touched down across the state wednesday. >> right over me. cutting trees in half, i don't know why i'm still standing here talking to you all. >> reporter: one of those killed in mississippi, a 7-year-old boy in a car with his family in holly springs. this video was shot by a driver a few miles away near como. watch as a twister shoves a tractor-trailer off the road. two people in mississippi are still unaccounted for. >> we were in the house and heard the wind picking up and dashed to the storm shelter and 45 seconds and it hit. we came out of the storm shelter and everything was gone. >> reporter: in perry county, tennessee, the violent storms destroyed three home and snatched power lines as it charged through. state officials say a 70-year-old man and 69-year-old

woman were killed in the county, a 22-year-old man was killed in ray county. strong straight line winds raced across parts of the arkansas. >> everything was moving sideways and the sound of the wind and i just -- i jumped and ran. >> reporter: and 18-year-old woman was killed when a large tree fell through her roof. near louisville, kentucky, pounding rains flooded streets and in southern illinois, this mobile home was shoved off its foundation as officials search for the missing and families sift through what's left, some are fighting to stay hopeful. >> god so going to show us good in this somehow, some way. i can't see it right now but i will, i promise. >> we know s mississippi governor phil bryant is in route to the hardest hit areas to assess damage and offer some support there. we know at least one shelter is open in that small town of holly springs and of course, there is

no good time for this to happen but just as you start to countdown the hours into christmas, this is about the worst. dana? >> it sure is. thank you for that report. now let's get to cnn meteorologist allison, we hear one of the tornadoes may have been on the ground for 150 miles. give us the context of that, how widespread it is compared to a normal tornado, if there is such a thing? >> a lot of time you you get quick spinups but for something to come down for 150 miles is quite impressive. this is the storm we're talking about. initially they think it started somewhere down here in the very southwestern edge -- western edge of mississippi and come up and come back down. we often get them to call hoppers, but the overall track going through the holly springs areas over interstate 55 and then gradually up into parts of

tennessee before they finally feel like it finished, if it does hold the case this was the same tornado the entire time, then yes, likely to end up being right around 150 miles. here is the preliminary track. if you plot it, it goes somewhere between 135 to 145 miles long. we're getting reports that the width of the storm from witnesses was anywhere from half a mile to three quarters of a mile wide. it's hard to escape a storm like that when it's just so big. again, we have a total of 28 hail reports from yesterday, 170 wind reports and 24 tornado reports. keep in mind, a lot of those 24 are clustered around what we believe may in fact be the same tornado. a lot of people keep saying this is not a time of year when we see tornadoes, this is so rare. it is. if you look at the scale, december has the lowest number of tornado averages of any other month, spring time definite sli where we see our peak but even

with that said, it's not completely uncommon to see tornadoes this time of year. we average 24 tornadoes in the month of december every year. the key thing to note, the majority of them end up happening in texas where we didn't necessarily get any tornado reports out of this storm. but notice, mississippi, alabama, also on the list. the good news, today's threat much, much lower than we had yesterday. >> that is very good news and you're absolutely right. this time of year on christmas eve, we're talking about snowstorms happening all across the northeast at least, maybe sometimes in the midwest and close to the south, not usually talking about tornadoes, thanks for that. as we mentioned at the top, the governor of mississippi has declared a state of emergency in the wake of these storms. joining me now by phone is brett carr, the public information officer for the mississippi emergency management agency. give us a sense of how the recovery efforts are going. what's the number one priority right now? >> thank you for having us on.

the first priority for us right now is life safety. we still had two people unaccounted for, one in benton county and one in tippa county. the main priority is to make sure everyone is accounted for. next big priority is life safety for the public, people are out traveling today and going to visit family for the holidays. we're telling people if you have to travel through the areas that have been damaged, try to find an alternate route or use extra caution as you drive through the areas. there could be downed power lines and tree anz debris in the roadways. please use extra caution as you travel today. >> you talk about using extra caution. do you have a full picture of how bad the damage is and how widespread it is at this spoipo? we just saw the map, 150 miles, what area was hit the hardest? >> most of these storms caused a lot of damage in north mississippi but our teams are out assessing the damage, trying

to put a quantity on how many homes and how many businesses have been damaged. also the national weather service is out today looking at these storms, trying to make a determination of the f scale, maybe the mile per hour of the winds. all of those -- that information will be coming out very soon, but i know that it's really hard to put a picture of this up right now just because there is so much damage and it's so widespread across seven counties in mississippi. >> and we learned overnight that a 7-year-old boy is among those killed in your state. he was apparently in a car with his family and a tornado blew right through where they were. what kind of warning did people get before this storm hit to try to seek shelter and not be in a car with a 7-year-old boy? >> the storm prediction center did a very good job of pinpointing where these storms were going to spawn over the course of yesterday, but the national weather service along with all of the state agencies

here in mississippi, we started talking about this storm several days ago, trying to get the preparedness messaging out, you need to use extra caution if you're traveling. six lives were lost in mississippi and four in benton county and two more in marshall county. we really tried to push the preparedness message hard. we take it seriously in mississippi because we're -- this is not something new to us. the last four years, we've had severe storms right at christmas time. so this is something that seems to be a recurring trend and we want to make sure people are prepared all time because mississippi has very violent weather year round and we want to make sure everyone is ready for that at any time of the year. >> and real quick, for those who are watching on christmas eve heart broken, what can i do? what's the short answer to that? >> the short answer, ms disaster response.org.

msdisaster response.org. you can donate and volunteer. that's the best way to get help to the folks that need it right now. >> thank you so much and good luck with everything there. appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> and those nasty storms aren't the only thing that could slow down holiday travel. the tsa has new security measures in place that make those controversial body scanners mandatory for some passengers, even if they've asked to opt out and get a pat-down instead. sara sidener joins us live from new york's laguardia airport. explain these new rules. how do they work? >> reporter: dana, basically what it means, even if you opted out, going through this machine, the tsa may look at your security profile and decide you do indeed have to go through the machine anyway. that is not opt, you can still

t -- not everyone, but it is a consideration that people need to take into account. we're hearing for example, pregnant people, i do not want to go through a machine, i'm concerned about my baby, it does have some radiation, all though studties have shown it is such a mins kule amount, it shouldn't affect the human body negativively. there is concern. and the tsa is saying, you can still ask for this and want a pat down but there will be some people because of security concern to keep traveling public safety that will be told no and still have to go through these scanners. we asked some of the passengers if they heard anything about the new rule and here's what they had to say. the answer really was no. >> we're totally in support of anything they have to do to tighten security because there's too many crazies out there. i don't think of it as, you know, as invading my privacy inmy way, do whatever you have

to do to keep everyone safe. >> reporter: she was a mom of af 4-year-old traveling for first time with her husband and baby. you can hear that sentiment echoed throughout the crowds, people are willing to give up some freedoms so they feel safer in the airport and so for most part, things are going quite smoothly although it's the weather causing the brunt of the problems and also the number of people traveling, dana, the number of people traveling this year estimates by aaa, 100 million, 5.8 of those expected to be going through the airports. >> that is a huge number. and i was going to ask you about the fact that security is one thing but clearly as we've been reporting the weather is not good but you mentioned it's going to be maybe a long trek for a lot of people going home to see family christmas time. sara, thank you so much for that report. straight ahead, violence strikes the heart of the holy land as christians gather for christmas eve. a live report from bethlehem

next. and possible new threats to westerners traveling overseas, the warning from one u.s. embassy is giving to american citizens. i'm gonna take mucinex sinus-max. enough pressure in here for ya? too late, we're about to take off. these dissolve fast. they're new liquid gels. and you're coming with me... you realize i have gold status? mucinex sinus-max liquid gels. dissolves fast to unleash max strength medicine. let's end this.

a new wave of violence in the city of bethlehem. a palestinian man stabbed two security guards at this morning's -- at a settlement in the west bank and comes a day after two israelis were killed in an attack outside the old city of jerusalem. cnn's orrin lieberman, what is the mood like.

christians are coming to celebrate christmas but in the wake of the attacks, how does that feel? >> reporter: there is certainly a bit of somber shadow over celebrations here is the christmas, but everyone is trying to put the political situation, the tension and violence and clashes aside to truly enjoy christmas eve in bethlehem. take a look at manger square here, the beautiful christmas tree, the crowd not as big as it should be but filled in throughout the evening but getting ready for midnight mass under four hours now. the entrance behind the christmas tree there and getting ready for midnight mass, that's what the faithful are waiting for. the political situation hangs over this. we've seen extra security here and around the square and down into manger square quite a few times and seen that security presence. it does give a feeling of security down there. there's a safe feeling and that is intentional because everyone here, especially vendors and

tourists and tour guides are well aware of the political situation and violence in the region. it was the state department last week that issued a travel warning to the region and the vendor here, the tourism industry has had a big hit here. you don't see many americans here and don't see many westerners or europeans here. everyone who has come out tonight trying to make the best of this evening, there's a choir singing silent night behind me trying to make sure here in bethlehem, one of the holiest places for christianity, it is -- >> you did mention the security concerns and stabbings, let's get more on that on latest violence between israelis and palestinians. spokesman for the israeli government and a.m. bombassadore u.k., mr. ambassador, i should call you now. since september there have been

near daily stabbings around jerusalem and west bank. does the israeli government have a set course of action to try to curb in violence? >> yes, we're interested in trying to get things back to normal as soon as possible to deescalate the situation. obviously we've beefed up security to protect our people and tourists trying to make sure especially this christmas passes peacefully. we've also calling on the palestinians to do more to reign in thir extremists. we'd like to see the palestinian authority play a more active role against terrorism and for peace. ultimately, we've had, what, more than 300 terrorist attacks over the last 100 days. different sorts of attacks, stabbings and shootings and deliberate use of automobiles to kill people, some 25 israelis have been killed, 300 injured. and the palestinian authority refuses to condemn these

attacks. so we think the obligation should be placed on them to condemn this terrorism and fortunately, they haven't just not condemned it but often praising it in turning terrorists into martyrs, that's the opposite of the christmas spirit people want to embrace today. it's time the palestinian leadership embraced peace and if they do so, they'll find in israel a willing partner. >> you know, for so many years people have watched attacks in israel and heard things about suicide bombers or bombs or other kinds of attacks. this is so different because we're talking as you said mostly about stabbings and things like that. you have urged citizens to be vigilant and do their part to protect themselves. there are pretty big differences in gun laws in the u.s. and israel and israel where you are most people can carry weapons and have been trained to do so in the military. given the current security debate in the u.s., i'm curious,

have you found that the attack tick works there? >> it's different in israel, you have kpulsry military service for men and women. the overwhelming majority of people do the army. people are given a license to carry a hand gun and i don't think most democracies have that. so israel is different. but what we do face, we face a common threat. it's the same extremist islamists stabbing people on the streets of israel who are attacking people in paris, france or in britain or in spain or what we saw recently in your country in the united states of america. terrorism isn't israel's problem, isn't america's problem. terrorism is a problem for people across this planet. just as it's a global threat, terrorism means we have to act together and it requires a global response. >> you talked a little bit about

this at the beginning but of course this is christmas eve. tomorrow is christmas day. talk about the israeli police plans for added security, particularly in bethlehem to protect the christians there observing the holiday. >> you raise a good issue about the christians, we've seen across the middle east with the explosion of extreme islam, sort of radical terrorist ideology, you've seen some of the most ancient christian communities on the planet being decimated with christians running for their lives, fleeing violence and persecution. and we're not going to let them happen here. i'm proud to tell you in israel, freedom of religion is sacrosanct and everyone is free to openly practice their faith. we will do our best to make sure that christmas passes safely and peacefully as possible. we will protect all of the worshippers where we can.

>> given the fact that christ n christians are under attack, does the military government perceive any additional threat during this christian holiday in your country? >> we've seen some of the islamist extremists speak out against christmas, we've seen that in countries across the region. i think we've always got to be vigilant because they don't believe in diversity and live and let live. they believe christians and jews and more moderate muslims are their mortal enemy and they want to try to enforce a new dark age, taking us back to the premed evil period where there is no freedom. it's important these extremists are not just enemies of jews or christians, they are enemies of all of this. we have to fight this extremism and protect ourselves and fight it ideologually. we've got to expose it for what it is, it's an evil reactionary

way of thinking that is ant anti-humanitarian and must be opposed. >> let's just hope that we have a reprieve from all of this as everybody can enjoy the sights of sounds of what's going on in bethlehem. thanks for your time of the appreciate it. >> thanks for having me and merry christmas. >> thank you. >> americans traveling abroad being told to stay on alert after embassies warn of possible new threats against westerners. why the location of these threats is especially concerning.

a concerning development out of beijing, four embassies, american british and french and australia have received information of possible threats to westerners, it comes as many are doing their holiday shopping. beijing police issued a yell hoe security alert increasing the number of officers in shopping areas. matt rivers is in beijing with more on these possible threats. >> reporter: a heightened state aof alaeert in beijing, urging them to be on guard when traveling in a neighborhood here in the city very popular with westerners, the american british, french and australia embassies also sent out notifications on thursday online and via e-mail to their citizens urging them to be aware of specific threats to westerners in the neighborhood. none of the embassies would

elaborate further on the exact nature of those threats. it is a very popular neighborhood with westerners and it's a shopping district and entertainment district and usually very safe. the chinese government also issued what's called a yellow alert, that would be the second lowest level on the chinese government security alert system. the specific alerts were referring to large and medium sized shopping malls here in the city. the government said there would be added security patrols ahead of the christmas shopping days here in beijing. now, we did see armed guards outside of the mall, the mall right in the neighborhood referred to by those foreign embassies in the notifications and added security presence outside of diplomatic compounds here in the city. our bureau is in a diplomatic compound and we saw some of those added security measures firsthand. all of this is relatively

unusual for beijing. although it does see its fair share of security incidents. in 2013 a car rammed a security barricade in the fame the tee enman square killing five people. that attack was perpetrated by separatists from the western province. it is unclear if the yellow alert issued by the chinese government had anything to do with alerts issued by the several foreign embassies on thursday. but what it is clear, there is a heightened sense of awareness here in the city. matt rivers, cnn, beijing. >> a brand-new cnn poll shows hillary clinton still holding a commanding lead in the days after the latest democratic debate. but when you compare her to some of her potential republican rivals, it's a different story. we'll show you the match-ups next.

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we're a little more than a month away from iowa, clinton tops senator bernie sanders 50% to 34%, that's an 8-point slide for clinton and 4-point jump for sanders. david, besides the overall results, we're seeing voters shift a bit back towards clinton, following the debate that she had on saturday night. walk us through those numbers. >> right, this is a really

interesting stat, we interviewed people both before and after the democratic debate. where she was going down a little bit, that was the trend we were seeing before the debate. after debate, take a look at this. clinton 60%, sanders 27%. so before the debate, it was much closer race, it is an 8-point race, after the debate, it was 33 point race. that is just too say -- you remember that debate was focused largely on foreign policy, on the battle against isis and those are hillary clinton's strong suits in this race. she is dominating bernie sanders by 60 points or so when it comes to who is best to handle those key issues, that was the focus of the debate and clearly democratic voters responded thinking she was indeed the better candidate. >> david, i love talking to you on the air because voters get to hear the conversations we have sitting in your office. let's talk about another point in the poll, 59% of democrats

say their chances of winning the white house are better with clinton. that's down from 69% in march. so what does that tell you? >> well, it is always a good thing, i think, when if you're hillary clinton and you're sitting -- or your campaign operation and sitting in brooklyn headquarters, 60% of the democratic party think we are their best shot, even more than the 50% support we have in the poll. so yes, the numbers are downa little bit and hillary clinton has come down from her highs this year, but i would still look at that number if i was a clinton campaign and say, if that means some of bernie sanders voters believe that hillary clinton is the best shot to win the white house, that's not a bad place to be. >> now i want our viewers to take a look at some numbers that you and i both thought were really interesting. it's the challenge that hillary clinton faces when she's matched up with the top republican contenders. check that out. she does the worst against marco

rubio, down three points, not terrible, but he looks like he's beating her. cruz would best her by two points and trump, she would beat him by two points, it's all within the margin of error, david. but again, you're sitting in brooklyn and you're in the hillary clinton headquarters, what do those numbers tell you? >> dana, i want to focus on what you just said, within the margin of error. this is going to be a competitive general election race. i know we're still a year out and obviously we don't know the full landscape of what sort of the politics will look like next fall, but no matter who the competitor is, she is matching up really closely with them, which just indicates we are a divided country and this is going to be a hard fought race. when i look inside those numbers against hillary clinton against marco rubio or hillary clinton against ted cruz, they are doing extraordinarily well with independent voters. that is the key to them edging her out in these general

election match-ups. she tries among independent voters with donald trump but cruz and rubio get the lion's share of independent voters against hillary clinton and that obviously she's been more focused on wooing democratic voters for the proo he mare but that's going to be a key mission should she get the nomination to move qukickly to shore up independent voters. >> if i would have walked into your house this time last year and said donald trump is going to run as a republican and he'llen 20 points ahead of everybody else, you might have fired me. but any way, it is where we are, hillary clinton and donald trump are in a nasty war of words going into christmas. trump is defending his use of a vulgar term. listen to what he told greta on fox. >> to me it meant to get beaten

badly. that's what happened with hillary clinton she got beaten badly. that's a reference to getting beaten and really pretcy decisively. when i said it nobody in the audience thought anybody about it. they clapped. they didn't view that as being a horrible thing. then all of a sudden i get back in and people are calling about it. when they checked it out, pretty quality people have been using the term over the years. >> i haven't used it. i haven't heard you use it but that's for another discussion. he also tweeted be careful, all caps. play trump whisperer, what does that mean? >> i read that as a very clear warning shot across the bou. that is a reference to bill clinton, his past and he is basically warning if hillary clinton is going to bring up sexism charges against donald trump, he's going to put everything on table, including bill clinton's controversial past with women. and that is going to be a whole

new ball game here. it's not that the clintons are not used to seeing those attacks from republicans but you and i know donald trump tends to deliver them unlike any other politician before. it means it will require a different type of response as well. >> that is a very interesting teaser for our 2016 election. david, thanks so much. we'll have a lot more discussion about all of this, the battle between ted cruz and the mainstream media and it started with a cartoon making fun of his daughters. our political panel weighs in on the latest salvo from cruz. right now, you're not thinking about all the money you saved by booking your flight, rental car, and hotel together. all you're thinking about, is making sure your little animal, enjoys her first trip to the kingdom. expedia,

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in the presidential race, hillary clinton is the candidate handle the major yish u.s.o - democrats trust clinton over sanders on wide margins and

think that clinton can best handle gun policy and the economy. joining us for us for a christmas eve edition, our political comment ator and maria cardona and amanda carpenter. maria, let's start with you, let's talk about the democrats. what do you make of clinton being so far ahead of sanders specifically on issues that people are paying attention to, voters? >> i think what people are looking at is her past very robust experience on the issues of national security and foreign policy. her years as secretary of state and very importantly, the way that she has talked about these issues during the democratic debates, she has talked about them not just with ease and with expertise, but she brought to the table nuances and a way of

explaining things to people, that especially democrats really understood and was very relevant to having them choose who they thought could go against not just whoever the nominee would be but who the person would be to keep them safest in this world who we all know and everyone is thinking about. they feel very unsafe. i think those have been very winning issues for her. >> exactly. josh, when you think about it, it wasn't that long ago tht bernie sanders was really making inroads with democratic primary voters because of his discussion about the economy and income inequality, those are the cornerstone of his campaign and in an interview that aired on "new day", he said he's fighting for the middle class, it's disappearing. listen to this. >> trillions of dollars of wealth have gone from working families to the top 1/10th of

one percent whose percentage of wealth they now own has doubled. so what we are seeing also is a situation where the average american is working longer hours for low wages, 58% of all new income going to the top 1%. we have a massive situation in terms of wealth and income inequality in america today. and i want to change that. >> so josh, he's passionate about that position. he certainly gets a lot of people fired up and yet in the polls, he's trailing her among democratic primary voters on the economy. why do you think that is? >> i think there's two things going on. one is that bernie is actually up eight points in the latest cnn/orc poll compared to the last one, that shows on the specific issue of the economy, his strategies having some result but that's caught up in the overall growing and realization that hillary clinton is running away with this nomination. as voters become accustomed to

that, it's going to be harder and harder for bernie to make progress that makes a dent in the campaign. there's another thing going on. bernie doesn't talk about foreign policy. if you go to his website and i did before the show. it's not on there. you have to go down below apple subsidie subsidies, if you click through a few times, you'll find something about the iraq war and how it was bad and all of that stuff but in the end, this is not something he's engage the on and wants to talk about or something detailed policies about. as the overall national security foreign policy issue eclipses the economy, he's increasingly disadvantaged, and that's what you're seeing here. >> no question about that. amanda, let's talk about your old boss, ted cruz and his familiar fight with the mainstream media, showing no signs of letting up. yesterday we all saw he slammed the "washington post" after a cartoon that depicted his two young daughters as trained monkeys which the post editor

took down. he is fighting back i would say cruz style with a sense of humor but biting one. look at that cartoon he tweeted out, seems like a better idea for a cartoon, hillary clinton and her lap dogs, being the "washington post" and "new york times"" as a former communications person for senator cruz, you think he's handling this the right way? >> home run. i love when attacks are answered with humor. there's the outrage machine, especially on right where we're stuck in a state of perpetual outrage sometimes. when we can lighten up and say this untaattack is unfair, that the exact right way to handle it. he won, they took it down. they are going to have some fun with it from now on. >> maria, what do you think about that? >> i think that his outrage on this was very well deserved. i think it was a very inappropriate for the "washington post" to have put up this cartoon to begin with.

the cartoon is funny, i think it was a little bit unfair that it was geared towards hillary clinton but that's fine. she's a big girl, she can take it. i don't think it was a dent in her campaign at all. but i do think that amanda is right, the right wing does need to inject a little humor from time to time in how they react to issues. good for him. >> go ahead, quickly. >> i think the rule of thumb for the media, treat it like the mafia, families don't get touched. the "washington post" opened itself up to this one and gave ted cruz the opportunity to attack them and he did. that was probably a mistake. >> thank, i have to say, one of my favorite moments when donald trump called ted cruz a maniac and he responded with the flash dance maniac comment. >> have a very merry christmas.

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a developing story. you're looking there at live pictures of activists gathering on chicago's michigan avenue. 75 people are there to protest what they have called black christmas. it's been peaceful and calm and controlled by police and continuing effort to pressure rahm emanuel to step down. many are upset with his handling of the shooting of la-quan mcdonald. they fought for a year to keep the footage out of the public eye u and activists hope to disrupt last-minute holiday

shopping. it is peaceful, relatively small. we're going to monitor it and get more on it as the story develops. for now, we're going to turn to military officials saying that iraqi forces are closing in on the isis town. and it's key because look at these pictures. this is an incredibly dangerous mission. soldiers are slowly working their way through the devastated neighborhood looking for isis terrorists. u.s. colonel steven warren explains how explosive devices are also posing a grave threat. >> this enemy set up defensive belts. they same the ieds we faced in iraq years ago but now they use them in clusters. they will rig entire houses to explode if you come near them. so the iraqis have to

deliberately probe this defensive area and find a week spot. >> let's discuss these developments. we're joined by barbara starr, kimberly dozer and military analyst cedrick lateen. barbara, let's start with you. this battle is fascinating because iraqis are using sunni forces to try to retake ramadi. it's a different kind of operation than the so-called sunni awakening ten years ago. why is that? >> it really is. and i think one of the key reasons is you do not have u.s. troops on the ground. you do have some u.s. advisers at a nearby military base, but they are no longer out there in the field with the iraqis whether they are shia or sunni. the u.s. is very much limiting its real action to airstrikes to try to help pound some of the targets as the iraqis are moving through. so you have mainly the iraqi

regular forces moving through ramadi right now and in waiting are sunni tribal fighters, several hundred trained by the united states that are going to hopefully in the eyes of the u.s. be the holding force, if you will. once ramadi is retaken, if it is retak retaken, the tribal fighters will move and and try to hold the city and get residents back in, but the u.s. always very concerned about any prospect for further sectarian violence as that unfolds. >> this is a a real confidence building measure for the iraqi government. we were able to take the city, almost to the center of it with iraqi forces not backed by shiite militia groups but back.

ed by u.s. intelligence and u.s. coalition airstrikes. so a lot of people don't realize fa lush ya is between baghdad and ramadi. it will be easier for the forces to isolate. you could see the obama administration's measures start to really take hold. so one by one, you could see these measures begin to produce effective results on the ground. >> and colonel you heard kimberly say this could be a confidence building measure. it was seven months ago that the city fell to isis because officials believe iraqi forces fled in the face of an isis assault. so why do they have this confidence now that they didn't have before? >> you have different times of

iraqi forces there and you have a totally different military structure that the prime minister has put into place. gone is the cronyism of the past and in more or less is a degree of competence that we haven't seen in a long time u. so they are basically putting their best foot forward in ra a ramadi and they are going to try to continue that as long as they don't have significant losses in ramadi they are going to continue that on the way to fallujah and mosul. >> there's talking about loosening the rules of engag engagemeengag engagement. what would that mean? >> there's been a lot of talk. the concern is if you go to bombing there will be increased significant casualties amongst civilians mixed in with the isis

population. so who dough yo loosen the rules to conduct more airstrike s s t put more measure on isis on the ground without putting more civilians at risk. they might be looking at changing some of the rules on how they coordinate airstrikes, the intelligence they have to have, but it's a delicate dance because if you have looser rules, you have the risk of civilian casualties. >> you do, which there are people that isis is using as potential targets for that very reason. kimberly, if momentum of the coalition if this continues, how do you think isis is going to counter? >> we are already beginning to see some signs of their future strategy. i think they will switch to just like they did the military members who make up the backbone of isis.

back in 2003 when they were sue dam's loyal officers they started carrying out bombs in cities. the ieds were planted everywhere. so i think you're going to see that metamorphosis from a traditional military that's trying to hold territory to a terrorist group. >> unfortunately, we're going to have to leave it there. i could talk to you about this all day. merry christmas to you and to all of you back home. the news continues right now. a devastating blow to the the southeast on christmas eve. deadly storms have killed at least ten people in the last 24 hours. dozens more injured. watch this. >> it was just black.