thanks for joining us. our breaking news coverage continues right now of the horrific terror attack at ataturk international in istanbul with "a.c. 360" and anderson right now. good evening. thanks very much for joining us on this difficult evening. we are devoting much of the next two hours to late developments out of istanbul, turkey, where the death poll is climbing now. at least 31 people known dead after suicide bombers -- the killer found a soft spot and we do have video of the attacks in progress. the video is graphic. if you have children in the room, get them out. you see the gunman racing through the terminal there. we will put a circle around him. he was shot, what appears to be a police officer who is now just above him now. he is laying on the ground. the police officer appears to shoot him again at close range and then runs off, not clear

exactly why. perhaps he saw him reaching for a suicide vest. it then appears that the man is still alive, appears to be shot once again and then as time to either detonate his suicide device or it was on some sort of automatic trigger. that gunman had an ak-47. let's just play that video one more time so you can fully see for yourself how at least some of this unfolded. you see some people in the airport running away from the gunman who is there with an ak-47. he appears to be shot by a policeman who is about to appear very close above the gunman. the policeman approaches, his gun drawn and appears to shoot, at least once again and runs off again, unclear exactly why. the gunman appears to still be alive and we don't know if it was a suicide belt or vest. that appears to be another gunshot wound and then the detonation. that's just one of three bombers who struck and this is new video

again now of people fleeing. we've just gotten this new video in, running as fast as they can and then seconds later one of the detonations. now watch. you see the crowd running away and now off to the right hand side of your screen, there you see the detonation. people staggering away. some falling and getting back up and you see the smoke and there's no sound in this video and we just got this literally moments ago and as we said, at least 31 people are known dead and 147 wounded and those numbers may be changing over the next two hours. eyewitnesses now coming forward. the white house late this evening condemning the attacks. hillary clinton, donald trump weighing in. our security experts are joining us and we'll get to all of that, but let's go first to cnn -- excuse me. i'm just getting new information in. the prime minister in turkey has said the death toll is now at 36. that literally coming in just in the last few seconds. the death toll now raised to 36.

let's go to international correspondent clarissa ward who is joining us with the latest. what do we know at this point, clarissa? >> anderson, as you said, the death toll goes up to 36. it does tend to climb as more and more of the severely injured people suck toum their injuries and here is precisely what we know at this stage. we know that there were three attackers, all of them armed with suicide explosive devices. two of those attacks are believed to have taken place in and around the international arrivals hall. this is interesting because the international departures hall actually has a security screening process that you have to go through right at the entrance to the airport, before the check-in area and it's interesting that the attackers apparently chose to target the arrivals hall. that potentially more vulnerable. you don't have the same layers of security down there. you just have the doors essentially which you're not

supposed to enter, but if you were carrying a weapon, then you would be able to shoot your way in. from what we know, the third attack would have taken place at the car park. far more details, and what is interesting here is that the men in addition to wearing suicide vests were apparently, at least one of them carrying ak-47s and this fits very much into an isis profile. not just a suicide bomber, but a swiss ide warrior and a so-called inhaimaze and the idea to kill as many people as possible before detonating yourself. i should add that at this stage we don't have any claim of responsibility from isis and any other group. turkey has been hit many times as kell by kurdish separatist groups and traditionally when isis has hit turkey they haven't claimed responsibility and we are in the last ten days of the muslim holy month of ramadan and these are considered the holiest ten days of the holiest month of

the year. we heard isis spokesperson abu muhammad al adnani coming out and urging followers to carry out attacks during this time and of course, this istanbul airport, a very powerful symbolic target there, is quite literally, anderson, a bridge between east and west. we haven't heard a claim of responsibility yet, but certainly it bears all of the hallmarks of either an isis directed or at the very least an isis-inspired attack. >> the one video, the first video where you showed where you see one of the attackers running, then appears to get shot by what appears to be a police officer or some sort of security official -- it's not that video. that's the third video that we had at the top of the broadcast. this one. do we know where exactly where this was in the airport, clarissa? >> we don't know exactly where this video was, but certainly based on what we know about the attacks in general, it would appear that it was somewhere in

the international arrivals hall. that is where two of the attackers reportedly blew themselves up. we don't know, was this some kind of a coordinated attack where the first bomber created a scene by detonating himself and allowing the second bomber to run in? we could see quite clearly in that video as you pointed out that security personnel at istanbul's ataturk airport clearly were engaging with these attackers and you see also in that video quite clearly that there are very few people around the area where the bomber ultimately detonates himself. it's not clear if that's because the alarm bell had already been sounded by the first attacker. so essentially what we see here, we can tell that this is some kind of a coordinated attack with at least three bombers, but we don't yet have the details of how exactly it all played out and we're still waiting to hear more information particularly as well on that third attack believed to have taken place in the parking lot of the airport,

anderson. >> of course, what we don't know is how many others there may have been involved in the planning of this or even on scene. you have three people who have detonated devices who had weaponry, but a coordinated attack like this most likely requires a number of other personnel. >> and that's right. that's why you've seen them evacuating the airport and getting everybody out. i'm presuming they'll be searching every nook and cranny of this airport for possible devices that may have been hidden and they've essentially stopped all planes going in and out of the airport. they're saying that's just until tomorrow morning and who knows? it may carry on beyond then and this is one of the busiest airports in the world. not only is istanbul a cosmopolitan city and a destination city in it's own right, but istanbul if you're traveling to the for east especially it tends to be a hub, a point of transit for many millions of travelers every

single year. >> clarissa ward, appreciating the reporting and we'll continue to check in with you as developments warrant. will carter was at the airport and i spoke to him a short time before we went on air. >> will, i understand you were in the baggage area when this actually happened. you witnessed at least one of the blasts. tell us what you saw. >> we heard the shake, the sort of dull thus of two pretty loud explosions, i presumed from outside, and a third one a few minutes later which was very close we saw the flash of the fireball and some of the ceiling coming off into the baggage collection area. at that point it was -- there was a lot of panic around and there were passengers and i went to seek shelter further inside the building. >> so the first two blasts, about how far apart were they? >> they were very close. i'd say like a minute or so.

>> and about how far away -- and about how far away were you from those first two blasts? >> not sure. they were outside. they sounded very close. we felt the sort of shock wave through the destruction. it was loud enough to know something wasn't right. we didn't see damage at that point and then there was a flash which was very, very close. >> the third one. was that still outside the arrivals area? outside the actual entrance to the airport? no. it was inside the terminal itself. it was just when you walk out through customs and after you collected your baggage through customs to where people and often their families meet. so it was just at that building, that part of the building. >> i assume where the place

where the blast was that was your exit point, what did you do? you were held or hunkered down in the baggage area for quite some time. >> yeah. i was caught after the first one and most people were perplexed, but not disturbed. after the second blast happened they were screaming at the ground staff to tell people where the exits were and they eventually said it wasn't anything and it was a secure airport terminal and the last exit was where the last bomber struck and we ran down bark throuback to where immigration was and where the ground terminal staff area, so we just had to stay there. at that point in time we didn't know if there were attacks and it was progressively closer and thankfully, it stopped and we were evacuated. >> i know you've spent a lot of time overseas. you've worked in afghanistan.

you've been in a lot of difficult areas. you sound calm. i imagine everybody else must have just been terribly upset. >> yeah. i mean, the first half an hour was pretty awful. we didn't know if there would be anything else. there were very young children. there were families from different parts of the world. there were people starting their honeymoons and it was pretty awful. i probably sound composed now, but at the time it was quite a terrifying experience. >> will, i'm glad you and the people around you are okay. thank you so much for talking to us, will carter, appreciate it. >> thank you, anderson. we have more reporting from the ground in istanbul. joe durant joins us now. you were on the scene less than an hour after the attack. tell me what you first saw when you first arrived. >> reporter: anderson, yes, as you said, we arrived a little bit under an hour after the

attack and as we pulled in down this road we were headed towards the airport, that one you see behind me is the entrance to the airport and literally this road was full of passengers making their way in a hurry out of the airport. many of them obviously very shocked and some of them crying. we did see some people injured with head injury, and not very serious injuries. we tried to stop one of them. he said he had been injured and he didn't want to talk, but he said he was well enough to walk and he was leaving the ambulances to those who were seriously injured. we saw so many, so many ambulances coming in. it was just nonstop. we have talked to a few people and people are really shocked. they don't want to talk. we've seen a lot of family members come here crying and the police basically are not allowing anyone to go past the entrance. that entrance that you see behind me, the blue ataturk sign

is where police stand by and check cars. there is always security there. i've been stopped and i've traveled through this airport many times as you have, as well, and that today just did not happen. whoever got through there for some reason and we'll know in the coming days, they got through some very tight security. >> joe, just from what you're saying, obviously, it's understandable would people want to get part of the airport as soon as possible. from a security standpoint if there were other people involved in this attack, it sounds like there was nothing to stop people from actually leaving the area. the police weren't trying to at least get people off to the side so they could question them or kind of go through later, is that correct? >> well, i think -- i think there were so many people when this happened at the airport, there were so many people and

there was such chaos and people crying and running and it was just complete chaos. there's a fence to my left here where you saw passengers behind the fence trying to get out of the airport. i can't imagine and i'm not there what it must have been like for them. people just wanted to leave the airport. >> right. >> and if, in fact, what we were hearing is that one of the bombs was set off in the arrival part. i know when you leave the airport, when you arrive at the airport, and you leave the terminal, there's one person at that door that automatically opens and shuts and there would have been no way for that one person to stop anybody if they were armed as we hear they were. >> right now the scene is blocked off and still being gone over by law enforcement?

>> absolutely. there is a lot less people here. there is still, we've been pushed back about 200 meters. where you see the blue sign is the entrance to the airport and that is where everybody was earlier. we've been pushed back about 200 meters, but you still see a lot of emergency vehicles coming back and forth, and in fact, we've seen a few passenger, i don't know, why on their way to the airport with their bags not knowing that the airport is actually closed. >> joe doran, i appreciate you being there. be careful. joining us is intelligence analyst bob baer and michael weiss, co-author of "isis, inside the army of terror" and juliette kayyam, former assistant secretary of homeland security. based on what you know now, no claim of responsibility, but coordinated attack, multiple people and probably more than

the three that are known to have had detonation devices and using not just suicide devices, but also ak-47s. >> without a doubt there would be more people involved in this including the bomb makers and i doubt very much the bombmaker was one of the suicide bombers here. it looks, it smells like isis to me. there were earlier allegations it could be pkk. pkk is the vanguard fighting force helping had the coalition vanquish icis in northern syria. they would be absolutely stupid to set off a bomb and to wage this kind of attack on an international target like this airport where they could kill americans and french. >> they're hoping to get their own state. >> right. they tend to target turkish security and there were two factors. they're losing terrain at a rapid pace. >> the turkish prime minister said they suspect isis. >> right. they lost fallujah and the pocket in the aleppo province

and it is one of the major towns in aleppo that they control is encircled by u.s.-backed coalition forces and about to fall any day. there is another element to this, too, israeli-turkish, is always a galvanizing event for islamist attacks when the jewish state is involved. ed head of the amnel, a french national abu suleman al -- i heard that this guy was picked up at the border by the turkish government while he was fleeing from the carnage in northern syria. if that's the case, imagine the coalition kapts you acapturing the cia for isis, that's essentially what this would be, if that indeed did happen any operations they would have had under way they would have accelerated to strike turkey. >> before he starts talking.

>> exactly. >> juliette, over the last year there have been a string of attacks in turkey, some by isis and the pkk, the kurdish militant separatists. does it sound like isis to you at this point? >> i completely agree with michael and i wouldn't add much to that and they're taking credit as we've seen recently. these are the last days of ramadan and to make the point clear, the loss of fallujah is a galvanizing moment for isis to extend past borders that they're losing and past iraq and syria. so this is -- i don't want to say it's not a surprise, but it would be shocking to me if it wasn't isis just based on my experience and what we know is happening in the world. >> you know, bob, when you look at that video where you actually see one of the attackers being shot, falling down, seems to be shot multiple times and then the

vest detonating, what stands out to you? because i mean, does -- does a person who is wearing one of these devices actually have to detonate it? could it be on some sort of a timer? because it does appear he is a powerful shot he's hit with before the device detd naonates we're seeing one of the law enforcement personnel running away and then it appears that seems to be a shot right there on him and then the device detonates. >> anderson, we'll have to wait to see what the forensic experts say, but i think a lot of these vests are made with dead man switches. it's a pressure device once you take your thumb off out of your hand and as you're dying possibly, that could set off the detonation and it could have a delay on it. this was a well-organized attack and probably all three detonators went off as planned and i doubt there was a fourth, but we don't know yet. the guns and the rest of it, maximum carnage considering that

these people didn't actually get into the terminal where most of the people were. they got in the arrivals loufrmg, but it doesn't look like when you got in the departure lounge where so many people are waiting so they did know what they were doing. they cased the airport. they knew that istanbul airport would cause maximum damage to the erdogan government which is already under pressure and as michael was saying and juliette is the islamic state is on an international offensive. they attacked in jordan. they attacked in yemen. they've attacked in lebanon all last week and so this attack really coming in this context is not much of a surprise. >> it's also interesting, michael, because there was the belief early on with isis that they needed to have actual territory and they needed to take huge swaths in syria and in iraq and to your point with battlefield losses mounting and the fall of fallujah, it seems like this is perhaps a tactical term. >> strategic, i would say, actually. their slogan is remaining and

expanding and it's not quite living up to its expectation anymore. they're not expanding unless you establish the colognial outposts like libya, yemen and afghanistan. they don't have the significance and prominence that a they do in syria and iraq. they still control mosul and raqqah, but there is a new phase that was inaugurated and it began in 2014 with abu muhammad al adnani saying wherever you are in the world we will send operatives from the caliphate to kill the kufar and if you are a muslim or non-muslim and want to join the islamic state and drive over him, stab him in the heart and this is all-out total war against what they consider to be against the land of disbelief which happens to be anybody but

those living under the islamic state. >> muslims, as well and they're the first victims of isis' reign of terror. it started inside. >> you can only imagine how many muslims were in this airport at this time? >> it's an international airport. it's a global airport. it doesn't really belong to turkey. the last count, it services 113 countries so we don't know what the victim count is, but my suspicion is it would be a high muslim death toll in this regard, but picking up on this notion of isis losing ground. so when you are losing you also lose recruitment capability, right? and so how do you get people to think isis is the winning team when the news stories are they're losing fallujah and other areas and it's attacks like this. it is we are still in the game. we are still alive and well and come join us. so you know, i say this just factually. it is awful and this is a horrible thing that happened, but recruitment is a key part of

the surviveability of an organization like isis. they don't have it with land as much so they are going to use sort of either direct or promote. we don't know yet, attacks like this. >> we're going to come back to all of you shortly and there's more ahead on this breaking story and late reporting about the terror attack at the airport including details from another witness whose plane landed after the blast and what he saw and heard at the scene. we'll take a short break. we'll be right back. every time i drive. ...want my number? and cash back for driving safe. and the power to automatically find your car... i see you car! and i got the power to know who's coming and when if i break down. ...you must be gerry. hey... in means getting more from your car insurance with the all-powerful drivewise app. it's good to be in, good hands. ...one of many pieces in my i havlife.hma... so when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my long-term control medicine.

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the breaking news, a terror attack out of istanbul airport killed at least 36 and wounded 147. they arrived by tax and i no claim of responsibility and his government does suspect isis and u.s. officials are weighing in, as well and they're talking to pamela brown. what are you hearing, pamela? >> the preliminary assessment by counter terrorism officials is this was an attack by isis or a group associated by isis or a turkish isis cell could be responsible. officials tell us this bears the hallmarks of isis, considering the target and the method and the fact this was coordinated with weapons and explosive vests

and it's very similar to what we saw in the brussels airport. we know the attackers pulled up in a tax and i went up and launched their attacks. my sourcers tell me it would be a surprise if this was the work of the pkk. normally the pkk targets military installations and i am being told by my sources that there was no specific intelligence they were aware of to indicate there were being attacked at this airport. and this was an ongoing concern and we know how prevalent isis is in europe and right now the intelligence community in the u.s. is leveraging its assets and looking at electronic intercepts going to u.s. sources and trying to figure out who was behind this and keeping an eye out for claims of responsibility. anderson? >> pamela brown. thanks invest reporting. three suicide bombers that we know of striking in the arrivals hall and laurence

cameron joins us now. thank you very much for joining us. from what i understand, you had actually just stepped off a plan when this happened. tell me when you first realized something was terribly wrong. >> yes, we see people running towards me, and i initially i thought, okay, everyone was shouting and scared. i thought it was just someone that left a bag out and everyone was panicking, but it quickly became apparent that something was very wrong. police were around and it wasn't a drill. things got nasty after that and people started bursting into tears. >> so at this point -- this all of the detonations occurred?

i think we have just -- i think we just lost laurence cameron. yesterday the state department issued a new travel warning for turkey citing increased threats and advising u.s. citizens to avoid travel to southeastern turkey. elise labott joins me. >> the state department had a travel warning out on turkey alerting americans to the potential for terrorist attacks in turkey and yesterday they went that step further urging american citizens not to travel to various parts of the country, particularly in that southeast region on the border with syria. diplomats travel in that area and was already restricted. the state department a few months ago took the very rare step of sending away the families of those diplomats and those high-threat areas of the country. the u.s. very concerned about the growing threat by isis in turkey and officials have been somewhat frustrated at what they say was a focus by the turkish

government on the kurdish separatists and the pkk as the bigger threat blaming them for some attacks when the signs clearly pointed to isis. tonight, though, the white house condemning the attacks and spokesman john ernest reaffirming u.s. support for its nato ally in all forms, anderson. >> you think of the brussels attack and they also came by cab which is what the turkish prime minister said occurred here. and it was the departure that was hit and the ticketing area for american carriers and any idea about the possibility of american citizens being at the site of this attack? >> i'm very careful to note that the u.s. has also banned flights -- direct flights from turkey to the u.s. talking about those air carriers and it's accounted for all its personnel. right now counselor affairs, are

ataturk trying to locate americans who were injured or killed and no word of u.s. casualties and you know it's very early and you also know from brussels attack what a pain staking process it was to identify victims and their nationalities. tonight the state department is asking americans in istanbul to notify their families that they're safe. there's information on their website. state.gov, to email them if you need assistance if you're an american in turkey watching and is urging americans to stay away from the airport and avoid them where large crowds are gathering and generally be on alert in istanbul tonight taking steps to tlenthen their own safety, anderson. >> elise labott, thank you. joining us is cnn international correspondent ivan watson who lived in istanbul for a number of years and very familiar with that airport. you traveled through the airport hundreds of times. if you can walk us through what security is usually like there. >> yeah. when you are driving into the broader airport compound, you go through a police checkpoint

where the police can stop cars, search them and check your identities and they're carrying sub machine guns and most of the traffic moves through pretty smoothly. at all of the entrances, the arrivals and departure terminals of the international airport, there are security checkpoints just to get into the building, and those consist of police, security guards and private security guards and contractors and x-ray machines, metal det t detectors where you have to take your luggage out and take your laptops out and that's just to get to the broader terminal where you would check in or in arrivals to get to an area to greet a loved one who may have just landed and of course, there's another level of security if you are going to be boarding a plane. so lots of security. however, big question here is if you've got multiple attackers with kalashnikov rifles as the prime minister said and one attacks in one place, what does

that do at security at another one of the entrances? and that may have been one of the soft spots here, anderson. >> and we've seen that in a number of a kind of attacks over the last several years where there's an initial explosion which was used to create a breach through which others then enter a structure. >> that's right. and perhaps that is one of the weaknesses that these attackers and what appears to have been a coordinated attack could have exploited. so the turkish prime minister has come out and he said this does look like it was isis. the casualties were higher because these attackers had these weapons. if this was, in fact, an isis attack, get this, this would have been the third isis suicide attack in istanbul just this year, anderson. there were previous attacks in january, in march, both of those attacking foreign tourists in the touristic heart of the city,

and in 2015 isis believed to have carried out twin suicide bombings of a rally of leftist turks and ethnic kurds that killed more than 100 people in the capital of ankara, and turkey has come under a lot of criticism over the past couple of years for allowing jihadis to cross its territory, to travel through airports like istanbul airport to get to the syrian border to fight the jihad against bashar al assad in syria. it is very clear that it has a growing terrorist isis problem within its own borders. the government has been cracking down on believed isis suspects for more than a year now, but this is clearly an attack on turkey's transport infrastructure and its tourism infrastructure and tourism is crippled in this country and that is a major cash cow earner for turkey's now increasingly crippled economy.

>> yeah, i think, ivan, i think i saw a figure that tourism was down 45% and that's before this attack. so one can only imagine what is going to happen afterward. ivan watson, appreciate it. all of the security camera video we have been seeing speaks to the fact that this is an airport known to be heavily guarded and it reminds us with tight security, with screeners, police, troops and vulnerabilities remain as we've been seeing where this happened underscores that fact. with that in mind, tom foreman joins us with a layout. give us a sense of where everything happened. >> think about what ivan just said here. this is where isis is strong over in this area. this is about 800 miles away up here to istanbul, and yet for a while isis seemed happy to use this as an entry point for people to come down here. now this signals something very different. let's move into the terminal and talk about it. all of the security on the road coming in. security obviously to keep

people away from the planes and the security we don't see in this country to keep you out of the terminal. it looks like the attacks took place right here. this looks like the first explosion right in the middle and the second one seems to have been somewhere over here and if there was a third explosion, we don't know exactly where that is yet. look at some of the details of that, anderson because that will tell you about where they went. this is the first one, we believe the first one. on a normal day, this is an arrival section on the lower level and people would be gathered here to meet people coming off planes and as you can expect. look at the video. here are people standing around in that area and doesn't seem to be a lot of agitation in the moments before you see the blast, but then look at the blast, anderson, right in the middle of it all there, everything changes and that was pretty much in the middle of everything there, anderson, although still not terribly far inside the doors and maybe 80 feet, but it is clearly breaching somehow that first line of security. >> do we know if the attackers

got very far into the actual airport because the video where we see one of the gunmen being brought down and exploding the device, that does seem to be inside a terminal or inside a structure. >> that does, just like this one. i think the one we just saw was actually a little further physically inside. the second one, i mentioned was somewhere over in this area. if you look at that area on a normal day it would look sort of like this. you're very close to the doors here. the place where you see the police officer shooting at the gunman. the gunman appears to come around here, the police officer seems to be right in here and he encounters him in this area. look at that explosion as it moves forward here. you watch that video and you see that location, and the police officer tucks in here and the gunman comes around the side and you see him moving this way? and then the police officer comes out, and down he goes, and shortly after that the police officer comes over toward him and he runs off and the explosion occurs and there's no sign of anybody being close. but again, anderson, really

quite close to the door. so i think that first explosion and the one where all of the people were gathered around, probably that's the place where they got the deepest in the airport and there they would have had to get through some kind of security at the opening and they didn't get to the next level of security, it doesn't seem. >> we also don't know if there were other accomplices who were on the scene kind of monitoring things or orchestrating it in any way or any kind of central control or if any of them, if they were there, if they got away. >> that's a really excellent question right now because we've had numerous reports today about people saying there was gun fire out here connected to the parking area. we have no confirmation about what that was, if it occurred, if people were confused or something else. was that people coming in? was that people going out? was that a diversionary tactic? we don't know. the things that need to be cleared up is we need to know where this third suicide bomber was because it is not clear yet, really, and whether or not something else was going on here

and did some people get away? were the people in the taxis, were they the entire squad or were other people somehow involved in this, anderson? >> tom foreman, thanks for that. back with bob baer and clarissa ward. the airport, as you and i were talking before we went on the air and this has been a transit point for jihadists coming from europe and other spots to try to get into syria. >> i used to take it, and i would land at ataturk and i would have a 13-hour layover from new york to connect to a thai province which is essentially the barracks for the syrian revolution in southwestern turkey. we used to call it jihad i express. you get on the plane and you see the characters with the long black beards and it was clear they weren't going over to build the secular estate. the turkish government allowed itself to become a siev.

there was a moment in 2012 where there was a connecting flight from ri adto qatar. why did that happen in 2012 and it was come on in and wage jihad or help the syrian revolution if foreign governments won't do that. the last time i was there was late 2013 and early 2014. i've been questioned by personnel multiple times while waiting for the same flight to depart. so they've gotten better about it, but still, it's quite vulnerable. >> clarissa, what kind of intelligence operations do the turkish have? how plugged in are they on possible terror cells already in the country? >> well, i think turkish intelligence are very plugged in to the situation in syria, but for a long time as you just heard michael saying, they were kind of doing a deal with the devil a little bit which was to turn a blind eye while all of

these jihadists quite openly as michael said got on the jihadi express and made their way into syria and they did that because at that time they saw their primary two enemies -- or their primary two objectives ousting bashar al assad, the president of syria and dealing with kurdish separatists such as the pkk. so they had a feeling or they were misled into feeling that they had some kind of control over it, that the jihadis weren't going to hurt them and that there wasn't going to be an issue between them because they had turned that blind eye and because they had let them infiltrate and go back and forth against the porous border. of course, what you see now when isis starts to get hit hard by turkey and when the turkish start to seal that border isis then retaliates in hitting them back, but i think what you really see here it's like the old testament saying all roads lead to damascus. all of this, anderson, comes back to syria, to the giant

festering wound that is the syrian civil war which has been going on for more than five and a half years now and the longer it goes on, the worse the situation gets because everything that isis do immediately ties back to the syrian conflict and as long as you have this terrible situation inside syria, you're going to continue to have attacks like this and the turkish intelligence service can be the best in the world, but they can't stop all of them. >> do you believe turkish intelligence kind of has a grip on the problem or at least is now taking it seriously? >> anderson, i think they were surprised by this sort of like the pakistanis were by afghanistan when the jihadists came home and attacked them. they'd supported them at the beginning and then they turned on them and bit the hand that fed them. what i'm seeing now more and more is this cancer, it really is is syria and it is spreading into lebanon and it is spreading into turkey and worse for the

turks, there are a lot of turks being recruited into the islamic state which makes it very difficult for the turks to stop this. what we don't know is just how bad it is because turkey is unlikely to come to the united states or anyone else to say we have a real problem. as long as syria goes on, the more the chaos will spread. >> juliette, when the state department warns americans to be careful in countries like turkey and to avoid heavily populated areas and the one area they can't avoid is an airport. you're traveling through istanbul, you have to use the airport. >> you talk about this notion of soft target ands just make it clear, any entity placed that services the public is going to be soft, right? because airports live in a world of flow. you have to get people from point a to point b. so at any airport, you are just talking about a range of soft to softer, right? you can put a lot of security into it, but just given the flow of an airport like this or a lot

of american airports, you were never going to be able to make them vulnerable targets and no matter what the u.s. does. we have this last point of departure program for any airport that has direct flights to the u.s. this istanbul airport is one of them. they have many flights directly to the u.s. and ten of them were in the air when the attacks happened. they can check the cargo and they can planes and they can check the people, but there is no way you'll be able to stop the front door, right? because you need that access. so that's the challenge and you're just talking about a range of soft to softer to softish if you're servicing the public. >> we'll have to take a break and up next we'll hear from another eyewitness and it didn't take long for donald trump to weigh in on this event on twitter and both he and hillary clinton weighed in on these, vents and they both have campaigns this weekend and what they are saying next. (man) what i love most about

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we are continuing to get new eyewitness accounts of the istanbul airport suicide bombings. at least part of the carnage caught on video. before you see it, we should warn you, it is graphic. one of the killers, assault rifle in hand, racing through

the terminal before a gunshot takes him down. we don't know the source of the video but judging by the perspective and the quality, it appears to be from a security camera overhead. again, we don't know for certain. what appears to be the police officer who brought the gunman down approaches him, unclear whether he fires again. he then runs off. there may be one more shot on the gunman himself before his device is actually detonated right there. that is just one of the many videos that we have seen. three bombers according to authorities were involved in this attack. unclear how many more might have been involved in the coordination, the planning of it. the bomb make itself. as we said, more eyewitnesses are coming forward. joining us by phone is richard callmans, he and his wife had just arrived as this was unfolding. i know your flight had just landed. you were in passport control. when did you realize something was going wrong?

>> we were on our way to passport control, probably about 200 meters from the passport line, when people just started rushing towards us screaming bomb and screaming gunfire and shooting and everyone turned around and just started running. we ended up in a dead end corridor so a lot of panic just set in. >> you didn't hear any of the bombs? you didn't hear any of the shooting? >> i didn't hear any of the explosions or any of the shooting. i just saw people running toward me. but later, talking to people, they were saying things like yeah, we heard explosions, we think we heard gunfire. the information started coming in about what was going on, but everyone was sort of in the dark about what was happening. just a lot of panic, kind of threatening scenario, not knowing what's going on, being stuck in a corridor and thinking that perhaps around the corner, someone's running around with an assault weapon. >> how long were you there before you were actually able to

get out? >> we were stuck in the airport for about three hours. eventually -- >> what was the scene like as you left? >> well, after about three hours the airport personnel said that everyone was okay to leave so we went to the passport area, went through the passport control, then into the arrivals area and realized that actually, the scene of all the damage, of the bomb explosions, was only about 200 yards away from where we were kind of hiding out. we went through the arrivals area and saw the extent of the damage. lot of smashed glass everywhere. the ceiling partially collapsed, blood on the floor. obviously a lot of medical personnel, lot of police everywhere, ambulance lined up outside, people lined up outside waiting for passengers, waiting for their friends and family to leave the building.

really chaotic scene outside the airport as well. >> i understand despite obviously the fear and chaos after the attack, you were heartened by the kindness of people. >> that's right. yeah. outside the airport, no one really knew where to go. we kind of just all started walking down the highway and veered off on to a side street, and some guy just pulled over and offered us a ride to the nearest metro station. nice to see even in a tragedy like this, the kindness of strangers. >> it's extraordinary. richard kalninis, appreciate you talking to us. this latest act of terror plays out in a political context globally and here at home, donald trump, hillary clinton each weighing in tonight. cnn's sara murray is covering trump. jeff zeleny following hillary

clinton. >> reporter: trump sends his prayers out to the victims of the turkey attack and says the world is stunned and horrified by this attack and went on to say the terror threat has never been greater. that's really the message we heard him continue to hammer home at his campaign event in ohio this evening. the notion that the terror threat is so great that our focus right now needs to be on protecting america, protecting the homeland. >> i wanted to talk to you about a few things. as you know, we had another suicide bombing, istanbul, turkey. many, many people killed, many, many people injured. folks, there's something going on that's really, really bad. all right? it's bad. and we better get smart and we better get tough or we're not going to have much of a country left, okay? it's bad. >> reporter: now, national security has been a cornerstone of trump's campaign. he tried to position himself as the toughest on terrorism and as

part of that, has suggested certain limits on immigration that of course have been very controversial so i think we will continue to hear a lot of this from him over the next couple days. >> thanks. now hillary clinton and cnn's jeff zeleny. what was the secretary's reaction? >> reporter: she put out a statement a short time ago. it said this. today's attack in istanbul only strengthens our resolve to defeat the forces of terrorism and radical jihadism around the world and it reminds us that the united states cannot retreat. we must deepen our cooperation with our allies and partners in the middle east and europe to take on this threat. so significant there that she used the word radical jihadism, not radical islamism as some people have criticized her for not using. by saying the word radical, so important there, she is trying to again show that she is as tough and will not back down to any of these suggestions that she's not. >> thanks very much. coming up, another live hour

of "360," we will hear more from witnesses to today's deadly terror attack in istanbul. we are getting new pieces of information by the minute. an airport worker says it was total panic after the suicide bombings, no one knew what was happening. what we know about what did happen after a quick break. all her aches and pains. and i said "come to class, let's start walking together" and i said "and i bet you money you'll be able to do that senior walk". that day i said "ok it's me and you girl, me and you!" i said "if you need to stop, there's a bench we'll just hang out in the shade." she said "absolutely not! we are going to finish this race!" and we were the last ones in, but you know what? we finished the race. and she goes "desiree, i'll never quit walking. ever"

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welcome back. we are learning more by the minute about the terror attacks, three suicide bombers striking istanbul's heavily guarded airport. the death toll also rising by the minute. cameras catching the pandemonium as people ran, fleeing gunfire, then following explosion.

at least 36 people have now lost their lives according to turkey's prime minister. his government suspects isis. so does u.s. intelligence. another explosion caught on video. before showing it, want to warn anyone with kids this would be a good time to have them leave the room. the video begins with the killer racing down a hallway holding an assault rifle. he's hit by gunfire. that's one of the gunmen there. shot, falls down. you see his gun slides away, his rifle slides away. you then see law enforcement personnel, i assume it's law enforcement personnel, approaching him. whether he's shot again is unclear. then the policeman runs away. probably after seeing a suicide vest. then it seems there may have been another shot right there. then the detonation. 36 people killed so far. that's the death toll. that's where the number stands right now. most likely it will rise.