hello and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm max foster live in berlin, where it has just turned 7:00 on wednesday morning. >> i'm john vause live in los angeles. it has just gone 10:00 tuesday night. great to have you with us, everybody. we'll start in germany, where they are mourning the victims of the christmas market attack. as a huge manhunt is under way for the driver of the truck which plowed into the crowd. a suspect arrested monday night was later released because of a lack of evidence. isis is claiming it inspired the attack, which killed 12 people and injured 48 others. german chancellor angela merkel visited the crash site and called for unity.

she's now facing increased criticism for her open door refugee policy. back now to max in berlin with more. max, it really seems as if the german investigators are back to square one, possibly even worse. the driver of that truck has a 24-hour head start. >> that's the point, isn't it, really. and where is the attacker in this case? because they very clearly thought they had the right man and they had to release this pakistani asylum seeker because there just wasn't any evidence on him. where is the real attacker? we just don't know. isis claiming one of their soldiers. but you know, what evidence is there for that? they're not giving any sort of information about him either or whether or not more people are involved. security services being very quiet on anything right now, being very careful not to leak any information because of what happened with that false start really that they had. but a huge amount of criticism starting to build on the

security services. also on chancellor angela merkel and her policy of allowing refugees into the country, perhaps making the country a more dangerous place according to the right-wing politicians here. investigators skoeming over whatever detail they have and looking around berlin, obviously bringing in reinforcements, asking the public to provide any video or stills of the incident so they can comb over it and try to play catch-up here. technology on board the truck providing information about the hours leading up to the market attack as well. tom foreman has more on the timeline. >> reporter: this is the truck that was used in the attack. it's owned by a polish shipping company. it was on what should have been a routine run delivering steel from italy up into germany when authorities believe it was hijacked on the outskirts of berlin between 3:00 and 4:00 in the afternoon. the driver killed. his body later found inside that cab. how do they know it was this period of time? the shipping company back in poland says this truck was outfitted with a sophisticated

gps system. they told the "mirror" newspaper that basically they saw odd behavior in this period of time. someone trying to start the truck twice and failing and then when it got rolling again erratic driving, up toward berlin, as if somebody else was behind the wheel, not the regular driver. by 5:00 they say nonetheless it had reached the christmas market up here near berlin. they tried to call the driver numerous times, no answer. what happens next is also a mystery. for a few hours it simply goes missing as it gets darker here, the foot traffic gets bigger, and then the truck reappears down in here, a holiday market, highlighted up here in red. and according to eyewitnesses, it begins accelerating up to about 40 miles an hour, jumping the curb. this is where all those stalls and all those people would have been. and plowing through people for about 250 feet before finally coming to a stop down there. why did it stop?

we don't know. it didn't hit any kind of major barrier, we don't think. the police don't seem to have challenged it or to have rammed it. and there are no witnesses saying that they saw somebody get out and run away as far as we know at this point. only the murder victim found inside the cap and an awful lot of questions for the investigators. >> and behind me the scene as it is now. the truck has been taken away. a desperate attempt to get the market back up and running, actually, and try to get back to normal life here in defiance of what isis wants to do, which is disrupt normal life, attack western culture, and stop people going about what they would do normally at this time of year, which is come to markets like this. certainly a huge amount of concern obviously in the city, though, that there could be a very dangerous person or group of people on the loose. we'll bring you whatever information we can, john. but the big problem we've got at the moment is the security services, the police are being very careful about anything they say. obviously there are some operational reasons for that. but also, because they got it so

wrong at the start. >> yeah. max, thank you. we're back to you in a moment. max foster in berlin. joining me here in los angeles, cnn's law enforcement contributor steve moore. steve ace retired special agent with the fbi. we'll get to the manhunt in a moment but just to max's last point about trying get the marketplace back to normal as soon as possible, get the truck out of there, trying to get this market up and running once more, how important is that? >> it's important because it fights against the actual goal of the terrorists. if they want everything to be completely disrupted, they want to cause panic, they want to cause terror. and if you can get it up and running, it absolutely minimizes the effect. >> okay. this manhunt is under way for this driver. he's got a 24-hour jump on them now because they had the wrong guy initially. how do you reset this investigation now at this point? >> that's going to be hard. and i don't want to criticize the police too much because these things happen. when you have somebody who is in the area, who is pointed out by

witnesses, who has a sketchy background, you have to act. you can't just say we don't have enough to go yet, especially in this kind of situation. but i don't think that this person is going to run very far because they think, number one, they got away with it. number two, they depend on their cell. they depend on their associates to keep them safe, to live -- i mean, this person isn't going to be independently wealthy. and they will likely go back to the area where they're from. >> you're saying a cell ruling out this is a lone wolf, some guy hijacked the truck, drove it to berlin and killed a bunch of people. >> in my opinion, this is a cell. you had to -- when he picked up the truck, he or she, when they picked up the truck, first of all, that's not easy to do. it's not easy to overpower a driver and take his truck. they had to plan this. they had to figure where a truck would be. and then they all -- they had a target. they didn't just randomly look

around the streets of germany or berlin. they had a target. they went directly to. which means that they had already cased this. so to me this is strong evidence of a cell. >> they also picked a truck that was loaded with steel, which had -- >> amazing. >> carried a lot more weight, was harder to stop. one of the clues, the crucial pieces of evidence they have right now, cctv footage. there's a lot of cameras in berlin. there's a lot of cameras in germany. a lot of people have cell phone videos. they now have to go through this. and if we look at what's happened in the past, we know that the fbi and investigators used cell phone footage, crowd sors icrow crowdsourcing, if you like, and basically went through it frame by frame by frame, there's hours and hours of this stuff and eventually they got identification on the tsarnaev brothers. this is time-consuming stuff. >> immensely. >> is this their best -- one of their best leads right now, this evidence? >> yes. you're going to have to break it up into what we used to call tiger teams, just go find some

agents or whatever type of agent or officer they have, find them and get them looking at those films because you can't speed that up. it has to be painstaking examination by the minute. the other thing is you're going to have a team inside that truck because something led the investigators to say this pakistani guy we picked up is ruled out from driving the truck. that tells me that they have a criterion by which they can remove it. which could be fingerprints. it could be blood on the windshield from the driver. so there's something they have to identify this driver. >> it's interesting. this guy has been released because of lack of evidence. hasn't been ruled out, though. >> no. there's not this big mea culpa, we made a mistake, we apologize to the pakistani community, we jumped too early. they're saying we don't have enough evidence now. >> okay, steve, thanks so much. of course all of these questions needing answers. so many people have been

affected by this. let's go back now to max foster in berlin. and max, so many people have been impacted by this. clearly what they want to happen now is for this investigation to find the driver and whoever else was involved and then they can move on i guess with the grieving process. >> yeah. and you're talking there about this pakistani asylum seeker who was the initial suspect and turned out not to be the case. but a lot of damage already done there because the right wing really capitalizing on the idea that asylum seekers are a threat to this country. so they need to try to locate the actual suspect now who may or may not be an asylum seeker. may be someone completely different. we just don't know how -- any information on that whatsoever at the moment because everything and so locked down and i.c.e. not even giving any information either in their claim that he was a soldier. as you can imagine, very shocked germans still trying to make sense of what was an horrendously horrific attack in

the scene behind me. erin mclaughlin has more on that. >> reporter: at the scene of unimaginable horror a 25-ton tool of terror is slowly driven away, leaving behind unanswered questions and a country in shock. nearby a makeshift memorial grows by the hour. young and old, people of all faiths gather to mourn. >> all over 2016 we heard of all the terrible attacks that happened all over the world, and yesterday was a black day for human history. it's just depressing. >> people go here to have a good evening, drink wine and eat something and stay here and -- with friends or family. and then they are dead. after five minutes. it's shocking. yes, it is. >> reporter: what remains of the christmas market is eerily quiet. children's rides stand still, and there's a heavy police

presence. normally this christmas market would be full of shoppers drinking spiced wine and looking for gifts. but as you can see, these kiosks are closed as authorities look for answers and berliners mourn their dead. in the capital a show of solidarity. at the memorial church people gather to honor the dead. as officials prepare the country for the worst. >> i know that would be especially hard to bear for us if it was to be confirmed that a person committed this act was given protection and asylum in germany. this would be especially disgusting. >> reporter: german officials set free the asylum seeker they first arrested, no longer suspecting he perpetrated the attack. chancellor angela merkel visited the church tuesday, visibly shocked. it's christmas week, and the country has been shaken. and with it her political future. erin mclaughlin, cnn, berlin. >> editor in chief of the german news site bild -- joins me via

skype from his home in berlin. thanks for joining us. what's your understanding about who they're looking for here? >> [ audio difficulty ]. they're saying they're confident they will be able to find the actual perpetrator of these attacks quite soon. but there is not a lot on who the person may really be. again, they arrested someone right after the attack. they had him in custody for something like 35 hours. they questioned him. they had to release him because they just couldn't tie him to the attack, couldn't tie him to being the driver. and now they're looking for an entirely different person. from what we hear, he may have shown a high level of professionalism in preparing this attack. he may have shown a high level of professionalism in scouting out the road and reconnaissance and all that, plotting this attack, but so far there's very little on the background. there's not a description of

that person. there are about 500 leads from calls, tips from the public. but the police has been very restrictive about releasing any of those leads or anything about the person they're looking for. there's no picture of the person they're looking for. just nothing so far. >> is that because they feel they gave too much information around the initial suspect and assumed that they had their man and they're not going to make the same mistake again? >> it's probably like that. it's also probably because they just don't want that person there to know they're after them. another possibility is there just isn't that much -- it seems to us that they have lost an awful lot of time dealing with a person that turned out not to be the perpetrator. it seemed that they didn't really go for a massive manhunt, there wasn't a massive search operation right after the attack

because they felt confident they had the right guy -- [ inaudible ] -- any further subject -- all clear, the situation's under control, told people there's nothing to fear, and now it seems there's an isis operative or someone claiming to be isis on the run. so that didn't go very well. >> julian, thank you for joining us. sorry about the communication problems there. there you have it, john. an isis operative on the run in berlin. says it all. it's an absolutely frightening situation. >> yeah. and it will be of course until the driver and whoever's with him is caught. thank you, max. and tributes are being left around berlin to honor the victims of monday's attack. the brandenburg gate, one of berlin's iconic landmarks, lit up with the colors of the german flag. at another vigil dozens formed hands to form a human chain. near the scene of the attack

mourners left candles and flowers at makeshifts memorials along with messages of support and condolence. and we'll take a short break. but when we come back here on "newsroom l.a." emergency crews are at scene of a deadly explosion which ripped through a fireworks market in mexico. you're watching cnn live all around the world. hey, evan. so, you're stuck at a work thing. with directv and at&t you can stream all your favorite shows without using your data. that makes you more powerful than a table for 60. wednesdays are the new thursdays!

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welcome back, everybody. just gone 10:18 on the west coast. a huge explosion has ripped through a crowded fireworks market north of mexico city, shooting plumes of smoke in all directions and sending people running for their lives. [ explosions ] tuesday's blast killed at least 29 people and injured dozens in the town of tultepec. one survivor says she's searching for family members who were also there. >> translator: to tell you the truth i do not know how i ran out of here. everything was so horrible. >> translator: do you have relatives here? >> translator: yes, i'm looking for them. >> translator: what are you looking for? >> translator: the people i work

with. they are my cousins. >> translator: you sell merchandise here at the market? >> translator: yes. >> rafael romo joins us now with more on this. rafael, what's the latest in terms of getting this fire under control? because at one point they were just letting the fireworks explode. >> yeah, that's right, john. at this hour firefighters continue to work at the scene trying to put out some of the smoldering fires that still remain at the scene. but again, we're talking about 29 dead people. 72 injured. among them according to the governor of the state of mexico where this happened, three minors who are being flown to texas to a burn center to be treated there. and it's very important, john, to understand the dimensions of the location where this happened. we're talking about a place about the size of a football stadium. and it's also very important to mention that we're not talking about a single building here. we're talking about a market --

an open air market that has about 300 stalls from which people were selling fireworks. this is the largest fireworks market in all of mexico. as you can imagine, this time of the year, especially just before christmas, it was a very busy place, john. >> you mentioned 72 people hurt. three children on their way across the border for treatment. what are medical services like around this area, especially to treat people who are suffering severe burns? >> it is not too far from mexico city where some of the best hospitals in the country are located. and you have some of the information that i was looking at before. at least 50 paramedics at the scene. and we're talking about a place that is 40 kilometers from mexico city, about 25 miles. there is plenty of help there. i'm assuming that these three

minors were the ones who suffered the most, the most serious burns, the most serious injured. and authorities decided to transfer them to a specialty burn center in texas. i was looking at a report not too long ago saying that about 20 people who were injured have been released from the hospital. we're talking about another 50 who are still hospitalized this morning, john. >> okay. rafael, thank you. rafael romo with the very latest on that explosion at the fireworks market. of course it has happened there twice before in the last ten years. going back now to max foster in berlin. max? >> john, we are following the attack on the christmas market. behind me in berlin. desperation to get up and running again. they'll try to do it today, i'm sure. but we're also learning more about another attack, the assassination of the russian ambassador to turkey. turkish state media saying investigators shooting the shooter's home found books about

al qaeda and good the gulen movement. turkey blames that group for july's coup attempt and now according to state-run media turkey says the gulen group is behind the assassination of ambassador andrey karlov. cleric fe tauchlt llah gullen condemned the attack. our senior international correspondent clarissa ward has more from moscow. >> reporter: the kremlin is taking a very measured tone in dealing with the assassination of its russian ambassador. we've seen really what appears to be almost a coordinated response from the turkish president erdogan, also pr russia's president putin. both of them saying this should be viewed solely as a provocation, an attempt to thwart the warming of relations between russia and turkey, attempt to derail cooperation between the two countries on the subject of syria. both leaders making it clear that they do not view this as a

protracted dispute, that they do not want to es chait the situation. the mood here in moscow today has been somber, one of mourning. people have been gathering outside the foreign ministry to light candles and pay their respects. the body of the ambassador who was killed has been brought back to moscow, and those investigators from russia, 16 of them, are now in ankara, in turkey. they of course will be looking very closely at whether or not the attacker had any kind of a larger network supporting him. turkish state television is reporting that he had some type of al qaeda literature in his home whether or not that was just an inspiration to him or whether that may have been part of a larger jihadist cell, that is something the russian investigators will want to get to the bottom of. there are still a lot of questions as well as to how he was able to gain access to this event. this event would have been frequented by all sorts of

diplomatic elites in ankara. and yet you can see in that video the attacker standing coolly behind the ambassador for some time before opening fire. the summit here in moscow did go ahead as scheduled. the focus was syria. in attendance of course turkey's foreign minister and the iranian foreign minister and the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov saying the focus now must be united, it must be on dealing with syria and viewing terrorism as the biggest obstacle to peace in syria and not the regime of bashar al assad. clarissa ward, cnn, moscow. >> a couple kidnapped in 2012 by a taliban splinter group are begging for help to get released in a video that surfaced just this week. the taliban has now confirmed to cnn they released the video. american kaitlin coleman and her canadian husband joshua boyle appear with their two children, who were born in captivity. the couple were abducted whilst

backpacking in afghanistan. coleman criticizes the kidnappers and governments that have failed to free her family stating, "we understand both sides hate us." they're pleading with barack obama and donald trump to make a deal with their kidnappers. it's unclear if their statements were coerced. the couple appears distressed in the video. quite a difference from this photo taken shortly before the kidnapping. well, donald trump's team says he's staying informed about the attacks here in germany and in turkey, but they don't say if he's getting briefings from u.s. intelligence agencies. more on that just ahead. afoot and light-hearted i take to the open road. healthy, free, the world before me, the long brown path before me leading wherever i choose. the east and the west are mine. the north and the south are mine. all seems beautiful to me.

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the world. i'm max foster live in berlin covering the latest on the christmas market terrorist attack. >> i'm john vause live in los angeles. it is just coming after 10:30 here. we'll check the headlines now. isis claimed tin spired the deadly truck attack at a berlin christmas market. police are now searching for the driver who killed 12 people, wounded dozens more. a suspect was released monday because of a lack of evidence. at least 29 people have been killed, dozens injured in an explosion at a fireworks market north of mexico city. authorities are investigating whether the blast was deliberate. it's the third big explosion at the same market since 2005. russia says there will be no concessions to terrorists after its ambassador to turkey was assassinated. a turkish police officer shot andrey karlov at an art gallery monday. the attacker was later killed. karlov's body is back in moscow. police are questioning several people including the shooter's parents. donald trump's advisers say

he is following the attacks here in europe and in turkey, but they won't say for certain if he's receiving briefings from u.s. intelligence officials. trump has been busy fighting a high-profile twitter war, though. here's cnn's jeff zeleny. >> reporter: as brazen attacks unfold across the globe, the president-elect started off his day showing that he has no plans to move beyond his combative campaign mode. vacationing in florida trump fired off back-to-back tweets aimed at bill clinton. "bill clinton stated that i called him after the election. wrong. he called me. with a very nice congratulations. he doesn't know much. especially how to get people even with an unlimited budget out to vote in the vital swing states. and more. they focused on the wrong states." the soon-to-be 45th president was reacting to what the 42nd president recently told a weekly newspaper in new york with clinton saying trump doesn't know much. the extraordinary back and forth continued as clinton replied today with a tweet of his own.

"here's one thing donald trump and i can agree on. i called him after the election." responding to the atax in germany trump went further than any u.s. or european official saying in a statement, "islamist terrorists continually slaughter christians in their communities and places of worship as part of their global jihad." at his mar-a-lago resort here in palm beach trump receiving briefings. yet it was unclear whether it was directly from the intelligence officials or secondhand through his transition team. trump aides declined to say. >> president-elect is in regular contact with his national security team with regard to the developing situation in europe and turkey. >> transition spokesman sean spicer also vowing a quick response to such attacks during a trp presidency. >> i think it's going to be swift and fierce. we've got to be able to call it what it is and then root it out by its very -- by the bottom. we cannot be being politically correct. >> reporter: all this as trump is holding court in a series of private meetings at his resort,

including a dinner with mexican billionaire carlos slim. the same carlos slim that trump eviscerated on the campaign trail for his financing of the "new york times." >> the largest shareholder in the "times" is carlos slim. now, carlos slim as you know comes from mexico. we're going to let foreign corporations and their ceos decide the outcomes of the -- you just can't do this. we can't let this happen. >> reporter: and those words against carlos slim are ancient history. donald trump confirming in a tweet that he did in fact meet carlos slim for dinner here last weekend at mar-a-lago. then he tweeted that carlos slim is a great guy. donald trump trying to build a bridge to mexican businessmen, particularly this billionaire, a sign that president-elect donald trump and president donald trump may be different than candidate trump. jeff zeleny, cnn, palm beach, florida. >> joining me here now in los angeles, herman molina is a democratic political analyst and shawn steele a member of the california republican national committee.

thanks for coming back. talking about this issue of the presidential daily brief because this seems to be an ongoing point of criticism of the president-elect, that he's not reading these intelligence briefings, at least not every day. and this is what one of his supporters, rick santorum, had to say. listen to this. >> i don't know why he's not. i didn't talk to him about it. i haven't talked to him about it. but this is a very important part of being the president of the united states. hopefully at some point he'll begin to get into that routine and understand how important it is for him to understand all the threats that are confronting this country and understand the nuances that come with a daily brief and to get the inside, you know, information as to what these organizations and individuals are doing around the world that threaten the united states. >> hernan, there is a lot every day in these briefings. if i remember correctly, back in 2001 bin laden determined to strike the u.s. these are important documents.

>> absolutely. and i think trump has a hard time leaving behind the campaign. he's now just wrapped up this thank you tour through several states. and changing from the mood of and the mode of campaigning to now transitioning to governing and becoming the future president on january 20th. look at what's happening. two polls from gallup recently published. the first one shows that the transition approval is only 48%. the other one shows that his favorability is only 42%. unfavorable rating, 55%. the other presidents, incoming presidents, barack obama was at 75%. george w. bush, 65%. and bill clinton at 67%. so something is really not gelling with the rest of the electorate that is going to have to live with this new president named donald trump. >> okay. one of the issues, though, we know about his favorability rating. he's the most unpopular president-elect i think since eisenhower, right?

>> which by the way isn't too bad. that's a good analogy. >> but he does -- he does keep tweeting. it does seem as though he's in perpetual campaign mode. >> there is a transition literally taking place. but keep in mind he's not president. he's not making the big decisions. obama's still president. even though a lot of people have kind of forgotten that. obama's been so ineffective that he's sort of receded from the headlines. "forbes" magazine has him as the 48th most powerful person on earth and donald trump's number 2. so in a sense trump is sort of like president but you've got to wait 30 days. so whether or not he's taking a daily briefing, he's acting like the president, making decisions like the president, he's not ready for that. let's see what happens when he's really president. >> i think he's right. he's not ready for it. that definitely is clear. >> oddly enough, putin was number 1 on "forbes'" list. >> he was. >> the tweeting issue now. one of the examples of tweeting first without fully knowing exactly what was going on happened over the weekend with the story about china seizing the underwater american drone or

actually it 457d on thursday. but trump tweeted this out early saturday morning. "china steals united states navy research drone in international waters, rips it out of water and takes it to china in unprecedented," spelled wrong, act. he later corrected the spelling. i use this tweet because he sent this out at 7:30 in the morning. but this is hours after the chinese actually came out and said we're working to resolve the situation. we know that his behavior won't change when he becomes president. but the responsibilities will. >> i thought he called it correctly. what he's done with china has been brilliant. he's letting the chinese know there's a new sheriff in town. they've built up a huge vast military base in the south china sea. that military -- the drone that was stolen by the chinese and trump absolutely correctly identified it was 50 miles from the coast of the philippines, way outside the chinese territory. the chinese are acting very ambitious, very aggressive, scaring everybody else in china. obama hasn't made much of a reaction. and i think trump is setting the right agenda.

the call with taiwan was excellent. >> i agree with one thing. i think it's his style and he's entitled to it, to negotiate, to play a different game, to be unconventional. like for instance arranging a call, supposedly a very casual call with the president of taiwan. that's one thing. but the other thing is to go on twitter and create almost a diplomatic conflict when he's not even the president with china, which is not a small country and is someone that we have a complicated relationship. and to make matters worse, and i agree with shawn, there is a very complicated situation in the south china sea. so in a way it's almost irresponsible and perhaps very arrogant of him to continue to be in this campaign mode when the things he need to be focused is to get these intelligence briefings, to start really completing wrapping up his transition team, which he has not done so. and then focusing on becoming the next president.

>> okay. and there's, what, 31 days to go until the hand on the bible? >> not a lot of time. >> there will be 31 surprises in the next 31 days. >> look forwards to it. shawn and hernan, thanks so much for being with us. >> thank you. >> we'll take a short break. next here on "newsroom l.a.," isis may be losing territory but that does not mean its deadly ideology is losing ground. the battle against isis on and off the battlefield is next. ♪ i got the discounts dothat you need ♪l ♪ ♪ safe driver ♪ accident-free ♪ everybody put your flaps in the air for me ♪ ♪ go paperless, don't stress, girl ♪ ♪ i got the discounts that you need ♪ ♪ safe driver ♪ accident-free ♪ everybody put your flaps in the air for me ♪ i can't lip-synch in these conditions. ♪ savings ♪ oh, yeah

german authorities are out in force searching for the driver of the truck which rammed into a crowded christmas market here in berlin. police have arrested a man near the scene on monday night but later released him for lack of evidence. isis now claims it inspired the attack which killed 12 people and injured 48. berlin correspondent for the "financial times," he joins me via skype. it's not unusual for isis to claim these people are soldiers.

but we need to know whether or not he was inspired by them or he was directed by them and whether or not he's part of a bigger network. >> yeah. and that's very unclear at this stage. police are still trying to figure out who actually committed this crime. obviously, they released the pakistani suspect yesterday. he was arrested very shortly after the attack for lack of evidence. police officials that were interviewed yesterday on german tv were actually saying they're pretty confident that they'll be able to present a new suspect soon, they're making progress on the investigation. but it is strange that isis sort of made this claim of responsibility when so little is known about who actually carried out this attack. it could be just purely opportunistic. we don't know. >> the risk of that of course is that this suspect comes outs and completely distances himself

from isis, or as has been the case in the past there's mental illness involved, something isis doesn't want to be necessarily associated with. so they're taking a risk if they're not directly involved in this. >> exactly, yes. it's interesting that the debate now is -- in germany is developing in a very interesting way. some politicians were very quick to jump to conclusions yesterday. for example,horse hol fd, the prime minister of bavaria, the leader of the csu, he immediately said germany must now completely redesign its security and immigration policies. now there's been a bit of a backlash against that because people are saying, well, we don't even know who did this, so why are you jumping to conclusions and saying that we now have to completely rethink our refugee policies? so i think, you know, people are

saying it could be that this person who committed this crime is from a neighboring country, wasn't even from germany, as we saw with some of the terrorist outrages in france. it could be that it's someone domestic, a skrrm. who knows? it could be they had absolutely nothing to do with islamic terrorism. for example, we saw this attack in munich earlier this year. everybody jumped to conclusions then and said it was islamic terrorism. and then of course it turned out to just be a mass shooter who was actually influenced by right-wing ideology. so police are just sort of saying and officials as well are saying let's calm down, not jump to conclusions, and i think there's been a bit of a backlash against that at the moment. >> because they said so much early on about the suspect who turned out to be the wrong guy, of course. what about the criticism of the security services, then-a that they were interviewing this

suspect and perhaps not continuing their wider investigations and allowing the true suspect to go away? >> yeah. there has been some criticism of the police. but it was a sort of crazy situation, i think. some of the details that have emerged. it seems that certain members of the public were actually following the suspect as he left the cab of the truck and were actually sort of in contact with the police on mobile phone, sort of explaining where he was and trying to give details about his location and so on. but they lost track of him. and that's why there was a period we are was not under any kind of observation and arrested this pakistani man who it seems now had nothing to do with it. but it does seem they're

pursuing leads. they have a lot of dna evidence from the truck. so that's very useful. there's also apparently a lot of gps data from the truck, from its various movements between poland and germany. so there is some evidence to work on. and as i say, the police seem pretty confident that they will make some breakthroughs in this case very soon. >> okay. guy, thank you very much indeed for bringing us that. the police will be very tight-lipped until they do have this latest suspect. and then we'll find out a bit more about the process of events and the timeline, and we'll bring that to you as we get it. very much watching whether or not there will be any further arrests today and whether or not the market behind me reopens. that's certainly the plan, to try to get berlin back up and running and normal as soon as possible. the real gift isn't what's inside the box... it's what's inside the person who opens it.

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>> isis has been making headlines around the world in recent days. they're also losing a lot of territory, especially in iraq where iraqi led forces are expected to retake mosul maybe within weeks. >> despite the setback isis has

claimed responsibility for sunday's deadly attacks in yemen and jordan and said it inspired the truck attack in berlin. cnn's military analyst joins us. for more on this, colonel, is this the beginning of isis 2 .0? >> i think it is. they're losing their state. they're going to be a group without territory. the handwriting is on the wall in iraq and syria. mosul is going to fall. it will take the iraqis longer than they thought. i think we'll still be talking about it mid january. we see the different factions in syria setting up for the attack on raqqa. everybody wants to eradicate their territorial holdings. the ideology will continue, and

they somehow will survive, and they're going to survive by adapting their tactics. we've already seen it, and those attacks you mentioned along with going all the way back to san bernardino attacks and inspired attacks in the states, that's what we're going to see in the future. they're going to revert to being more of an insurgency. i would call it more like a revitalized al-qaeda model with affiliates in different countries. we're seeing in libya, and even into central asia. the group isn't going away but their territory is it? >> explain us the situation with raqqa. there's some urgency in the assault there on that city. why is territory so important to plan these kind of attacks? >> well, they've got to have an operational planning base. they've got to train people and acquire the assets. a lot of them are dispatched from there. they get their final training

there. they make their suicide tapes, and it's a place to operate from. we saw afghanistan used to be that for al qaeda. we're seeing raqqa for isis. the u.s. commanding general of the oh operation has said that this is critical, that the timing is critical. that's driving this operation and putting uz sideways with the turks. the turks went to lead the free syrian army into the raqqa. they believe if we let the syrian backed force go in there that the people of raqqa will say we're trading one oppressor for the other. i don't believe that's true. if time is of the essence, the u.s.-backed forces, they're only about 20 kilometers from raqqa. the turkish free syrian army is

150 kilometers from raqqa. the time distance thing doesn't work out to blow up -- >> by the time he's president, chances are isis won't have any territory. what do you bomb? >> this is the question. this all sounds right. right now the rules of engagement are a little oppressive. they need to be loosened up and give the operators in the cockpits and on the ground the opportunity to engage targets when they arise. but we are bombing them

aggressively. let's be polite, so i think once mr. trump starts to get his real intelligence briefings, he'll see it's not as easy as just bombing them. >> okay. thank you so much for being with us, as always. appreciate it. >> you're watching cnn news room live from los angeles. stay with us. i'll be back with max foster with the latest from berlin after this. healthy, free, the world before me, the long brown path before me leading wherever i choose. the east and the west are mine. the north and the south are mine. all seems beautiful to me. ♪ i noticed it as soon as we moved into the new house.

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our viewers in the united states and all around the world. we're live in los angeles. >> i'm max foster live in berlin with the very latest on the investigation on the terror attack in the space behind me, the truck has been taken away, but an intense very much underway for the person who drove a truck into the crowded market. police arrested a man but later released him for lack of evidence. 12 people were killed. dozens more injured.