arwa stands literally years covering the war.warn you her report here contains graphic images that may be disturbing to some viewers. >> reporter: we're heading along the euphrates river valley. lands that once made up part of al qaeda's kingdom in iraq. driving towards a town close to the syrian border. the market is vibrant, alive. so different from the last time i was here. it was november 2005. i was embedded with u.s. marines on operation steel curtain. it was similar to countless other combat. troops going house-to-house, civilians filing out petri fied. a man named mohamed was among them. and he told me. >> translator: we want them to save us from the terrorist. we want stability. >> reporter: a simple wish perhaps, but al qaeda killed anyone who spoke out against them. no civilian i had ever met had dared do so so openly. i was in awe of his courage. the battle was intense. fighters worked in alleyways, hid behind doors. the ground shook in the u.s. bombardment. but it wasn't only al qaeda they hit. in one strike one enti

but it is a real disaster unfolding right now, and arwa will join us, thank you very much, arwa, forand when we come back, odd photos of a real odd couple. north korea's kim jong-un and basketball star, dennis rodman. next. [ male announcer ] count the number of buttons in your car. now count the number of buttons on your tablet. isn't it time the automobile advanced? introducing cue in the all-new cadillac xts. the simplicity of a tablet has come to your car. ♪ the all-new cadillac xts has arrived. and it's bringing the future forward. a regular guy with an irregular heartbeat. the usual, bob? not today. [ male announcer ] bob has afib: atrial fibrillation not caused by a heart valve problem, a condition that puts him at greater risk for a stroke. [ gps ] turn left. i don't think so. [ male announcer ] for years, bob took warfarin, and made a monthly trip to the clinic to get his blood tested. but not anymore. bob's doctor recommended a different option: once-a-day xarelto®. xarelto® is the first and only once-a-day prescription blood thinner for patients with afib not caused by a h

arwa, be careful there in baghdad. we will stay in close touch.a damon from iraq. >>> just ahead, toddlers getting twice as much salt as they should. we have a new report all parents and grandparents, everyone, you need to hear what's going on. [ male announcer ] this is bob, a regular guy with an irregular heartbeat. the usual, bob? not today. [ male announcer ] bob has afib: atrial fibrillation not caused by a heart valve problem, a condition that puts him at greater risk for a stroke. [ gps ] turn left. i don't think so. [ male announcer ] for years, bob took warfarin, and made a monthly trip to the clinic to get his blood tested. but not anymore. bob's doctor recommended a different option: once-a-day xarelto®. xarelto® is the first and only once-a-day prescription blood thinner for patients with afib not caused by a heart valve problem, that doesn't require routine blood monitoring. like warfarin, xarelto® is proven effective to reduce the risk of an afib-related stroke. there is limited data on how these drugs compare when warfarin is well m

arwa, that 60 billion the u.s.axpayers spent in iraq is just the tip of the iceberg, that was just to build roads and schools, hospitals. so much of that money wasted. but what about more than trillion dollars the u.s. taxpayers spent to defeat saddam hussein, keep u.s. troop presence there for nearly a decade. is there any sense of gratitude you're seeing from iraqis, rank and file on the ground now to the united states? >> no, wolf, right now you're not going to find gratitude on the streets of iraq or on the streets of baghdad. one has to take into consideration the price the iraqis paid for the war when at the end of the day, it was a war they had absolutely no say in. we're talking about more than 110,000 iraqis killed, talking about the entire disintegration of a society, the violence that was unleash here, a brand of evil so different than to what iraqis were experiencing under saddam hussein, evil and fear that they did not know how to navigate. saw neighbors turning on neighbors. iraq was the kind of count

listen to the tweet from arwa damon. want to believe that if people could see the expression on iraqi faces, hear they're voices tremble, they would not be so indifferent to what is happening here. >> live from baghdad. arwa, first of all, i mean, it's extraordinary when you think about the last ten years and how much reporting that you've done out of that area and still today, the iraqi civilian, citizens who live there, are if a place where it's so dangerous and it's still very much at war. >> reporter: it most certainly is. this is a war that never ended for the iraqi population. today was a day that might as well have been back when the violence was really at its worst. there were 17 car bombs and 7 roadside bombs that went off the entire couldn titire country. shof the car bombs, 5 of the roadside bombs happening during rur rush hour, 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. areas where people were gathers, markets, busy roads, areas where day labors come together, you know, you read that tweet out. the expression i was talking about, se

two journalists know the story better than cnn's arwa damon.till bears the scars of the marines fight against al qaeda. first, want to give you a warning here. some of the war footage you're about to see is pretty graphic and disturbing. >> reporter: we're heading along the euphrates river valley, land that once made up part of al qaeda's kingdom in iraq. driving towards husayba, a town close to the syrian border. the market is vibrant, alive. so different from the last time i was here. it was november, 2005. i was embedded with u.s. marines on operation steel curtain. it was similar to countless other imbeds. troops going house to house, civilians filing out, petrified. a man named mohammed drejev was among them and he told me -- >> we want them to save us from the terrorists. we want stability. >> reporter: a simple wish, perhaps. but al qaeda killed anyone who spoke out against them. no civilian i had ever met had dare do so so openly. i was in awe of mohammed's courage. the battle was intense. fighters worked in alleyways, hid behind doors.

i want to bring in at the start of this from cnn, life in iraq, arwa damon.nother terrible day in baghdad. the anniversary of george bush's announcement that america was at war with iraq. 55 people killed. more than 200 wounded. very hard to see that there is anything but chronic instability and continued hideous bloodshed there. what is your take? >> it's such a tragedy really the way things have unfolded in iraq. just looking at iraqi faces, seeing how pale they had become. we are hearing after one attack after another. people's voices actually began trembling. this is violence that, first of all, the iraqis never even imagined would end up being the outcome of america's war in iraq. so many of them hoped and dreamed they would have true freedom, democracy, that their horizons would be open. they have dealt with everything, all of the violence that wrecked this country over the past ten years. to be reminded of it again on the tenth anniversary shocked people and completely and totally devastated them, piers. >> it comes of course as the crisis in syria rea

in the middle of it all, arwa dam damon. you've heard her reporting.n just a moment after we relive one of her memories after the war in iraq. >> reporter: it was november 2005. i was embedded with u.s. marines on operation steel curtain. it was similar to countless others. troops going house to house, civilians filing out, pettrrifi. a man named mohammed was among them and he told me -- >> >> translator: we want them to save us from the terroristses. we want stability. >> reporter: a simple wish perhaps, but al qaeda killed anyone who spoke out against them. no civilian i had ever met had dared do so so openly. i was in awe of mohammed's courage. the battle was intense. fighters worked in al wlley way hidden in behind doors. the ground shook in the u.s. bombardment. but it wasn't only al qaeda they hit. in one strike, one entire family was killed. people had buried the dead in a garden. a curfew prevented them from going to the graveyard. when we arrived, they were digging up and moving the bodies. all but one were women and children. and there was mo

arwa damon is covering the war since it began and in iraq tonight and i asked her how much strength iraq gained. >> reporter: there were huge swaths of the country controlled by al qaeda. now, that is no longer the case. and at one point al qaeda's capabilities in iraq were, in fact, significantly diminished. when's been especially disturbing that we have been seeing over the last few months is the reemergence of al qaeda, especially in iraq's al anbar province. there's been, for example, ongoing demonstrations. people demanding certain things, legitimate things from the iraqi government. at the same time we have also been beginning to see over the last few weeks al qaeda's flag raised, as well. you can imagine the ripple of fear that's causing for the population in of itself and not just today's attacks that bear the hallmarks of al qaeda. last week, a coordinated complex attack on the justice ministry located in what's supposed to be one of the safest parts of the capital. so we're most certainly now seeing al qaeda beginning to regain quite a bit of its strength. >> general clark, is

arwa, we'll check back with you tomorrow.. >>> the president of the united states is about to head to israel. here's a question. is iran really one year away or so from a nuclear bomb? we have new information from israel's president simon perez. stand by. then kansas city's mayor was in the middle of a speech when he was violently interrupted. he is going to be joining us to talk about this scary incident. ♪ (train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, they pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay. and save you up to thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs. call today to request a free decision guide to help you better understand what medicare is all about. and which aarp med

but one family tells our arwa damon what is left of iraq is heartbreaking. >> in another time and placend the arts. and 14-year-old zana's first memory might not have been a bombing close to her kindergarten. the sisters belong to a rare species, the remnants of baghdad's professional elite who stayed through the worst of the violence even as their friends packed up and left. their mother is an i.t. professional and human rights activist. >> and why did you stay? >> i still got hope back then. >> we didn't lose hope. >> right now it's worse than 2006, '07 '08. >> it's entrenching, 2006, 2007, there were militias. >> and there were bombings, no-go areas. today fewer iraqis, but do they feel safe? >> no, the fear is different. the fear is different. you don't know who is in the next car. >> i think people changed. i think they came -- the ones who were good left and the only -- only the bad people stayed here. >> what was it like for you, actually? >> it was frustrating. i was depressed. all my close friends left the country. >> did you ever say i want to go too? >> no because i know that

cnn's arwa de damen has covered the war for most the past 10 years and revisits the string streets ofe. >> this is still a city of blast walls and checkpoints. the violence permeates everything. they were those boys are with their bikes, that is where the vehicles were pull out. the victim would be pulled out of the trunk and shot in cold blood. in those days, you would not see children gathered here for game of soccer. they would all have been crowded around witnessing an execution. as mayor recently thumbing along the river, our producer could not help but to remind me of more grim moments. at the peak of the violence, people were regularly recovering dad, a bloated corpses from the water of the tigris river. it winds its way through baghdad. we had just spent the afternoon on bradstreet which has seen its own horrors. this year it is a baghdad street where you can find all sorts of books and old magazines and newspapers. it is a historic meeting place for the country's intellectuals to go shopping and gather at cafes to debate anything from politics to poetry. it has been targeted