arwa damon is in istanbul, turkey. the caliphate, seeing it crumble. women and children moved on to refugee camps. you visited some of those camps. tell us what you have seen. >> reporter: well, in recent weeks, george, as the battle was going on, you had thousands of women and children pouring out of that last enclave that isis was holding. now, they have ended up in camps in northern syria, most of them in a camp dubbed the camp of death because of the conditions there. the number of children, most of them infants who died on the journey to the camp. upon arrival, more than 100 children, according to aide organizations. we visited that camp a couple times in the past couple of weeks during our time in northern syria. it is quite a dire situation. they are the camp authorities and also the syrian democratic forces and organizations. they are saying they don't have enough aid for those stranded in this camp. the vast majority of the population, george, they are not isis family members. they were living under the rule of isis and whose lives were shatte

. >> the talk about this moment in history is arwa damon who is live in istanbul, turkey. sical presence may have been knocked down but they are down but not out obviously. talk to us about the continuing threat isis poses. >> well, not only as we have been reporting for quite sometime now you can defeat isis territorial but defeating its ideology is smlgs altogether. we look at the state of isis and iraq as an example, they are still operating as small groups able to continuously launch attacks on small vilgs in areas where the iraqi security forces do not have a permanent presence. and this is pretty much isis going back to its historical roots, its way of operating to a certain degree back when it was al qaeda and iraq and back when it was the islamic state of iraq. it has gone to ground in territory that it used to control in the past, very difficult to maneuver in a terrain and it continues to pose a threat in that sense. when it comes to the threat the ideology poses, one has to remember that trying to combat that is not something as we and experts have been saying ti

this time and it is from turkey that i am now joined by cnn's senior international correspondent arwa damonwa, what are turkish officials telling you about this 28-year-old australian? >> reporter: well, ivan, according to one senior turkish official, this individual traveled to turkey on numerous occasions and may have also traveled to different countries in europe, asia and africa. what turkish authorities are trying to investigate is factually what his motives, his aims, objectives may have been while he was in turkey. what his movements were and who he may have met with. the turkish state broadcaster trt citing officials says that those trips occurred in 2016. some of them were brief. one of them lasted up to 43 days. and this is really all a part of different snippets of information that are beginning to come together to try to get a better understanding of what this individual's motives may have been on a broader scale, perhaps. perhaps he had other attempts to carry out violence acts of violence, that's what they are trying to determine, keeping in mind, of course this hideous, hideo

thank you very much, arwa damon live from istanbul.to george howl at cnn headquarters. >>> other news we are following, the investigation of the doomed ethiopian airlines 302 processing data from the flight and cockpit recorders started at a facility near paris france. the pilot experienced problems almost immediately after take off. air traffic controllers saw the plane pitching wildly, up and down, accelerating to abnormal speeds. given the damage on the boxes, is there indication about how things are going and when it will be completed? >> reporter: the process started friday afternoon. if all goes well, it could be wrapped up tonight or tomorrow. that's the process of inspecting, pulling the cards out, inspecting the components part by part and downloading the data. at least the flight data recorder, the part that records and the instruments appear to be in good condition. that's the latest we got on that part of the investigation. "the new york times" is reporting this could be linked to a crash of lion air back in october, the 73

arwa damon, cnn, iraq. >>> they lost land, but the hunt for baghdadi continues. questions about isis remain. to talk about all of this we have fawaz georges, the author of isis, a history. also the chair of contemporary middle east studies at the london school of economics. fawaz, pleasure to have you. the u.s. president has made it clear, perhaps prematurely and before the final battles that took their land that isis has been defeated. listen. >> here's isis right now. if you look, so there's isis and that's what we have right now. as of last night. that's what we have right now. you guys can have the map. congratulations. spread it around. i think it's about time. >> but in a recent op-ed you posted to "the new york times," you argue that the loss of land does not exactly promise the full defeat of isis. give us a synopsis of how you see this. >> well, you know, george, first of all, president trump, all he cares about is the electoral map in the united states. the domestic politics of the united states. he really does not really understand, does not really car

let's go to arwa damon in turkey.hat are you hearing about the list of the recent places he visited? >> reporter: well, understandably intelligence agencies within the various different spread-out countries are trying to understand exactly why he may have visited their respective countries. was he just undertaking normal terroristic activities or something ominous to all of this? if we look to his travels the last two or three years he goes to egypt and greece and visits to the balkans and also made trips to bulgaria where they are reporting he a had a deep question of their history. he made two trips to turkey in 2016, one of them lasting up to 43 days. he went to pakistan in october of 2018. cnn spoke to the owner of the hotel where he stayed who remembers him say he was a normal tourist and seemed to particularly enjoy the local fair. by his own admission within that hate-filled manifesto, he does say that throughout the course of his travels during a period in 2017, his perspective began to shift, especially follo

arwa damon is in istanbul, turkey. ben, starting with you, where you have seen so many of these battles play out for now, several week an on this day, you were there to report and see first hand isis losing its final grip in the region. >> reporter: that's right, george. what we've actually got inside that encampment, which we have been watching being shelled and hit for weeks now. it was an expanse of wrecked cars, at that time terred tetat dead bodies, males in this case. but this came after a night of heavy airstrikes on the edge of that encampment and that continued -- that continued throughout the night into the morning when we saw this announcement from mustafaa bely, saying the battle had ended in victory and isis had been 100% eliminated. so we went into the camp. but actually as we were going in, there was still some gunfire. we saw a sniper on a rooftop trying to target the hillside, which was the final place where isis jihadis had hit out. we don't know the fate of those jihadis and their families. we were t

arwa damon is joining me live from istanbul. worldwide condemnation. put this horrible attack into context for us. >> reporter: you know, john, there's just still so much shock out there with people and various leaders really trying to come to terms with this most recent attack, although sadly, when you look at the global stage, it does seem to be the sort of violence, horrific violence that is on the increase. we heard from turkish president erdogan, who is addressing the rise of islamophobia, and he was saying that even though islamophobia has long been watched and has long been increasing, that with this attack, it has gone beyond the line of individual harassment and to one of mass murder. and then he went on to call on the leaders of all nations, but especially western nations to take measures against this perilous course of events which threatens all of mankind. because, john, at the core of all of this is this sort of fear that can potentially be generated and then manipulated. i was talking to a cab driver on the way over to the bureau who was

a cnn exclusive senior international correspondent arwa damon shows us why iraqis aren't worried aboutn's land. historic terror hiding grounds. hard to control terrain. far flung areas without a permanent security presence. it is in these land that once night falls isis gangs attack, kill, and plunder with impunity. we're heading into the site of a recent horrific isis assault. within minutes of veering off the main road and on to a dirt track, we arrive at what is little more than a cluster of mud homes. death has never come to this 72-year-old's village this way. he says he's devastated. there's still blood stains on the ground. his older brother and five other relatives were murdered in the dead of night just days ago. she's been cleaning up, or trying to at least. fatima is one of the victim's relatives. every couple of months there's an attack in the area, she tells us. we were just waiting for our turn. this is how they found one of the bodies of the women and what we're being told is that she was taken to here, the shower area and this is where they just executed her. despite ha

. >> arwa damon, thank you so much. very, very excellent report. we're grateful to you. that's it for me. "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. >>> breaking news, the attorney general giving a new time line for a release with redactions. >>> plus, the president threatens to shut down the u.s./mexican border next week. what would that mean? we're live at the border. >>> the gop's new villain, why republicans are talking about ocasio-cortez more than any other democrat, including anybody running for president. let's go outfront. good evening. i'm erin burnett. tonight, the breaking news, showdown over the mueller report. the attorney general bill barr has put out today this, a two-page letter to congress. in it he promises to give something to the public by mid april, but he adds a quote. this is one of the operative lines we are preparing the report for release, making the redactions that are required. the emphasis of course is mine. but attorney general barr then spends six lines in here, the biggest chunk right in here, okay, listing possible areas of redactions inc

our senior international correspondent arwa damon is joining us.e have heard president trump say that isis is defeated. what did you see on the ground inside iraq? >> well, wolf, what we found out was that there is a massive disconnect between what the white house is saying and in fact what iraqi politicians are saying when it comes to the reality on the ground. this is western iran's no-man's-land. hard to control terrain. far flung areas without a permanent security presence. it is in these lands that isis gangs kill and plunder. we are headed to the recent isis assault. within minutes of veering off the road, we arrive at what is little more than a cluster of mud homes. death has never come to 72-year-old's village this way. he says he's devastated. there's still blood stains on the ground. yousef's older brother and five other relatives were murdered in the dead of night just days ago. >> she has been cleaning up or trying to at least. fatima is one of the victim's a in the area and we're just waiting for our turn. >> this is how they found one