ivan watson is following the latest for us. morning, ivan. >> reporter: good morning, christine. iraqi government official in ramadi says the iraqi security forces are barely holding on to the city that isis has taken over positions in the east of the city. that issis despite a day of air strikes carried out over ramadi on thursday. this city is located about 70 miles west of the iraqi capital of baghdad. an hour's drive on the highway. i have driven it before to get there. iraqi officials in ramadi say the city is deserted. 150,000 citizens fled over the course of the last two days. some reinforcements arrived over the past 24 hours. that amounts to about a little less than 40 humvees. the u.s. military vehicles provided to the iraqi government. a little less than 40 humvees full of iraqi soldiers arrived over the last 24 hours. according to iraqi government official he says it is welcome assistance but it is not enough. there have been increasingly panicked calls for reinforcements to that city. however, the chairman of the u

john. >> thanks ivan watson. >>> turning to the battle for yemen.ab led coalition by houthi rebels busy leaving al qaeda mostly unopposed unopposed. they overran an oil terminal in southeastern yemen. this after seizing the nearby city emptying a bank and a prison there. in washington u.s. officials tell the l. timea. times they are concerned about the air campaign which caused hundreds of civilian casualties. now the united nations worried about a humanitarian crisis calling for a cease-fire by all sides. for the latest, let's bring in nima elbagir in yemen. >> reporter: al qaeda clearly moving into the security vacuum. they have taken the third largest airport in yemen. they have as you said an oil platform now. they moved in to repel the houthi advances in the district. they seem to be putting up their black flags where they don't have complete control of. they seem to be trying to honeycomb that territory that has not been fought over fully with the houthi and loyalists to president hadi in yemen. the circumstance remains that the reality is peo

ivan watson has more for you. >> reporter: horror off the coast of australia.he view of over 2,000 passengers stranded on a carnival cruise ship near sydney. the east coast of the country slammed by a once in a decade deadly storm. the waves up to 30 feet high with winds surpassing 60 miles an hour forcing the ship packed with 800 children to stay outside the harbor overnight tuesday. sydney officials say it was too risky. >> this is the first time i've closed the port and refused entry to a cruise ship. >> reporter: passengers back on land wednesday morning describe a nightmare. >> i've been on a cruise before. i never had this experience in my whole entire life. i was petrified. >> reporter: the carnival company no stranger to stranded cruise liners. in 2010 carnival "splendor" was off the coast of san diego for thee days due to an engine fire and in 2013 carnival "triumph" suffered a similar fate in the gulf of mexico leaving passengers helpless for nearly a week. this time the massive storm whipping australia's coastline banging fishing against the shore an

let's bring in cnn international correspondent ivan watson. an, what else do we know about this blast? >> good morning, joe. well, a suicide car bomb, it doesn't succeed in damaging the u.s. consulate. and, again, as you mentioned all the diplomats there. none of them were harmed. but it has put the kurdish safe haven on edge. and shattered the calm that people have enjoyed there. certainly ripped through a number of restaurants and cafes frequented by foreigners in a town that receives daily international flights at its international airport. in a city that hosts international hotel chains, and despite close proximity to isis front lines in the war in iraq, which are located in some instances only about 45 minutes' drive away, erbil was considered quite safe. despite this war footing. so we're already getting reports that perhaps the kurdish peshmerga are trying to retaliate. reports that they're carrying out a joint operation with iraqi security forces and militiaings to the south of kirkuk right now. and that's roughly in the area where a se

cnn senior international correspondent ivan watson joins us from erbil live. you always heard from them, we need more support. what is going on here? can we assume this is an isolated attack or something more? >> well, it's certainly not the first time that erbil has been bombed in the dozen years of unrest that have come since the u.s. initially invaded iraq and toppled saddam hussein in this turmoil that we've seen all across the country since then. so, it's not the first bombing. you have to consider that, though erbil is the capital of iraqi kurdistan of the kurdish stronghold, it's considered to be a relatively safe place for foreigners, international airlines that land at erbil international airport. there are international hotel chains there as well. it is also quite close to the front lines with isis that are located just about a half hour's drive away from erbil. so, while the security is generally considered to be pretty good, presumably, at some point, an enemy could infiltrate, given the close geographic proximity to carry out what appears to have

ivan watson reports now from kathmandu. >> at the end of the tunnel, carved deep in the debris, a rayhope. rescue workers flown in from turkey reach a man trapped by the earthquake in kathmandu more than 60 hours after a seven-story building came tumbling down around him, john casey escapes. he's injured and dehydrated, but rescuers say they're confident he'll live to see another day. a successful rescue for a stricken country that has seen its most treasured monument destroyed if the blink of an eye. amid the death and destruction, there are other stories of survival. people like takamaya citola, a mother of four rescued after being trapped in the rubble of her home. >> you were trapped for 36 hours. do you have any injuries? that's incredible. she's now reunited with her husband of 15 years. you never lost hope that your wife was alive? never, he tells me. i was only worried she might get hurt during the rescue. at disaster sights across the capital, nepalese police are working alongside rescue teams from around the world in a race against time. a struggle to find more survivors. >>

ivan watson reporting. >>> cnn's nick valencia joins me now.ult of this earthquake. tell us about them. >> yes, carol, that's right. we know that at least 17 people were killed on mt. everest. among them at least three americans. we want to try to bring meaning to those numbers. bringing some very personal stories of those who were impacted by this devastating earthquake. dan fredinburg was a google executive one of those killed on the mountain. he was an avid adventurer and mountain climber and was on that tour when the avalanche triggered by the earthquake encapsulated him and his crew. earlier yesterday we spoke with one of those closest to dan, his girlfriend. >> i mean, he was just magical. and just by making the choices that he made i think it was always intentional. he had this way of making the people around him just feel special. without even trying. and he makes people feel like they could accomplish anything that they wanted. and that you know they hadn't accomplished enough that there was more that they could do and that there was m

cnn senior international correspondent ivan watson, spent time in irbil recently, he joins us live in hong kong today. ivan, irbil was safe, untouchable, though isis is a round. some how the militants got in. what do you make of this? >> it's not the first time there have been bombings in irbil, the iraqi kurdistan, kurdish stronghold. in the north a great deal of security. yes, the kurdish population is largely sees isis and the sunni jihadi militants to the south as really -- existential enemies. but you have to keep in mind how close these locations are. mosul,city of mosul is an hour's drive from irbil. an isis stronghold. so this, this, close proximity of the front lines to, to the iraqi kurdish capital where you can literally drive about, a half an hour, 40 minutes. you reach isis front lines. even with the best security, you are quite close to your enemy. and -- the enemy managed to penetrate through the iraqi kurdish ring of steel. it has -- undoubtedly shaken security. in irbil, a city that has international hotel chains, has international airport, that, international airline

ivan watson, thank you for that from hong kong. >>> now we turn again to yemen. u.n. chief moon is calling for an immediate cease-fire in yemen's civil war. saudi-led air strikes on rebels just entered a fourth week even there is heavy battle on the ground for factions vying for control in the country. the port of aiden is under siege by rebels but cnn managed to get in for a firsthand look on thursday. our o correspondent has our exclusive report. report this was not purely a military hospital but because of the way the front lines chris crossed aiden into no-go zones, it has now become the major hospital for civilians. i spoke to one of the doctors and he said to me we've lot count p.m. we simply don't know how many dead, dying and wounded we've today take in. when we were there, 5-year-old boy had been brought in to be treated for shrapnel wounds for his stomach. hit inside his friend's home. a little girl had a minor operation. her stitches were split. her family hid for three days unable to go the hospital while she de she bled. so many caught in the crossfire. t

ivan watson reports on the mass funerals now for the victims. >> reporter: by the banks of the river,ay their last respects. this is a hindu cremation ceremony. more than a dozen funeral pyres burning all at once for some of the many victims of last saturday's terrible earthquake. as workers stoke the flames, some shave their heads. a traditional show of mourning from children who lose their parents. alongside their father, 18-year-old ishan and 13-year-old brother, iman said good-bye to their mother, ishana. >> translator: she is a victim of this terrible disaster? >> yeah, a great loss for us. for our family. >> never imagine this would happen to us. >> the embers don't begin to cool before a new funeral procession arrives. ♪ >> reporter: there is a great deal of pain here. authorities are still trying to come to grips with the scale of the death and destruction. this is the grim dirty urgent work that is being performed all across this city. rescue workers with pick axes, shovels, bulldozers, digging through the rubbles of buildings like this. a seven story building that housed a c

. >> thanks to ivan watson reporting in from kathmandu. when we come back, we'll continue to follow the chaos in a major american city. we'll have the latest on the efforts to stop the violence and the rioting in baltimore. ok. this role is about energy... we're looking for a luxury hybrid, with the best city fuel economy rating... the lincoln mkz hybrid. and who has one starting price for gas or hybrid? mkz hybrid again. mm-hmm. upstaged them. the lincoln luxury uncovered event is on. lease the mkz or mkz hybrid for $289 a month. plus for a limited time competitive owners and lessees get one-thousand dollars bonus cash. about data breaches in the news. more it's possible your personal information may be at risk. research shows that if your information is compromised due to a data breach, you are 6 times more likely to become a victim of identity theft. now is the time to get protection. sign up today and lifelock will begin monitoring your personal information, including your social security number, alert you about suspicious activity, an

. >>> cnn's ivan watson was there when yazidi villagers were rescued from an iraqi mountaintop as isisr village last year but not all of them made it to safety. arwa damon spoke with one family who has the harrowing story of what happened when isis seized their village. >> a suffocating fear has chased most of these yazidi refugees into iraqi kurdistan. fear not for themselves but their loved ones still captive with isis. those we spoke to asked we conceal their identities. mahmoud was not home when isis arrived in sinjar last august. the fighters took his wife three children the youngest just a month old at the time and his parents. they forced us at gunpoint into big trailer trucks she recalls. they wrote everyone's name down and asked who wants to work as a farmer cleaner, or herder. the family chose to herd goats. they were taken to a village whose residents had fled and put to work. at the start, there were a lot of tears and fear but then we got used to it she says. two men who tried to escape were beaten and dragged to death behind a car. the village was their prison. for two mo