i have ivan watson. ivan watson has been covering these machete murders. for an american audience can you just explain again what's happened and how al qaeda, isis plays a part here but how the government has been saying, no. >> this has been a really gruesome trend over the course of two years now where you've had people who criticize islam, secular bloggers who have been hunted down one by one. at least six of these writers. >> these are the victims. >> victims. chopped, chopped down in broad daylight in some cases in the capital over a period of some 14 months. then you've also had just last april two lgbt activists who there was a home invasion in dhaka. people just stormed in undercover being a delivery boy and killed these two men. one of them worked for the u.s. embassy. that was in april. at that time the u.s. ambassador told us that there had been 35 attacks in a period of a year with 23 of them claimed by terrorist organizations. just to give you a sense of the scale of these attacks. they were not just secular bloggers being killed. one of them

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ivan watson is live in istanbul following this. , let's talk about the fact, very important to see the turkish president visiting that airport. how significant was it for people there? >> reporter: you know, i wasn't present on the scene, but he has been coming out now consistently for the past several days speaking out trying to honor the victims, the 44 victims and on saturday there was a 44th victim a i 3-year-old palestinian/jordanian boy who succumb to his injuries. of course, we have dozens of additional people that are still fighting for their lives in hospitals here. erdogan, the turkish president, has come out and vowed vengeance. he said for every one of us that they killed we'll kill ten. as far as the investigation goes, george, we really haven't gotten any update in some 48 hours now from the turkish authorities beyond two names of the three bombers and the possible nationalities that one comes from russia, another comes from the central asian republic of kierdstan. we don't know why it's so close to their chest. the tu

ivan watson has covered turkey extensively, was the istanbul bureau chief for some time tonight. coming to you live from hong kong. ivan, what is your assessment of what is going on at present.? >> well, the turkish president, a number of cabinet ministers have come out. they've basically declared victory and vowed to bring traitors to justice after this attempted overthrow by at least a faction within the turkish military. the kind of weapons and weapons systems that were brought in to use, really, something unprecedented in turkey with low flyovers by fighter jets, with attack helicopters in the air, in istanbul and ankara with tanks on the streets that tried throughout the night to hold on to and block the two main bridges across the bosphorus strait. in the last couple of hours, since daybreak, basically, we've seen dramatic images emerge of soldiers on the bosphorus bridge, vendoring enmass, abandoning their tanks and walk out with their hands up and scenes of pro erdogan supporters rushing in around the abandon tanks and ominously video emerging on social media of attempted

i want to go to ivan watson who is in istanbul where we had odd deadly attack. previous attacks, but they tend to be on individual targets. this one if it is isis, more coordinat coordinated, larger, and more vicious. >> yes, in this case whoever is carrying out this attack is holding ground and fighting back. and what the trend that we reported on extensively in the past, is targeted machete murders. killings that have targeted everything from bloggers to members of minority groups to an italian aide worker. and these are carefully planned attac attacks, they will pull up maybe on motorcycles, and chop people down in the street and then flee in june that mounted an incredible effort to put a stop to the escalating pattern of violence that was being done by groups that align with isis or al qaeda. it was a grim and grizzly competition between extremist groups. if it was the work of isis or perhaps a group inspired by isis, it will prove that the mass crack down in june was not successful at stopping the extremist groups in bangladesh. >> there we are, ivan watso

i want to bring in cnn jim sciutto and ivan watson. they're both there as well. ivan is our senior international correspondent and jim is our chief national security correspondent. both of them have a wealth of knowledge on this particular situation and situations like this. jim, what does the u.s. government think the current situation is in turkey this morning? >> reporter: u.s. officials have been very cautious throughout. early on they were cautious to identify this as a couple. in fact they used the term uprising and then they took some time, three, four hours into it before making a more public statement when you had both the president and secretary of state john kerry issuing unequivocal backing for the democratically elected government of turkey and in fact opposing the coup and saying people should support their democratically elected leaders. they have been watching this closely. they've been getting incomplete information just as we've been getting incomplete information and that's even while i'm told they've stayed in contact as best they can with thei

>> ivan watson, thank you so much.oming up, more on the breaking news, isis now claiming responsibility for an unfolding terror attack inside of a dipmatic zone in bangladesh. we'll bring you the latest details on that. >>> an ongoing terrorist attack in bangladesh as we speak. we'll get back to those in a moment. when do we think donald trump will decide on a vice president candidate? >> let the jockeying again, he seems to be in the final stages. i'm told he could pick at the gop convention and i'm told there is a dark horse in the running. he does have a short list. new jersey governor chris christie, newt gingrich, mike pence, bob corker, jeff sessions, and john thune are all under consideration. scheduled to meet with trump and is a dark horse coming down the track. the trump spokes man noted he is meeting with a number of republicans in the run up to the g.o.p. convention adding that he has a good relationship with governor pence. he endorsed ted cruz before the indiana primary. >> my focus is here in the hoosier

ivan watson, cnn, istanbul. >> turkey of course has dealt with military coups before.s just analyze what is going on at this point. fawaz gerges, author of "isis: a history" and chairman of contemporary and middle eastern studies at the london school of economics joining us out of london this morning. let's just consider for a moment the significance of a potential deterioration of relations between the u.s. and turkey should washington refuse to hand gulen over. turkey of course a key nato a y ally. and also hosting 1,500 u.s. troops at the incirlik air base at present. in what is their anti-isis operation. what are the risks here? >> big risks. and as you know, becky, tensions are rising between turkey and the united states after the coup attempt. there are some turkish officials who insinuate that the united states had a finger, a hand in the coup plot against turkey. the state department yesterday responded angrily by saying there you see that the united states have any role in the coup attempt. in fact, the obama administration came out publicly in support of the

ivan watson is there in istanbul with more on this one. armed man's background.ed, the mastermind? >> reporter: that's what the u.s. officials are saying. his name is akhmed chatayev from russia and very well known the intelligence agencies long before this incident took place. we haven't gotten an update from the turkish authorities for machine than 24 hours about new details of the tle suspected suicide bomber as enwhat kind of support they had. the investigation clearly ongoing, dozens of people detained in different turkish cities as they investigate. we have confirmation of a 44th victim of tuesday's airport attacks. in this case, a 3-year-old boy, a tall stinian with jordanian citizenship. and this i think, while tragic, it highlights another fact of this atrocity. most of the victims were either from countries that have majority muslim populations or from turkey itself which is an overwhelmingly majority muslim country. we're going to pan over here. this over here in the square is a nightly feast. that's the fast breaking feast. it's sponsored by the city

brianna. >> ivan watson, thank you. up, what one of the istanbul attackers had in common with the boston marathon bombers, you're live in the cnn newsroom. defiance is in our bones. our citracal bones. easily absorbed calcium plus vitamin d. defy bone aging with citracal maximum. our highest level of calcium plus d. that's why i run on quickbooks. details. i use the payments app to accept credit cards... ...and everything autosyncs. those sales prove my sustainable designs are better for the environment and my bottom line. that's how i own it. >>> this week's horrifying attack in istanbul is being traced back to a troubled part of the world not always associated with isis. three suicide bombers are said to be from dag ak stan, in the northern caucus region and drew attention more recently after the boston bombings because tsarnaev brothers briefly lived there. that is where the alleged mastermind of the istanbul is from, joining us to talk about this presence in turkey is james jeffrey, a former ambassador to iraq and t

ivan watson, istanbul. >>> let's bring in kimberly dozier, our global affairs analyst. kim, when you look at what happens now, that's the big question, it's a failed coup, erdogan is still in power, he's rounded up military officers who turned against him and arrested them. in these next few weeks, critical 2009 u.s. fight against isis, what do the next few weeks look like in turkey? >> reporter: likely a continued witch hunt among his own ranks, further arrests. he has gotten a spike of support from his own people. but it is the conservative side of his country, those who feel threatened by isis, threatened by rising violence from the kurdish separatist movement inside turkey. and they want a strong man. but he will likely use this coup as an excuse to go after not just the coup plotters but anyone he sees as an opponent. and because the u.s. needs turkish support, they won't have much of a leg to stand on when they complain to him about what is likely to come. >> so here's the thing. if you are president obama who met with his cabinet members this morning at the white

ivan watson. we are learning about two days' worth of u.s. and iraqi coalition attacks on convoys fleeing fallujah. we are getting differing numbers, either way, the numbers are substantial. the u.s. military saying coalition warplanes and about 175 vehicles. the iraqis say combined coalition and iraqi forces destroyed 750. no word from u.s. officials on enemy casualties. joining us to discuss this all daily beast senior editor michael weiss, author of "isis, inside the army of terror" as well as philip mudd, former top official with the fbi and cia also joining us, cnn global affairs analyst, kimberly dozier. kimberly, let me start with you, these attackers, we are told are from russia, uzbekistan and kyrgyzstan and you say that shouldn't necessarily be a surprised given that 7,000 fighters from russia and central asia have gone to fight with isis. >> all places that have proven a fertile recruiting ground for isis because of the government's treatment of muslims there. so what you find is these thousands have come to syria, and now found th

joining me is retired general wesley clark and ivan watson who has deep experience reporting from turkey and lived in istanbul. ivan, first of all, what is your sense of what is happening on the streets right now? >> reporter: clearly, a power struggle and we are still waiting to see which way it goes in the end. things do not look very good for the coup plotters at this stage. i think what this underscores, anderson is how far, sadly, turkey has sunk in the last few years. it was just four or five years ago that it was being promoted as a model of stability, an example of democracy to the broader muslim world. right now just a few weeks ago you had a triple suicide bomb attack carried out against istanbul airport. that following several other ghastly isis suicide bomb attacks in different cities around the country and you have a raging civil war going on in parts of the southeast of the country between the turkish state and guerillas from the largest ethnic minority in the country, the kurds and now you have clearly this eruption that has just taken place in a society that was already v

i also want to bring in ivan watson and military analyst, retired lieutenant general mark hertling., just in terms muof how this coup was kind of brought together and actually carried out, the fact that they didn't apprehend or try to arrest the prime minister, perhaps they tried but they failed to arrest the prime minister or the president, that sort of is coup 101, isn't it? >> it is, if the president is in the capital at the time. as we now know, he was away on vacation. it's relatively easy to try a coup when the president is out of country or somewhere else. i think that was part of the coup planning. but you're right, it is extremely difficult to conduct a coup in any way. this is a very secretive thing. you have to have the support of a lot of people in order to get the troops going and at the same time, not letting anybody know you're doing it. with a force of about 500,000, that's the size of the turkish army, to have them rolling in the streets in multiple places throughout the country, in a country where the population is 70 million or plus, that's very challenging. what

. >>> hello, i'm ivan watson, and this is

. >> cnn's senior international director, ivan watson who has covered turkey extensively, formally cnn's bureau chief in istanbul joining us live from hong kong. ivan, we heard from the president surrounded by his supporters. how do you assess what is going on in turkey this hour? >> this has been an incredible night. a deadly night, tragically as well. most recently we've seen the just mind boggling scenes at the bosphorus bridge, the suspension bridge, one of three across the strait which bi- sects istanbul, scenes of the soldiers who less than an hour ago were trying to maintain a blockade of that vital artery surrendering en masse, marching forward, placing their guns down, their automatic weapons and marching away from the tanks abandoned on the bridge and we saw footage of clearly erdogan supporters running in and just picking up the machine guns that the soldiers had left behind on the bridge. that was one area where the coup soldiers had still been holding ground, again, less than an hour ago. to give a sense of the potential loss of life during this night, let's look at photos.

ivan watson, cnn, istanbul. >> cnn has requested interviews in the past but has been denied.david rhode and kimberly dozier. david, you first, the u.s. has been away of him, being in pennsylvania why now would turkey's president blame fugula for this attempted coup? >> he may have evidence. there could become a major problem in u.s. relations with turkey as you just said, erdogan called for them to extradite. i'm curious what u.s. has of communications from erdogan and did he have any role in this coup? this coup has taken a obscure relationship as ivan's piece talked about and now elevated it to a central issue in u.s. turkish relations. >> even if there is some evidence, just spoke with senator corker who says there's a process and turkey would still be encouraged to follow a process in order to have gulen extradited. it can't just come from a plea from one president to another? >> turkey has said that they have never turned down a terrorist extradition request by the united states but said secretary of state john kerry traveling in europe just countered with well, we have

cnn international correspondent ivan watson has that story. >> reporter: investigators are focused on equipped the three bombers, apparently seen here exiting a taxi at the airport. as well as who may have planned their deadly attack. officials say they now believe this man, ahmed chatayev a well-known lieutenant may have coordinated the assault on the ataturk airport. chatayev whose nickname is one arm. >> he's probably the number one terrorist in russia. >> reporter: today, quoting an anonymous source named two of the terrorists rakim bulgarov and vadim osmanov. investigators are fanning out showing this photograph to the people in the area where the man rented an apartment. investigators have now detained more than 20 people in connection with the attack. meantime, tonight, as turkey continues to mourn, the prime minister of this majority muslim country is insisting the attackers betrayed their faith. >> translator: they were, if you kill one person it's equal to killing the full population the world. whether women, children or elderly people. they indiscriminately kill people who

my colleague, ivan watson, has more on how turkey got to this point. >> reporter: the government is simultaneouslyighting kurdish militant from the kurdistan worker party or pkk, as well as isis militants. [ siren ] the civil war in neighboring syr syria continues to spill over. there are now homeless syrians struggling to eke out a living. turkey's multibillion dollar tourism industry has suffered several blows. an important training partner, russia, called for a boycott of turkish beaches and goods after turkish warplanes shot down a russian bomber. amid the many challenges turkey faces, it is perhaps more politically polarized than ever with a population divided between those who love and those who loathe erdogan, the current president of turkey. a man who has dominated the political scene in this country for some 14 years. >>> we'll take a short break. back after this. pretty much over. (friend) wish we could start it from the beginning. (jon bon jovi) with directv, you can. you see, we've got the power to turn back time let's start over, let's rewind and let's go back and not quit the gym and

and ivan watson is with us with the latest. what are you learning this morning?aven't really gotten any updates on the suspected suicide bombers in some 48 hours from turkish authorities. aside from knowing that they seem to be citizens of russia, kurdistan and uzbekistan. 13 of the total of 27 suspects who have been detained since the airport attacks are now being arraigned in a courtroom here in istanbul. three of those suspects are foreigners. and legal procedures to decide whether or not they will be formally arrested if there's enough evidence to formally arrest them. in the meantime, the turkish military has been carrying out artillery attacks against suspected isis positions, claiming to kill 11 isis fighters and destroying several vehicles. just to dgive you a sense of ho complicated this part of the world is. the same day the turkish military carried out bombing flights to northern iraq against another militant group that turkey is fighting. this is the kurdistan workers party or pkk. >> you mentioned a raid this morning where three more people were arre

ivan watson, cnn, istanbul. >> now this cleric gulen did break his scienilence denouncine attempted over throw of the government. >> 20 years ago i clearly stated my support for democracy. i said there's no return from democracy in turkey. my position is that democracy is very clear. any attempts to the contrary is a betrayal of our unity and it's treason. >> turkey's strategic role in the world cannot be over stated. any instability there causes deep concerns around the world. not only is a member of nato and a key player in the military campaign against isis, it's also the cross roads between europe and the middle east. it's also one of the first places refugees flee to from syria, iraq and other places. arwa damon joins us from straubstraub istanbul. how are ordinary turks starting to deal with what happened? >> reporter: these are such unspeakably difficult times for this country, the likes of which it has not seen for quite some time now. we are right now at the funeral for just a handful of those who were killed in the violence that unfolded during that attempted coup. one of them