cnn's correspondent jim sciutto with the latest. >> reporter: this was the largest u.s.rike against terrorists ever. the pentagon says 150 fighters from al shabaab killed in the strike. the target was an al shabaab training camp. timing was key. intelligence shows fighters were about to carry out an attack on the african forces and forces in somalia. both manned and unmanned aircraft carrying out the strike. you have al shabaab claiming responsibility for another attempted bombing of a passenger jet, that bomb hidden in a laptop. it was a couple weeks ago when a laptop bomb exploded in a jet in the air and punched a hole in the plane and sucking that bomber out of the plane. two attacks claimed by al shabaab as well. the ambitions of the group is concerning to u.s. counterterrorism officials attacking in somalia and the concern they would do the same outside the country as well. a growing concern and also a concern here that they are sharing technology with aqap. it is that group that has been the principle concern in terms of hiding explosives in the electronic devices

is watching closely. >> thanks, jim sciutto. >>> a big surprise in the tennis world.aria sharapova with a positive drug test at australian open. how long will she be out? what will her sponsors do? coy wire with the bleacher report next. does the smell of a freshly fill you with optimism? do you love your wireless keyboard more than certain family members? is your success due to a filing system only you understand? does printing from your tablet to your wireless printer give you a jolt of confidence? if so, you may be gearcentric. someone who knows that the right office gear helps you do great things. and there's one place that has it all. office depot officemax. gear up for great. (bear growls) (burke) smash and grub. seen it. covered it. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ in new york state, we believe tomorrow starts today. all across the state, the economy is growing, with creative new business incentives, and the lowest taxes in decades, attracting the talent and companies of tomorrow. like in

you heard what jim sciutto said. they think there's a lot more here in terms of the network, there could be more planning, it is very likely there could be another successful terrorist attack in 2016. that's a terrifying thing considering the level of surveillance around the world, particularly in france and belgium. >> i think they're right. i think we'll see an attack in 2016. there are a lot of networks out there. the assumption is we or the europeans are going to be attacked or we both are. we are the targets, especially with the islamic state losing territory. under constant attack, they're going to lash out against us in the west. >> all right. thank you very much. outfront next, donald trump speaking live tonight at a major rally in utah as mitt romney reveals he's voting for cruz. plus, president obama slamming donald trump every single chance he gets. does that actually help the frontrunner? this is what donald trump said the last time he addressed a large jewish audience. >> you're not going to support me b

jim sciutto is with me, as well. let's go to the white house press secretary josh earnest who is speaking about this right now. >> should be more aggressive and act more aggressively. >> i can't comment on any specific private financial transaction. i will say as a general matter this administration now for years has been urging congress to take steps to close the inversion's loophole that allows large -- >> we mr. replay what he just said. he was just at the white house. he was asked about what happened in belgium. we will get that sound for you. stand by for a moment. but jim sciutto is with me here in washington and our chief national correspondent. u.s. has been deeply involved in this as well. u.s. counterterrorism officials. they are looking to see what happened in paris and belgium to try to make sure it doesn't happen here in the united states. >> you have u.s. counter terror officials including the fbi posted there permanently to continue this intelligence sharing relationship to prevent attacks there and al

jim sciutto in for jake tapper. "the lead" starts now. >>> super tuesday ii is under way and the stakes couldn't be higher. ted cruz gains on donald trump in the polls and bernie sanders needs a win in the biggest prize of the day, that is michigan. "the lead" starts right now. good afternoon, welcome to a special edition of "the lead," i'm jim sciutto in for jake tapper today. it is super tuesday ii and the stakes are very high. donald trump continues to lead in most polls across today's contests, but ted cruz is coming off a strong weekend, winning two states, and splitting the delegate count in louisiana, with trump. tonight, michigan, mississippi, idaho, hawaii up for grabs in the republican party, michigan with 59 delegates at stake is the night's biggest prize. the latest "the washington post"/abc news poll shows trump leading the field nationally at 34% but ted cruz not far behind at 25%. narrowingtis trump's lead by se be points. trump loses to both ted cruz and to marco rubio. cruz has become a clear number

i'm jim sciutto in again today for jake tapper. our politics lead, a big surprise winner in michigan. it is one of the biggest upsets in any one state in recent political history. and tonight sanders and clinton go head to head once again. the univision democratic debate starts at 9:00 p.m. eastern. you can watch it right here on cnn. tomorrow republicans get their last chance to slow donald trump before florida and ohio. jake tapper, he moderates the republican presidential debate live from the u. both events are the opening acts for the return of super tuesday. this time it is florida, illinois, missouri, north carolina and ohio. they are all on the line. these are some of the battlegrounds that truly matter in the general election in november. senator sanders says that is a long ways off and he is vowing to fight hillary clinton all the way to the democratic convention. but he will need to pull off the kind of victory he scored in michigan last night in other states if he wants to be a lasting contender. cnn's senior political c

let's get right to jim sciutto. jim, this is the first genocide declaration by the u.s.ve any effect on the military campaign? >> not the military campaign. they say in the words of john kirby, the state department spokesman, it will have a difference in terms of drawing attention to these crimes. this is for the sake of history. also to unify the world against isis. even secretary kerry admitted today that the declaration needs to be not just words but action. >> naming these crimes is important, but what is essential is to stop them. that will require unity in this country and within the countries directly involved. and the determination to act against genocide. >> to act against genocide. that's the key word there. you'll hear that repeated from u.s. officials. the state department says this does not mean captured isis fighters will be treated as war criminals. there are separate international legal channels for that. what the u.s. has said throughout this, they're not going to get back in the business of a detainee operation with captured isis fighters. >> so this wi

jim sciutto, what do u.s.ligence officials believe the main purpose would be of firing these missiles? >> timing with north korea is always telling, coming a day after the u.n. votes unanimously, the security council, to impose these sanctions. there's virtual certainty that they're connected. the missiles that they fired, they're short rake, not icbms, not like the space rocket that was fired last month so not the things that are typically banned under u.n. security council resolutions, but still provocative. keep in mind they fired them in effect in the direction of south korea over the sea and south korea extremely nervous about this. they say north korea is the greatest threat to security in asia today. >> and what is the focus of these new sanctions? >> it's important because these are directed here, directed specifically at north korea's weapons programs. they're directed at rocket fuel, at jet fuel. they're also banning north korea from shipping out of the country selling any of its national -- natural

cnn correspondent jim sciutto joins me. what the heck did these letters say?porter: remarkable insight into the organization, al qaeda, but the man. osama bin laden who was obsessed you might say with his own death. a last will and testament. he claimed to have a lot of money $29 million in sudan alone, and his plans in that will were, one, to stage a major terror attack there, but also he named specific family members he wanted some money to go to if killed. he was always thinking about that. when you think of the organization, he talked about establishing a caliphate and said, listen, this is too difficult for us to do as an organization. it would be too unpopular, something to sort of push done the line, of course, in retrospect, we've seen icy kind of the child of al qaeda that's managed to establish the caliphate in iraq and syria. >> 30 seconds, jim, what was his plan for the tenth an vertry of 9/11? >> reporter: so, you might call him ambitious. he wanted to reach out to western media organizations, named specifically cbs but al jazeera, he talked about

i'm jim sciutto.over to wolf blitzer, he's in "the situation room." >>> happening now, breaking nws. reversal of torture. donald trump does a 180 on how he'd

suzanne malveaux is standing by and senior natural security correspondent, jim sciutto. to the two of you, as i grew up in canada in the '60s, '70s, aeasy 80s, women swooned over justin trudeax's father, and women are swooning over the junior. but there is much more on the agenda than the friendship and good looks. so i'm going to start with you, suzanne. if you can walk me through, what they touched on in this news conference and jim, i'll get to you for the significance of it. go ahead, suzanne. >> sure. ashleigh, we did see that swooning occur earlier this morning. some women on the lawn of the white house, and we sue that firsthand. so certainly the son has the same effect as the father. i want to bring a couple things that i thought was very important. the sound bite, of course, that you played when the president flatly denied that he has any responsibility for what he is calling the circus environment and the republican crackup, if you will, during this primary season. it is not surprising that politics is dominating and dominated that press conference. because the

jim sciutto, thank you for that. juliette, to jim and also paul's point on, you know, he has facing this european arrest warrant, but they may hold on charges until they get more information, more evidence. walk us through exactly what that looks like and ultimately what he could face legally speaking and beyond. >> he's just now within the legal framework that exists in both countries as well as in europe. so there's no torture. there's no coercive interrogation. this is the traditional interrogation we understand in the typical fashion of law and order but there are professionals who will try to get information out of him. at the same tyime, i expect france is seeking extradition. to move him to the french judicial system which, as jim was saying, is much harsher than ours in the sense you can detain someone for a long time. access to lawyers delayed. so there's going to be sort of a more aggressive law and order approach to him to see how much he talks. and then you're going to have a typical -- it's going to look

let's get to jim sciutto. what happened, jim?ration official tells me there are strong indications this missile test by iran is inconsistent with current u.n. security council resolution 2231 banning ballistic missile tests by iran. the administration official makes clear this is not in violation of the iranian nuclear deal simply because the iranian nuclear deal did not cover ballistic missile tests. it was covered purely on the nuclear program. critics of the deal say this is a consequence of having those negotiations be focussed solely on the nuclear program and not other aspects of iranian policy that the u.s. has issues with, including what it considers an offensive missile program with these missile tests. when you see these tests this morning, they were broadcast live on iranian television. this is something clearly that iran is not trying to hide. in fact, it's trying to advertise it. the administration says that if it is confirmed this is in violation of that u.n. security council resolution, it's going to go to the u.n.

jim sciutto is out front. jim, you're hearing it is not just one ballistic missile, but two? mid range ballistic missile with a range of several hundred miles. they traveled about 500 miles into the sea of japan. fired from mobile launchers, that makes it very difficult for u.s. satellite tracking to pick them up, to pick up preparations for these missile launches. that appears to be the very intention of north korea using that kind of launcher today. >> and they have been trying to put these miniaturized nuclear missile payload on top of these missiles. perhaps it could reach the united states, right? >> that's the question. the u.s. intelligence view is they have to assume that north korea has an untested capability to do that because they haven't seen them conduct a successful test. they don't know for sure that they have it, but they don't know for sure that they don't have it, so they make that assumption. what is not questioned is north korea is making progress on both fronts, in terms of missile range and reliability and the possibility of miniaturizing a nuclear weapo

jim sciutto in for jake tapper.i is under way and the stakes couldn't be higher. ted cruz gains on donald trump in the polls and bernie sanders needs a win in the biggest prize of the day, that is michigan. "the lead" starts right now. good afternoon, welcome to a special edition of "the lead," i'm jim sciutto in for jake tapper today. it is super tuesday ii and the stakes are very high. donald trump continues to lead in most polls across today's contests, but ted cruz is coming off a strong weekend, winning two states, and splitting the delegate count in louisiana, with trump. tonight, michigan, mississippi, idaho, hawaii up for gra

jim sciutto is "outfront." >> reporter: it was one of the deadliest u.s. air strikes in years.craft striking the al shabab training camp in somalia killing what the military says were some 150 suspected al shabab fighters. u.s. intelligence says the pentagon indicated the group was in final preparations for a large-scale attack on u.s. and african union forces. the camp had been under surveillance for weeks by u.s. special operations forces. part of a small u.s. military presence in the east african nation. >> the remove alf those terrorist fighters degrades al shabab's ability to meet the group's objectives, including recruiting new members and planning attacks. >> reporter: it's part of a disturbing trend. al shabab ramping up efforts to carry out terror at home and beyond somalia's borders. and al shabab claimed today it's just tried but failed to bring down a passenger plane. a bomb hidden in a laptop and another electronic gadget exploded at an airport in somalia today killing several. the blast detonating as security officials inspected luggage before being loaded on a fl

our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto is working the story for us.un now for four months. give us the latest. >> until just 48 hours ago, the trail for salah abdeslam had gone completely cold. now tonight, he is in police custody. four other terror suspects as well. both french and belgian authorities declaring a major victory in their battle against terror. guns drawn, belgian police stream down a street in brussels searching for one of the most wanted men in the world. after an exchange of gunfire, salah abdeslam, the one surviving terrorist behind a deadly november paris attacks, is wounded but captured alive. >> an ambulance has just arrived because there are two people who are in the apartment who were shot by the police. and one apparently is salah abdeslam. >> reporter: one terror suspect seen taken down by police here. it is unclear whether this is abdeslam. the belgian prime minister and french president together keeping close tabs. a crucial moment in europe's fight against terror. >> translator: the belgium and french intelligence services

>>> for "the lead" today, i'm jim sciutto. a special edition of "the situation room" with wolf blitzer and anderson cooper starts right now. >> happening now, super tuesday, 2. 0. voters have their say in stated that could say a lot about where the entire race goes from here. >> voter views. what new exit polling just in reveals who's casting ballots and why. >>> trump metrics. is the republican front-runner peaking or fading with the competition trying very hard to stop him tonight and next week. >> can hillary clinton maintain her southern edge taking mississippi, or bernie sanders stop her momentum in michigan? i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> another big night for candidates in both parties. millions of voters going to the polls right now in michigan. mississippi, idaho and hawaii. just a few hours away from learning the results, which could answer a whole lot of questions. we have the first batch of exit polling coming in. david chalian going through the numbers now. we'll brin

let's bring in our chief national correspondent jim sciutto.sis inside the army

i'm jim sciutto in for jake tapper. today breaking news in our world lead. explosions, gunfire, counterterror police in combat gear raiding locations across belgium. the assaults have french and ow. belgian officials celebrating. one declaring on twitter, we have him. police capturing one of the most wanted fugitives on the planet, taking the terrorist alive after a shootout. salah abdeslam disappeared after he took part in the terror massacre across paris in november killing 130 people. his nine fellow terrorists died that night. but since that november night last year, abdeslam has been a mystery. when we saw heavily armed tactical units move into a brussels suburb of molenbeek just hours ago, we suspected something big could be under way. guns drawn, belgian police streamed down a street in brussels searching for one of the most wanted men in the world. after an exchange of gunfire, salah abdeslam, the one surviving terrorist behind the deadly november paris attacks, is wounded, but captured alive. >> an ambulance has just arrived because there are two pe

but don't move a muscle, "the lead" with jim sciutto starts right now. >> thank you, brooke baldwin.ts about to square off after the biggest upset of the season. "the lead" starts right now. >>> bernie sanders shocking hillary clinton in michigan, pulling off a win not even his own campaign saw coming. and this right before another big debate on cnn tonight. >>> donald trump keeps rolling as questions mount about whether marco rubio's campaign can survive another disappointing finish. can he stay afloat through his own home state of florida? >>> plus, breaking news in the war on terror. u.s. air strikes zeroing in on isis chemical weapons after

jim sciutto in washington with more. >> reporter: good morning. you hit on it. on. the joint u.s. south korea military exercises, their annual north korea views this as a provocation. they believe the united states and south korea are training to invade north korea and carry out regime change. every year there's an angry response. in addition to that, there are new u.n. sanctions that are particularly tough. they follow north korea's nuclear test and the missile test, so the tensions with north korea, although always high, they're particularly high now. the white house and others view these as provocative steps by north korea, and a big test here too is that china is growing increasingly alarmed as well. the question is what's going to change north korea's behavior going forward? they hope these sanctions will be a punishment and will change north korea's own calculations about building its nuclear program and missile program, but really, they've tried these steps in the past. it hasn't worked. there's real concern. it extebds nnds from washington beijing. >> st

let's begin with jim sciutto. >> u.s.ary confirming that the north korea fired a missile 500 miles into the sea of japan, threatening both japan and south korea. the latest in a series of provocations by north korea, including what is socially an icbm launch, their space launch earlier this year, and more recently just two weeks ago short-range missile launches. >> let me bring in barbara starr. >> u.s. officials have been watching the signs of a possible launch in the last couple of days. what is so interesting about this is this missile was launched off a mobile launcher. especially a huge truck. very difficult for u.s. spy satellites to track. it means the north koreans can launch off a mobile launcher with little to no warning for u.s. intelligence. right now, it is considered by u.s. military officials a sign, if you will, of additional north korean provocation sending a message to the u.s. we can do this. don't forget. we know how to do this. at the same time u.s. intelligence officials and u.s. military officials t

jim sciutto is here. >> there were four people arrested today.ted of planning a terror attack in the capital. the group discussed launching this attack and making contact with isis. the weapons they found, just a starter pistol, one bullet. no other weapons. one of the four was actually under house arrest as he was planning this attack. he had been convicted in 2014 for planning to go to syria to join the al qaeda affiliate al nusra. they were watching this guy and yet he was able to at least get into the early stages of planning an attack. >> what's the threat level in france like right now? >> it's extremely high now. french officials describe it as unprecedented. i met with the french interior minister last week. he said another successful terror attack in france in 2016 is likely. he told us, however, that france has foiled some 12 plots just since the start of 2015. six of those plots in the last spring and summer alone. >> this comes, what, a day after a police raided an apartment where in brussels that had some connection to the paris atta

jim sciutto is here.is was a massive strike, and there were massive casualties. >> the military claims there were 150 casualties. they say that's 200 fighters who were in formation at this training camp at the time of the strike. i'm told the military believes they were getting ready to leave on an operation. the target amasom forces. these are african forces in somalia with u.s. forces aligned so them. it was at that crucial moment the u.s. aircraft struck with devastating effect. it was one of the deadliest u.s. air strikes in years. drones and manned aircraft striking the al shabaab training camp in somalia killing what the military says were some 150 suspected al shabaab fighters. u.s. intelligence says the pentagon indicated a group was in final preparations for a large-scale attack on u.s. and african union forces. the camp had been under surveillance for weeks by u.s. special operations forces, part of a small u.s. military presence in the east african nation. >> the removal of those terrorist figh

i'm jim sciutto. i turn you over to wolf blitzer, he's in "the situation room." >>> happening now, breaking nws. reversal of torture. donald trump does a 180 on how he'd deal with terrorists as commander in chief. after suggesting that he would use torture and target the families of terrorists, trump now insists he would not order troops to violate international law. >>> trash talk. after another debate brawl, trump and his rivals are back on the campaign trail with no let-up in their vulgar attacks as they rip into one another. are they also ripping apart the republican party? >>> flint fight. on the eve of super saturday, the democrats are tuning up for sunday's cnn presidential debate. and the delegate-rich michigan primary that follows. can bernie sanders find a way to rebound against hillary clinton? >>> and blade stunner. a new twist in one of america's most sensational murder cases. los angeles police now say a knife allegedly found at the former estate of o.j. simpson now undergoing testing mo