can you just talk about how important, jomana, that dam is to the region and the people there? >> reporter: absolutely. this is iraq's largest hydroelectric dam. it's about 13 miles, 50 kilometers north of mosul. it's a key power to more than 1 million people in that area. so that's being controlled by isis. it's dangerous on many levels. there's been a lot of concern about this. one whether they could use this as a very dangerous, serious weapon here, opening the floodgates. this, according to some reports could flood the city of mosul and even reaching close to baghdad which is about 200 kilometers away. of course, also the concern here is isis has left this damaged. still up and running as we're hearing it is right now. just to be used as leverage by isis to providing people in the area with just like power that they need. so it's a very key and important installation and its enforcement for iraq to regain control of that. and of course, we'll have to see what the u.s. position 1/8, and why has it has decided to help iraqis retake terrorist regions lost by isis. >> cnn's jom

cnn's jomana karadsheh. jomana, so good to see you today. do we understand as we get reports that shia militias may help defend amerli? >> reporter: well, christi, after lots of calls here from the officials, they're calling for a moment to try to break the siege of amerli, we are hearing from two of the countries major shia militias, that they have mobilized their troops. they have been allied here in fighting off isis in the last couple of months. they are on the move to break that siege. a real humanitarian disaster it seems on the inside. real dire conditions. we're hearing that during this siege over the past 73 days isis has cut off this town not allowing supplies of food and medicine to come in. they're really running low on food and medical supplies. they've also cut off water and electricity. there have been very few aid drops by the iraqi military that is really finding it difficult to get into the area because it is surrounded by isis and it's a strong hold around that area. so very difficult for them to reach it. and the u.n. war

jomana karadsheh. thank you. >>> violence has forced hundreds of thousands of iraqis from their home but international aid is finally coming their way. the u.n. has lost a maaunched a aid this month. it's shipping 22 million tons. anna coren spoke to a u.n. official coordinating the effort. >> it certainly is ramping up. this is the single largest push. it is here. we're getting 2500 tons of aid in over a ten day period ending in a week. there's a lot going on as you can see behind us. materials coming in, materials going out. it's going to be that way not just for another week i think but for weeks and months i think. >> where is all of this aid coming from? >> some coming from jordan, we've got the british sending in aid, saudi arabia. germans. >> reporter: what are you sending to the refugees? >> we are sending jugs for water, tents, family tents that can fit six to eight people. we have thousands of those coming in. kitchen kits so people can cook and have a meal which they haven't been able to do

thank you, jomana, for that story. let's go to anna coren, that story that jomana just told us about, this village, you've been covering what the kurds have gone through in the northern part of the country. and it sounds quite familiar. >> yeah. absolutely, we know that isis is doing everything it can to attack and advance on its gains. there's obviously a fierce battle happening in jillal which is 70 miles northeast of baghdad. this is a critical town that they sieged several weeks ago. they've had it for more than a week now, and the peshmerga, with the iraqi commanders are trying to take it back. we understand it's managed to take back nearby towns and villages, as for jillal which has a population of 50,000 has yet to take control. no word as to whether they have attacked over the last couple days. we certainly know that united states has been helping with the effort around mosul dam. we were up there earlier this week, natalie, obviously, we saw the peshmerga with the help of iraqi commanders take control. that cr

joining us now from baghdad cnn's jomana. >> reporter: well, george, what we know from reports from the kurdish news agency and also cnn has confirmed u.s. just bombed isis positions in four areas near the dam. the dam is about 13 miles or so north of the city of mosul. we are also hearing reports that they struck locations, other locations in the area including irbil and they've made gains since june. it was taken over since fighting with kurdish and iraqi forces earl jury this month they were taken over by isis. a very dangerous development. this is key and the very thing is, in the hands of extremist group like isis that would have control over the floodgates of this dam and it could be disastrous leaving it in their hands, but, of course, the big concern here is we're waiting here, the position here so far, what we have seen the u.s. do, the u.s. administration position saying it's not going to be dragged into a war again back into iraq, what we have seen so far the u.s. with limited strikes over the past week stopping isis' advance towards irbil where it was protecting u.s. facilit

thank you, jomana. >>> moving our focus back to the united states now, where for the second night in a row the streets of ferguson, missouri, have remained largely calm. >> mike brown! >> you hear protesters were still out, still vocal and much smaller numbers than we've seen before. only seven arrests reported tonight. >> the improving conditions prompted missouri's governor to order the national guard to begin leaving. last hour missouri highway patrolman ron johnson gave his nightly media briefing. he talked about ferguson schools, which have yet to open for the school year. >> those children need to be in school. that can only happen when we are sure this community is safe. this is an area we all agree. we all want our children to be safe and get a good education. let's do what it takes to get the schools open in this community. >> a memorial for michael brown marks the spot where the african-american teen was killed by a white police officer and those flowers go down florissant avenue. the funeral will be public and it is to be helped monday. >> cnn's anderson cooper sat down wi

. >> jomana karadech achkaradecha. many thanks. >>> new developments into cnn over just the past few hours as it reels to the michael brown case. a man who lives near the scene of the shooting say he may have inadvertently recorded audio of the gunshots that killed brown and says he has been interviewed by the fbi, now cnn cannot independently verify the authenticity of the recording and we are reaching out to the fbi to confirm the man's story. but as that plays out we want you to listen to what could be a key piece of evidence. we're going to play that audio for you now but first listen to the man's attorney explaining its context. >> he was in his apartment. he was talking to a friend on the video chat. he heard loud noises and at the moment -- at the time he didn't even realize the import of what he was hearing until afterwards and it just happened to have captured 12 seconds of what transpired outside of his building. >> you are pretty. you're so fine. just going on some of your videos. how could i forget? >> dist

cnn's jomana karadsheh joins us now from the iraqi capital. and we will be talking to her actually in a couple minutes. but one of the big questions today when we look at this is, we hear that there are shiite factions that have attached sunnis so is this now a two-pronged fight so to speak for iraq? not only are they fighting isis, but they may be having a fight with the sunnis and the shias and trying to deal with that faction as well because, as we know, they need to form a new government and they are in the process of it. we'll see if that is making any progress in any way. we know that president obama is returning to washington from martha's vineyard today. topping his agenda whether to send u.s. warplanes into syria after isis in response to the execution of american journalist james foley. the pentagon's been conducting surveillance we understand, surveillance flights along iraq's border with syria to bolster u.s. intelligence. let's talk to retired colonel robert mcginnis and peter neumann in london who is the director of the internati