but as nick robertson explains, this conflict isn't just between rebels and government loyalists. >> reporter: bone shaking tracks. a slip down the wrong side here lands you in yemen. on the peaks, something new. saudi army and border guards join forces. share fresh-dug trenches. service men here say houthi attacks here are rare, the last one a week ago. commanders say they are ready. >> translator: when we see them approaching, we treat them as the enemy, and we protect ourselves, and we don't want an incident like what happened to the first martyr. >> reporter: three border guards killed since saudi airstrikes over the border began almost two weeks ago. no shortage of expensive top-class new weapons here. it's what's happening beyond this borderline that's less well-known. al qaeda, isis, houthihouthis. loyalists to the former president, loyalists to the present president, it's all competing interests. competing interests of what may be temporary alliances. you only have to look at the most intense fighting in aden to see how that's playing out. several hundred dead. a humanitarian

cnn's senior international correspondent nick robertson is following this one for us. f. this wasn't some young guy acting on his own. the prosecutor said he'd been given orders from syria. what exactly was he told to do? >> he was told to attack a church, and he was given the coordinates for a church. when the police picked him up, he had a satellite navigation system in his vehicle, written notes as well that all pointed to an attack at that church. that wasn't all he had in the car, of course. the police discovered an automatic rifle, a kalashnikov with three magazines, all full of ammunition and a a .9-millimeter pistol. when they raided his house, they found another three kalashnikovs as well. this was a well-armed man with a plan. also the police believe, he killed a lady a little earlier, a 32-year-old french woman, who was parked in her vehicle at the side of the road in the southwest of paris, killed her, shot and killed her with a single bullet on sunday. i mean the police essentially here have been incredibly lucky. if he hadn't shot himself in the leg and th

i want to bring in nick robertson. really a remarkable transformation which we should become more used to. we've seen this with other groups such as isis. westerners whether in the europe or u.s., who convert to islam or were brought up within the faith but then choose the extremist strand of this faith and become terrorists. his case particularly interesting because it came from a jewish background southern california relatively middle class upbringing. how did he make this transition to become such a prominent member of al qaeda? >> well he really kind of got in on the ground floor, if you will. he converted to islam in 1995. three years later, he goes to pakistan. there he's taken to al qaeda camps in afghanistan. this is three years before the 9/11 attacks. he's in afghanistan when those attacks take place. he is because he speaks english, a very good mouthpiece for al qaeda. they seemed to sort of realize this in the coming years after that. they've gone on the run, left afghanistan, hiding out in pakistan. adam g

nick robertson has more from the saudi/yemeni border. >> reporter: for the first type since air strikes began. saudi arabia's army is giving access to journalists. for local reporters, the army is a point of national pride. big guns. banging out big shells into yemen. for now, this army standing back to fight. >> we don't have orders to move forward. right now we are in a defensive position. we don't hatch any order to go on the offensive for now. when it come to sustaining the fight, saudi arabia has deep pockets. it's the world's third largest defense spender behind the united states and china. according to institute of strategic studies it spend 10% of gdp on defense. that's a massive $80.8 billion. the desert kingdom has more than 400,000 servicemen. 225,000 in the army. 125,000 national guard. 30,000 navy. and air force. still looking for partners to bolster its coalition. pakistan declined a request for troops. on the stating front lines that we visited, looking down on to yemeni village. a long drawn out fight is looming. commanders they face in the villages, they can't tell who

nick robertson, thank you with us there from saudi arabia. >>> isis is now banished from the key iraqiup left behind in saddam hussein's hometown may be evidence of the worst massacre yet. this is a gruesome discovery, thought to be hundreds of corpses, including those of soldiers piled in mass graves across the city. arwa damon reports. >> reporter: three bodies have been recovered from this particular site so far, and the teams are working on a fourth that they just pulled out of the dirt and placed inside another of these bags. the hands on this particular corpse were bound. we did see them on some of the others. this is very difficult work for the teams. it's also emotionally difficult as well. earlier there was an impromptu ceremony held here to commemorate those who had been killed. many people were in tears. now in this particular site they're saying so far, and they've been working four or five hours, they've found nine bodies. this is a large mound. they believe in this location they may find 20 or 30. so far, they have pinpointed eight sites here inside the presidential compo

nick robertson in saudi arabia. >>> up next the threat of insider attacks. a real fear for u.s.closing down the mission in afghanistan. stay with us. new information coming in. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis like me and you're talking to your rheumatologist about a biologic... this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further damage. this is humira giving me new perspective. doctors have been prescribing humira for ten years. humira works for many adults. it targets and helps to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers including lymphoma have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like sympt

>> nick robertson, thank you so much. >>> let's bring in senior u.n. correspondent richard roth. good to see you this morning. what have you learned about the discussion? >> the meeting of the u.n. security council was called by russia to discuss the issue of a humanitarian pause that nic robertson discussed, the increase in violence and the casualties in the fighting in yemen. this is the third weekend meeting on yemen, i believe, for the security council, and it hasn't exactly led to any type of halt in the fighting. if anything things have increased as big powers in the region do what they feel is necessary to protect their own interest. now russia had been dueling with saudi arabia over the issue of coalition, arab coalition air strikes in yemen to fight the houthis. the saudi arabian said president putin of russia was using very critical language that was not needed because russia has decided always to defend assad in syria, leading to over 200,000 deaths. back to you. >> how plausible is it the u.n. may have plans to help the saudi arabia-led coalition, richard? >> well the

nick robertson, thank you. >>> the fbi has arrested six men across two cities in connection with an isistoday, president obama will host the crown prince of the united arab emirates. >>> a tsunami advisory lifted in the sea of japan. the 6.8 quake in the waters east of taiwan and south of okinawa caused buildings to sway in t'aipei. it caused people to seek higher ground. the tsunami warning was lifted about an hour after it was issued. right now, no reports of serious damage or injuries. >>> let's get an early start on your money. cristina alesci is here. good morning. >> mixed morning. asia shares are tumbling, but u.s. futures are shrugging it off. futures are higher after the rough end to the week. friday markets fell. the dow shed 279 points. the nasdaq and s&p were also down 1%. that was largely because the chinese government announced new regulations on trading. more bad news from china. the central bank recognizing the stanley. the first profit decline since 2009. the markets are ready for it. anything bigger than that we may have trouble. >> cristina alesci thank you. >>> hillary cli

to tell us more about this american terrorist, i'm joined by nick robertson, cnn's senior international correspondent. great to have you on. i just want to ask you first about warren weinstein. kidnapped in 2011. somewhat out of the consciousness during that time in the u.s. was that intentional to some degree that you keep cases like this hostages like this out of the news to allow for the possibility of a negotiation to get them out? >> you do, and that's typical. we understand that was what was happening in this case. although his family -- i was in communication with them about just under a couple years ago. at that time they were frustrated. there had been a proof of life video some months earlier, but they really felt the administration wasn't doing enough. although they'd been having a lot of help before and they were worried that dr. weinstein was going to be forgotten. were all the talk at that stage about the possible release of bowe bergdahl there was a real concern in their family that warren was going to get lost in that picture. so it is typical that you do try to keep it

many of them as we heard from nick robertson lost perhaps from on below deck holding facilities. have you heard of any numbers you feel comfortable reporting or not yet? >> reporter: the numbers as you sid are all over the place, you have to keep in mind that these are human traffickers. these are people who don't make passenger lists. so we have no idea. but certainly,er with hearing in anywhere between 650 and according to bun bangladeshi survivor we questioned by the italian authorities, as many as 950 on board. >> that includes as many as 200 women and up to 50 children as well and many of them were apparently according to this bangladeshi survivor were on the lower d.c.s locked by the traffickers. >> all right. den, thank you. again, this wasn't just about people looking for work. this was an escape for what they feared at the hands of isis. john. >>> well, the drama unfomds, multiple drama, more arrests of isis sympathizers here in the united states. the fbi nabbed at least six people in indianapolis and san diego for theiraled roles if an isis-inspired terror plot. cnn has

let's bring in nick robertson. know or don't know about the al qaeda leader that's in the pictures today. >> sure. i mean he was a significant leader and he has been in jail for about four or five years. the fact that he is sprung and making the publicity campaign and showing him inside of the pallace and in the city. being held in jail and shows that this is a big thing for al qaeda. what they're going to try to do is maximize the opportunities in the moment to try to take control as they have done before of prove vances and towns and that of course is is everyone's worst nightmare. for the officials on this side of the border their concerns is not that they will come across the border but the rebels threatening to come and invade saudi. we got a chance to go to the border to see how they're preparing for that. >> stand bags and stepped up security and yards from yemen and rebels just across the board. >> translator: >> border guards show us a preparation for the war that they hope will not happen. they're told to

senior international correspondent nic robertson reported extensively on al qaeda and international efforts to fight terrorism. he joins us now live from london. nick, certainly the u.s. ood min strags drone warfare on al qaeda has been quite controversial and now we have this. >> it has been very controversial, in particular in pakistan. they criticize the united states generally when these strikes happen. they believe by the pakistani government to be counter productive on the ground. that drone strikes that sometimes have class ral damage causing deaths of innocent civilians, actually help radicalize groups like al qaeda and in that region. that's the ongoing pakistani concern. that said, however, the pakistani government, former preside president meu shar ef, saying that they have been given the green light, areas to operate in. the precise information of who may be in a building at given time is very hard to gauge even from the air, even after many potentially hundreds of hours of surveillance of those targ the. but it has serve had to decimate the leadership of al qaeda in that area. but at a price is what the critic would argue. natalie? >>

nic robertson is a few miles from the yemeni boarder in saudi arabia he joins me on the phone. nick to you, yemen has the really full attention of the u.n. security council right now. the red cross is demanding a stop to the fighting. but after days and days of being bombarded by the saudi air strikes it doesn't seem like the houthis are responding at all. >> reporter: no in fact the houthis are not being stopped by the saudi air strikes. the saudi air strikes are continuing to do they have the heaviest round of bombardment around the capital last night. they were targeting military base bases, weapons scud missiles on the loose, houthi command and control sites. the real fighting is around the southern port city of adener where officials say the humanitarian situation is the most desperate. local officials say more than 100 people died more than 1,000 wounded. the reason it appears fighting around the port city of aden is the most intense is because there are -- that is a strong hold at the moment of the southern separatists who are, if you will fighting in support of the president

robertson is near the yemen/saudi arabia border with more on this. how serious is this prison break? all right. it looks like we lost nick robert vonn there.alone in calling for this break in the fighting in yemen. russia called the emergency meeting of the u.n. security council, hoping to get a pause in the violence to get humanitarian aid into yemen. cnn's richard roth is at the u.n. with us now. so richard, the arab league seems pretty unified in trying to remove these iranian-backed rebels. but to what extent? >> well the security council is having its first meeting on yemen since saudi arabia and other gulf countries came to the aid of the now it appears former president after he appealed for international assistance. so what's going on now in this closed-door meeting, a bit of emergency talks to really start to brainstorm at an initial stage. however, it was russia who called this meeting, and it is russia who is now behind closed doors, presented a draft resolution which does call for some sort of humanitarian pause. of but other diplomats from other countries say it's really not exactly a resolution of a humanitarian pauses. there