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At Least 120 Dead In Yemen Suicide Attacks; ISIS Claiming Responsibility For Yemen Attacks; At Least 30 Killed In India Train Derailment; Fear Over Sleeper Cells; Targeting Tourists; Somber Independence Day In Tunisia; Attackers Trained And Armed In Libya; Jihadi Cells In Tunisia; Militants Aiming at Tourists. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired March 20, 2015 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

We start with the breaking news. The horrific suicide attacks in Yemen's embattled capital city of Sanaa where suicide bombers targeted mosques during Friday prayers. The toll, at least, at least 120 people dead, more than 300 people injured. And now, just as they did with the Tunisian museum attack on Tuesday, ISIS is claiming responsibility for this attack in Yemen.

Moments ago, we heard this from the White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, talking about that ISIS claim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We are still investigating to determine whether or not there are actually command and control structures in place that may provide some evidence to substantiate the claim that ISIL was involved in these attacks. At this point, there is no indication that there is an operational link but that's something that is still being investigated by our national security professionals.

But there is no doubt that the kind of extremism that is a part of ISIL is endemic in other places in the country -- in the region. What we are seeing, at least in this case, is we are seeing extremists try to capitalize on the chaos and instability inside of Yemen to carry out these acts of violence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We're covering all the angles of the breaking story. Our Senior International Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is standing by in Beirut. Our Terrorism Analyst Paul Cruickshank is in New York. Our Military Analyst, retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, Rick Francona, is joining us from Carmel, California. Here with me in Washington, our CNN Counterterrorism Analyst Phil Mudd. He also sits on the National Intelligence Council and the Board of the National Terrorism Center. Nick, let me get the latest information from you, the targets, the victims, what happened?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Over 120 dead, over 300 injured. Hospitals in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa are crying out for blood donors to try and assist with treating that wave of wounded. It was during the busiest time of Friday, during Friday prayer, when two key Shia mosques in the capital of Sanaa were attacked, familiar attacks, chillingly similar to Al Qaeda and other extremists in the past. A suicide bomber went into the crowds of worshippers at both mosques, detonated and then, as many rushed in to help, another device, a suicide bomber and a car bomb, at both mosques respectively, tore into those crowds of people trying to rescue the injured.

Now, many deeply concerned this could be the beginning of a new chapter of sectarian violence in Yemen. There has been great instability as the Shia group, the Houthis, who were targeted today have swept across the country, many say backed by Iran taking hold of the capital, Sanaa, ousting in the internationally recognized government of President Hadi. But they face Sunni tribes who oppose them. Many concerned that Sunni extremists allied with them that targeted these mosques today -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Stand by for a moment, Nick. Paul Cruickshank, is this just another in a series of wars, if you will, between Shiites and Sunnis?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, it's looking very much like this. And I think there's a real risk that this could plunge Yemen into a full bore civil war. There's a lot of similarity with that suicide bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra in 2006. And when Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the founder of ISIS launched that attack in Iraq, his plan was to provoke the Shia into a big retaliation against the Sunni and drive the Sunni into the arms of ISIS and Al Qaeda.

I think whoever was responsible for this in Yemen today, whether it was ISIS or whether it was Al Qaeda in Yemen, I think it's the same strategy, provoke more sectarian bloodshed, provoke a civil war, get more Sunnis than even already to go into the Al Qaeda or ISIS side in Yemen.

BLITZER: The Houthi Shiites who took control of a big chunk of Yemen, as you know, Phil, they got backing from Iran. It looks like Yemen, potentially, could be shaping up as another horrible situation, a civil war like in Syria.

PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: I think we've got to look at this in a broader context. We've got to look at what's happened in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, every place where you have Sunni extremists rise and you have a significant Shia population. We view these in terms of the western lands. ISIS is a threat to Washington, New York, Chicago? From a regional perspective, you've got to look at this as a Sunni-Shia fight. Every one of those circumstances, the Sunnis on the rise, groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS are saying, hey, those Shia, they're heretics. Like we saw today in Yemen, we're going after them. We want them out. [13:05:00] BLITZER: Rick Francona, as you know, the U.S. embassy was

evacuated. All Americans got out of Yemen a few -- several weeks ago. They quickly got out of there. But Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP, which represents, according to U.S. terrorism analysts, a major threat to the U.S. homeland, they're trying to -- they're trying to bomb planes, if you will. They still have their headquarters there in Yemen. What, if anything, is the U.S. able to do in a situation like this now?

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA (RETIRED), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, our capabilities have been severely degraded by losing the embassy there, losing our forward presence. The administration claims that they still have contacts with some people working in Yemen but it is really, really hurt. And you're right, the AQAP is a threat. They have the intent and the capability to do damage here. Remember, they put things on airplanes, the printer explosive devices. So, they represent a real threat.

And I agree with what -- you know, what Phil and Paul have said, this could be a much broader conflagration between Sunni and Shia. And if you believe that Iran is behind what's going on in Sanaa with the Houthis, and if you're a Gulf Arab state, you've got to be very concerned about what you see happening. You've got the Sunni crescent, Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad, Tabaron (ph), and now Sanaa, sort of falling into this severe influence of Iran.

BLITZER: All right, guys. Yes, this is a real, real awful situation, what's happening in Yemen right now. And we're going to have much more on this story coming up.

There's another story we're watching in northern India where at least 30 people are dead after a train derailment, 50 others injured, when the engine and two passenger cars jumped the tracks after the train missed a stop. Onlookers crowded the scene as rescue workers continued to pull survivors from rail car wreckage. The cause of the crash still under investigation right now.

Up next, the latest in Tunisia. The government there talking about potential terrorist sleeper cells. We'll go there live.

And later, prime targets for terror. Why militant groups are taking direct aim at international tourists. Stay with us.

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[13:10:00]

BLITZER: Let's go to Tunisia right now, a very different celebration today. It's the country's independence day but observances there are overshadowed by this week's tragic massacre on tourists. At least 21 people, most of them foreign tourists from Europe, Japan, Australia, Colombia, were killed. The majority of those victims travelled there aboard two cruise ships which docked today in Spain. Some talked about narrowly escaping the tragedy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't realize what happened. We don't know. We got on the ship here, set the television on and, oh, Tunisia. Oh, aliab (ph). Then, you realize that you escaped from it but the other people are not lucky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Our Phil Black is joining us live from Tunis right now. Phil, as you know, most of the victims were Europeans, a few Asians. Tell us a little bit more about the departure of the survivors and the status of the victims right now, those who survived but are -- remain in the hospital.

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we've been inside some of the hospitals here in Tunis and seen how hard, how frantically medical and administrative staff are working to treat the wounded. They were initially inundated. They're working through them, treating them, giving them the best possible treatment, and getting them out the door as quickly as they can. And then, working with local diplomatic stuff to get them on their flights back to their homelands as quickly as possible. That process is ongoing. It largely depends upon just how well a lot of these patients are.

The other process that is underway are the bodies. Those who didn't survive the attack. In the morgue earlier today, we were told there are still some 15 bodies that are being held there, some of which still haven't been identified.

And, again, it is a matter of the medical staff at these hospitals, at the morgue, working with local diplomatic missions to identify them and get them home on specially organized flights. They hope to have all of this done in the next few days. It's a big job, but it has been somewhat slow going in these initial days after the attack -- Wolf.

BLITZER: The Tunisian government, Phil, as you know, says the killers trained next door in Libya. A government official even mentioned what was described as sleeper cells inside Tunisia. Are there fears now that this was potentially just a start of a larger campaign against Tunisia's democratically elected government?

BLACK: Yes, very much so. The existence of jihadi cells here in Tunisia, well, that is a known element, a known threat. It has been identified for some time. What this is is a combination, potentially, with the ongoing instability next door in Libya. The government says the two gunmen crossed into Libya, were trained in a camp somewhere near Benghazi. The concern here, of course, is ISIS, because that's territory that ISIS is known to have camps. The idea that elements from ISIS could now continue to threaten the stability -- the political stability of this country in an ongoing way is very much a concern -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Phil Black in Tunis for us. Phil, stay safe over there.

Up next, targeting tourists. We'll take a closer look at past attacks. Why museums and monuments have become terror targets. Stay with us.

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[13:17:10] BLITZER: The attack in Tunisia highlights the vulnerability of tourists. They're a high-profile target in this war between terror, western values, including democracy. Our own Miguel Marquez reports the Tunisia museum attack, it was a massacre, is not the first and likely won't be the last.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The targeting of Tunisia's most prominent museum, a sharp reminder for tourists, without warning, they could find themselves on the front lines of violent extremist war against westerners.

November 26, 2008, Mumbai, India. Ten fighters from the Pakistani Islamic group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, launched a series of grenade and automatic weapon attacks against high-profile locations over a four- day period. One hundred and sixty-four people were killed.

October 12, 2002, Bali, Indonesia, where tens of thousands of American tourists travel every year. Al Qaeda affiliate Jemaah Islamiyah detonated three bombs. The first bomb near the U.S. consulate in Denpasar caused no injuries. The second bomb, just after 11:00 p.m., a suicide bomber inside Paddy's Pub. As the injured and frightened ran into the street, a third larger car bomb exploded. Two hundred and two people, including seven Americans, were killed.

November 17, 1997, Luxor, Egypt. An Islamic group associated with al- Gama'a al-Islamiyya fired automatic weapons into a tour bus, stabbed and killed some 68 mostly Swiss and Japanese tourists at one of Egypt's top tourist destinations, Deir el-Bahri.

ISIS, al Qaeda and al Shabaab have all expressed their desire to hit western targets. A recent bid of ISIS propaganda promises just that. "Soon in your city will be the battle."

The groups have already specified targets it would like to hit. In Rome, 500 police have been added to protect landmark tourist destinations like the Vatican and Coliseum. Recently, though, no Islamic group is known to have targeted a heavily guarded tourist destination. But still, it has threatened places like the White House, London's Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and even Minnesota's Mall of America.

Miguel Marquez, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Threats like those may be behind the new numbers in our CNN/ORC poll. Take a look at these number. We asked whether ISIS poses a serious threat to the United States. You see the breakdown. Fifty- six percent say very serious, 24 percent say fairly serious. That's 80 percent total. Eighty percent who say it's a pretty serious threat. And as you can see, that number has been steadily growing since September.

Let's bring back our panel. CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank, our military analyst retired Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona, and CNN counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd.

[13:20:02] Why are these tourist attractions so important to these ISIS and other al Qaeda-related terror organizations?

PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Look, this isn't about tourists and it's not about museums, it's about money. You go back earlier to what we were talking about on screen just a few minutes ago, mid-'90s, one of the predecessors to al Qaeda attacks Luxor, Egypt, the location of major tourist attractions and a major turn for radicals in Egypt. Twenty years later, the successors to that group, the successors to al Qaeda, go after tourists in Tunisia. The reason is, the money they bring in underpins the government.

There is one downside though, Wolf. That is not just money that affects the government's ability to keep operating, it is money that gives jobs to local people. If ISIS wants to recruit Tunisians, it's not a great method, in my view, to undertake operations that limit their ability to make money off tourists. The local population is going to say, we're not up for this

BLITZER: Paul Cruickshank, if ISIS did in fact undertake this massacre at the museum in Tunis this week and killed all these Europeans, a few Asians who happened to be touring that museum over there, do they really think that's going to strengthen them propaganda-wise, get more recruits if these innocent people are just slaughtered like this?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, I think Phil is absolutely right, that there is a potential backlash here that could happen in somewhere like Tunisia. We actually saw that in Egypt after the Luxor massacre in '97. That led to the defeat of jihadist groups in Egypt pretty much at the time. The Egyptian people really turned against them. We saw a similar backlash in Indonesia following the Bali bombings.

But, of course, ISIS is playing to a hard line, energized base which love these kind of attacks which target westerners, which target sort of the secular cultural pre-Islamic heritage as well. Up to 15 percent of people in Tunisia employment link the tourism sector. So as Phil was saying, this could really undermine the economy in Tunisia, lead to more economic problems, lead to more grievances and more radicalization. All of that plays into ISIS' hands.

BLITZER: Do you think, Rick Francona, that international tourist attractions should beef up security right now wherever they are?

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, they have to because tourist sites represent a really lucrative target for ISIS because they're usually not well defended. They're - they are frequented by westerners and that tends to be the target of these groups. You know, tourism is a fragile industry. Any bad publicity immediately you can go elsewhere. There are a lot of places to visit. So if there's danger in Tunisia, you'll go somewhere else. Egypt has not recovered from the violence that it experienced in the

'90s and in the early part of the 2000s. So their tour industry is really in bad shape now. What's going to happen the Tunisian tour industry? We've already seen cruise lines going for alternate locations. The stock market took a hit. It's going to be a real problem economically for the Tunisians.

And that's one of the effects that ISIS, al Qaeda, these groups want to have. And I think Paul and Phil are both exactly right, this does drive recruitment. We thought that the emulation of that Jordanian pilot was going to somehow affect their recruitment and it had the opposite effect. It really pumped up their numbers. So, you know, these targets are very effective for them.

BLITZER: It's hard to believe that these, Phil, that these kinds of activities do pump up numbers. More people volunteer to go fight with ISIS in the aftermath of a horrific slaughter like this or the burning of that Jordanian pilot that Rick just spoke about.

MUDD: That's right. You've got to remember, this - in the view of the adversary, that is in the view of ISIS or its predecessors, al Qaeda, this is viewed as a bumper sticker. This is an advertisement to say, if you're on the extreme fringe of Islam, in this battle for the soul of Islam, there's only one place to join. It's not al Qaeda. It's not some other fringe group. It's the guys who can operate in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, et cetera.

The problem is, they can't manage to transition from the fringes to the heart of the Islamic world. And that is why this attack at the heart of the Tunisian economy is so significant. I think they're going to have a hard time persuading Tunisian people beyond the fringe to say, hey, this is a good idea. I've just lost my job, but let me go join the people who forced me to lose that job.

BLITZER: And, Paul, let's not forget, it's not just tourists, international tourists, who are being targeted, not just Christians, not just Jews, it's fellow Muslims. Look what happened today at those mosques in Sanaa, Yemen, where several - you know, dozens and dozens of fellow Muslims, albeit, you know, Sunni Muslims as opposed to Shiite Muslims, but they're still fellow Muslims and most of the victims of these terror groups are in fact Muslim.

CRUICKSHANK: Well, that's absolutely right. The majority of victims in terrorist attacks over the last couple of decades have definitely been Muslims. Of course, from ISIS and al Qaeda's point of view, they don't think the Shia are Muslims. They think they're heretics that need to be killed. So they're deliberately going after the Shia. This is a very deliberate, calculated attack in Yemen to try and plunge the country into civil war.

[13:25:15] But I think, you know, the vast majority of Muslims around the world find this absolutely horrific. And the trouble is, this radical fringe. Inside Tunisia, they're up to 40,000 followers, for example, of Ansar al-Sharia, a pro-jihadi movement. That's a very large number. It's still the fringe, still the minority. But from those number you see those 3,000 people going to Syria and Iraq. You see people going to Libya to get training, going over the border to Algeria to launch - to join up with terror groups. So that's the problem, this small radical fringe with tens of thousands across the Arab world.

BLITZER: All right, Paul Cruickshank, Rick Francona, Phil Mudd, guys, thanks very much.

One final note, the Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, was one of the first customers today for the reopening of the Lindt cafe in Sydney. You'll remember that was the cafe that was the target of a gunman in December who took 17 people hostage. They remained there for 16 hours until police stormed the building. Three people, including the gunman, were killed. Plaques honoring the two victims now hang on the walls of the cafe.

We just received a letter sent to Hillary Clinton's attorney about her private e-mails. We'll have that, a lot more news coming up next.

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