Peshmerga Forces Said to be Within 8 KM of Mosul; Abortion Restrictions Protested in Poland
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Closing in on Mosul's doorstep, Kurdish fighters in Iraq say they are mere kilometers from the ISIS-held city. Clearing out what's known as the jungle, French authorities prepare to tear down a migrant camp in Calais. Plus, pub politics in the U.S. -- Our Richard Quest takes his American quest to Florida and gives the unfiltered state of the race at local watering holes. Hello and welcome, everyone. I'm Rosemary Church. And this is CNN NEWSROOM. Nearly a week of fighting with ISIS in Iraq has brought Kurdish Peshmerga forces to within eight kilometers of Mosul. The advance has been faster than expected, but the fighting has been fierce. Here a close-up view of Peshmerga forces opening fire on an approaching ISIS vehicle. Two Peshmerga factions were able to secure a major stretch of the Bashiqa Mosul highway limiting the militants' movement. And our Michael Holmes is near Mosul. He joins us now with the latest developments. And Michael, this has been a tough battle for Iraqi and Peshmerga forces to get this close to Mosul so quickly. What were the major challenges they encountered along the way and what impact have they likely had on ISIS so far?</s>MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're right -- Rosemary. It hasn't been easy, but both Iraqi and Peshmerga leaders say that they're on schedule or ahead of schedule. It seems quite extraordinary that the forward Peshmerga positions are now within about eight kilometers of Mosul, or the outskirts of Mosul. That came after a pretty successful day for Iraqi and Kurdish forces yesterday. They took a very important town, Al Hamda Damir (ph) which is just to the southeast of Mosul. They took another place called Tal Akif (ph) which is to the north and near where we are, Bashiqa. As you pointed out, a very significant win, if you like, for the Peshmerga. What they did was they came in from a couple of directions and surrounded this area of Bashiqa including the town and eight villages. About 100 square kilometers of territory that they managed to secure. They celebrated surrounding the town just after dawn here now. We've already been hearing some artillery going into the town and we can expect them to probe in there and start take on the ISIS fighters inside. But it's all part of this sort of -- what they've done also by taking Bashiqa is they've cut the main road from Mosul to this area, and that's going to mean obviously no resupply and no movement of those ISIS fighters. They're not getting out of there. One of the Kurdish commanders said yesterday when asked about the fighters inside the town, he said they are bad men, they will die. So you can see the determination here. We're on a forward base here and able to sort of see the action of the men. And they're very determined to get in there and clear this area -- all part of encircling Mosul and then sort of choking it off if you like before they make that push in. That push in, though, is going to be a very difficult affair -- Rosemary.</s>CHURCH: Yes, let's talk about that and what has helped this advance on ISIS move faster than expected and what's ahead for Iraqi and Peshmerga forces as they move into Mosul in the days ahead. Of course we're talking about urban warfare here, aren't we?</s>HOLMES: Yes. Once they get into Mosul it's going to be a very different affair. Let's face it, ISIS has been in there for two years. They've had plenty of time to fortify their defenses. There's this theory that they may move from the east of the city down to the west where the old city is, very narrow streets. The sort of vehicles we see barreling across open desert here isn't going to happen when they get into Mosul. They're not going to be able to take a lot of those armored vehicles down those side streets. And as we've seen in the past in Iraq in places like Fallujah, urban combat is a very different affair to going through villages and taking open territory. And of course, there is the issue of civilians -- perhaps 200,000, perhaps 300,000 civilians still inside Mosul. And only a few thousand have managed to get out and get to some of the camps that have been set up. But even though they're ahead of schedule or on schedule, the resistance has been pretty tough in various places. And there's also been another side issue to that --</s>CHURCH: All right. We appear to have lost our audio there. Michael Holmes, just after 7:00 in the morning, reporting from near Mosul -- bringing us up to date on the latest there. We'll have more on that a little later. The bombing of eastern Aleppo has resumed after a humanitarian cease- fire ended. It appears few if any people actually left the besieged neighborhood during the lull in fighting. Rebels and residents contacted by CNN said they were not budging largely out of mistrust of Syria and Russia. The area has about 250,000 residents who are trapped by government troops. And fighting has also escalated in Yemen's capital just hours after the U.N. special envoy for the country urged all sides to renew a three-day cease-fire. Saudi coalition warplanes reportedly targeted several Houthi rebel positions in Sana'a Sunday. At least 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen's 19-month-old civil war. And tensions are high in the French migrant camp known as the jungle, where authorities will begin evicting migrants in just a few hours from now. Migrants threw stones at police and built a barricade of burning tires late Sunday. Officers fired back with tear gas. Authorities are giving migrants their two options -- seek asylum in France or return to their home countries. But many don't want to register as refugees in France because they prefer to settle in Britain. Well, the French Interior Ministry says there are almost 7,000 migrants in the camp located near the French entrance to the Euro tunnel. That number includes about 1,300 children and 300 families. French officials say the residents will be relocated to small shelters around the country, each housing 100 to 300 people.</s>FABIENNE BUCCIO, PAS-DE-CALAIS, REGIONAL PREFECT (through translator): We set up a special processing system. This took a long time -- a very particular processing system for the minors. So there will be a specific registration for minors tomorrow at the SAS sorting center by a French-British team that will take charge of them. Then all these children, all these minors will be taken to the temporary welcome center where they will be accommodated, hosted within the migrant camp on the moor at the temporary welcome center.</s>CHURCH: The United Nations says at least 200 of the unaccompanied children in Calais have family links to the United Kingdom. CNN's Melissa Bell spoke to two boys who say they've been waiting too long to leave France.</s>MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tents as far as the eye can see -- the jungle in Calais will soon be no more. Its 1,300 unaccompanied children are hoping that means they'll soon be in the U.K. like 14- year-old Muhammad, who crossed 12 countries in 75 days with just one idea in mind.</s>MUHAMMAD, MIGRANT: I want to join to my uncle. I'm so tired here. I have -- I left more than one year ago but I don't arrive to my uncle yet. I love football. I want to play football. And I want to rest in peace.</s>BELL: So far though, he says he's had no help from authorities. He's been trying to get to the U.K. for a year now, waiting in a camp where he says only the most brutal survive.</s>MUHAMMAD: I will never forget. It's all here in my head because it's been so hard for me.</s>BELL: Riyaz (ph)is also 14 and from Afghanistan. He too has family waiting for him in England. But three months ago he left the camp and sought refuge with a local NGO. After eight months on the road he finally found a place to rest and much more.</s>RIYAZ, MIGRANT: They teach us French. We study here. They give us some money for our needs to buy clothes, to buy pants, shirts, like this. And we are just waiting here to go to England.</s>BELL: But Riyaz says he's been waiting too long. He's also worried that in leaving the jungle he may have made a mistake. So many of his friends, he says, have already left to start their new life on the other side of the channel. Melissa Bell, CNN -- Calais.</s>CHURCH: Women's rights activists plan to be back on the streets across Poland on Monday. They were out demonstrating on Sunday against planned abortion restrictions. They told CNN's Nic Robertson they'll keep protesting until lawmakers in Warsaw get the message. Here's his report.</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: This protest comes several weeks after several hundred thousand people across the country protested about tougher abortion laws the government was planning to introduce. They managed to get that knocked back. Now, this crowd is much, much smaller but they're here pushing the issues of women in Poland. They're not getting a fair shake, they say.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We already won.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We already won with the government when the government attempted to ban abortion in any case except the severe risk to women's lives. But we see that the situation is -- may repeat itself. This is why we are protesting. We need to be recognized as full citizens with our full rights.</s>ROBERTSON: Although this crowd is much smaller, perhaps just several thousand, there is a real sense here they've got some momentum, that their voices are being heard, that they can make change.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At least they withdrew the scandalous law that was being discussed then. But knowing Kaczynski (ph), we know that this is not his final step and he will think of something new in order to divide us. This is what I don't like, right?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a very important sign that we are able to organize ourselves. But this can be also misleading because this is only one thing and we really have to fight again and again because the comments of the government after the process weren't really reassuring in any way.</s>ROBERTSON: Protests are planned not just here in Warsaw but in hundreds of communities across the country, right down to small villages. No one here is expecting change to happen quickly or easily. But as one lady said to us here, if you mess with a woman you're never going to win. Nic Robertson, CNN -- Warsaw, Poland.</s>CHURCH: Political passions boiled over in Venezuela's congress. Why supporters of the president stormed the national assembly -- coming up on CNN NEWSROOM.