U.S. Airstrikes Destroys "Millions" in ISIS Cash; Refugees Suspected in Wave of Sexual Violence
TAPPER: Welcome back. We're back with some news of a dangerous and rather risky move in our World Lead. Officials tell CNN the U.S. military destroyed a building in Mosul, Iraq, that housed millions in ISIS cash. But what makes this mission so peculiar is the location of the building and what could have happened had the military missed its target. Let's go to CNN's Barbara Starr, she's at the Pentagon. Barbara, you say that this building was surrounded by civilians?</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: This is in Mosul, Iraq, second largest city, Jake. This is an area of Mosul where civilians regularly are indeed. So when the U.S. got intelligence -- and they're not telling us what the intelligence is, and they were certain there was millions in ISIS controlled cash in that building, they started to watch it from overhead. Trying to determine the time of day -- excuse me, when there would be the fewest civilians in the area. They knew that ISIS personnel were in the building that night managing the cash. They used the cash to pay the troops to finance operations and that they were civilians in the daytime. So when to strike. They made the decision to go ahead and strike it at dawn on Sunday. They believe there may have been a small number of civilian casualties, but consider this. They were willing, we are told, to go as high as 50 civilian casualties. They thought the target was worth it. This essentially is an expansion of the ISIS target list for the U.S. to go after these major financial targets and try and wipe out ISIS' cash supply. If they can do that, is may find it much more difficult to operate -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: Barbara, of course, part of the context here is the Obama administration has been criticized by former members of the military and others for being too cautious when it comes to OK'ing strikes in this war against ISIS. Do you think we're going to hear of more airstrikes like this one in the future?</s>STARR: Well, in fact the chairman of the Joint Chiefs appears to have laid the ground work for that a couple of weeks ago on Capitol Hill when he said they will be looking at targets essentially on a case by case basis. And if the target is important enough, they may well be willing to tolerate more civilian casualties making it very clear if they found Baghdadi, the head of ISIS. So significant a target they may be willing to sort of expand their willingness to tolerate civilian casualties in the case of an all- important target like that. And it looks like this one was the first of perhaps additional targets where they are willing to tolerate civilian casualties.</s>TAPPER: Interesting. Something of a demarcation point with this hit. Barbara Starr, thank you so much. In other world news today, anti-Muslim violence is spilling into the streets across Germany. Six Pakistani men and one Syrian were assaulted by a mob in the city of Cologne in Germany Sunday. The attacks come as more than a dozen refugees are now suspected in a string of what's been called coordinated sexual assaults and robberies during New Year's Eve celebrations. In that same city, the female accusers describe the perpetrators as men of, quote, "Arab decents," sparking fears over the wave of refugees who have been seeking asylum in Germany and of course, throughout Europe. CNN's Atika Shubert has been speaking with her sources. She joins me from Cologne, Germany. Atika, how many incidents are we talking about?</s>ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, these are the latest numbers to come in on that mass assault that took place right here in the square on that chaotic New Year's Eve in Cologne. According to police, they now have more than 500 criminal complaints from that night alone. A little less than half of those are being investigated as sexual assaults. The vast majority of the suspects however are refugees and migrants. And as you can imagine that's caused a tremendous backlash. In fact, over the weekend in Cologne hundreds of angry demonstrators were out in the streets demanding an end to Germany's refugee policy. There was a little bit of violence, beer bottles being thrown, water cannons were used to push them back. But at the same time that was happening this one part of the city, quite close by hundreds more protesters demanding that the doors remain open for refugees. So clearly this is played into the fears of the German public here and divided many people, and unfortunately last night police say there were also attacks on migrants, six Pakistani men and one Syrian man, were attacked by a small group of local residents. This is exactly the kind of thing that authorities had feared. Germany's interior minister today called for calm and so there has to be tougher law enforcement, but that the right to asylum is still a basic right in Germany and that the doors will remain open here for refugees -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: Atika Shubert in Cologne, Germany. Thank you so much. In our Money Lead today, if you're disappointed that you didn't win the Powerball jackpot this weekend, don't be. You can still dream of becoming a billionaire after no one hit the Powerball on Saturday night. The sizzling hot jackpot has now climbed up to a whopping $1.4 billion, billion. That's the biggest pot of lottery cash ever. People are scrambling to buy tickets. In states like Kentucky and North Carolina, record ticket sales have been reported. But don't get too excited. Your odds of winning it's about 1 in 292 million. Which means according to these calculations if they are correct, you probably have a better chance of getting a date with a super model and then being killed by a vending machine while being struck by lightning. In our Pop Culture Lead, he wasn't just a rock star. David Bowie was an icon in music and fashion and art and much more. We'll remember his talent and his influence next.