Inside Look at War-Ravaged Raqqa
CAMEROTA: We have an exclusive look for you inside the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, Syria. CNN obtaining stunning satellite images of ISIS' self-declared capital as coalition-backed forces surround the area and are ready to move in for a fierce battle. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is live in Irbil, Iraq, with the exclusive images -- Nick.</s>NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, so tight is ISIS grip of terror on the city. We've only really been able to see what life is like through the lens of their own propaganda footage. But these satellite images obtained by us show some stunning detail what life is like in there as that noose from coalition forces around the city begins to tighten. [06:40:023] Here's what we saw.</s>WALSH (voice-over): The final target in the war on ISIS, their capital, Raqqa. So wretchedly isolated, held hostage in terror, the closest we get to a different space and exclusive satellite pictures taken for CNN. Here, two checkpoints in the street. And nearby, an ISIS flag. Precision strikes cutting its people further off from the world.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Life is not life. Life is death. We are besieged. We can't leave or walk around. Anyone who breathes is slaughtered.</s>WALSH: She's going a day earlier and describes safety to the north a claustrophobic world of living with ISIS, in streets covered by massive tarpaulin, at the top of across this central market to hide ISIS fighters from coalition drone cameras overhead. Another escapee describes how ISIS fighters differ.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The foreigners treat residents very well, but the Syrian ISIS members, they are very aggressive with people.</s>WALSH: ISIS used their own drone to film damage from coalition strikes prior to the slow net slipping over the city. Images of life inside Raqqa are rare, by one occasion filming the panic of residents trying to flee. Only seconds of horror here as ISIS just told them the dam to the west might break open flooding Raqqa. It never happened. Like so much of their propaganda, the dam was fine. But to the west, fierce fighting backed by U.S. special forces has drawn the noose yet tighter. These coalition fighters to the west and east are about to move in from the south. Then, the noose will be complete. And the countdown begins to when these distant streets are open for the world to see again.</s>WALSH: Analysts pointed out from viewing the city as a whole, there are quite vibrant signs of life amongst the population there. And it looks as though when the coalition strikes buildings, it's pretty precise. They don't bring the whole building down, just take out certain things they want around it. You saw in the bridge, in fact, the end of the bridge that was severed, apparently that's to allow rebuilding happening as quickly as possible if the city is liberated. The clock really ticking on that, Chris, the coalition putting a lot of assets in the area around it, using Syrian rebels to build up a force that maybe moves in in the weeks or months ahead. They still have to move in from the south and encircle the city first, though -- Chris.</s>CUOMO: Important reporting and a story well-told. Nick Paton Walsh, thank you very much. All right. So, former President Barack Obama making his first public appearance since leaving the White House. You know the big question, what did he say about Trump? Did he say anything? The answer, next.