Militants Threaten to March on Baghdad; Ukraine: 49 Dead as Rebels Down Plane; Violent Militants Move toward Baghdad; Bergdahl's Second Day Home
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: You guys have a good one. Thank you, I'll need it. I appreciate it. It is the 11:00 hour of the NEWSROOM which begins right now. Coming up, the crisis in Iraq, as the Prime Minister there promises to fight the Islamist militants who are threatening Baghdad. He could get help from the U.S., but President Obama says that help won't include American troops on the ground.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will not be sending U.S. troops back into combat in Iraq, but I have asked my national security team to prepare a range of other options that could help support Iraq security forces. And I will be reviewing those options in the days ahead.</s>WHITFIELD: Plus the crisis in Ukraine. The President there is promising to punish the people who shut down a military plane with nearly 50 people on board. And an immigration crisis in the U.S. hundreds of children coming into the country every day illegally and in many cases alone. The problem is -- where will they stay after they cross the border? Hello, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. First up Iraq's government is recruit volunteer fighters in the face of brutal militants who want to take over Baghdad. Shiite supporters are answering the call in Baghdad, boarding buses, ready to take up arms and fight. They're trying to beat back radical militants from the Islamic state out in Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS. The group took over Mosul this week, Iraq's second largest city. And they didn't meet much resistance from Iraqi defense forces. Police and soldiers ran from their posts, taking off their uniforms and fleeing. This video shows militants stomping on those uniforms right there. The United States is watching the situation very carefully. President Obama said yesterday the U.S. will not send troops back into combat in Iraq, but he will review a range of options. The rapid collapse in Iraq has put the U.S. and the whole world on edge. And everyone is watching to see if ISIS will follow through on its threat to march on to Baghdad. We have crews covering this story around the world. Nic Robertson is on the phone for us from Baghdad, Athena Jones is live at the White House. Let's start in Baghdad. Nic, the situation there today, what is it? And what are Iraq's leaders saying this morning?</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, there is concern in Baghdad. There is some amount of panic buying, there is an increased level of security and we are seeing young men volunteering to join the Shia militia and go and on fight with the Iraqi army north of Baghdad. There is a sense here today that ISIS' rapid advance towards Baghdad, has been slowed by some of these fighters being deployed to the north of the city. The Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki went to a very important town Tamara which was a scene of a very bloody attack on an important Shia shrine in 2006, it led to a massive onslaught of sectarian bloodletting that year and continued the following year. Mr. Maliki said this is the town where the defense would begin and he said it was no -- it was no, it was not by chance that so many army officers put down their uniforms and run away. This is what he said.</s>NOURI AL-MALIKI, PRIME MINISTER OF IRAQ (through translator): What happened recently did not result from a lack of weapons, but it was a conspiracy. It was a trick. There was no collusion when orders made by people we know we are made to some army formations to withdraw, which resulted in confusion, that we do not want to happen in the ranks of our army.</s>ROBERTSON: Now, I know by talking to tribal leaders that offers were made to senior army officers to tell them to put down the weapons if they left their posts, they would be allowed to go free. And today I have talked by phone with an army officer who is now in hiding in northern Iraq. He said that he found all the soldiers at his post had deserted. He was forced to take off his uniform and is now hiding with a family in a small town, he says, where ISIS has now arrived and are negotiating with the leaders of that town to take control of that town in the north of Iraq -- Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: All right Nic Robertson, we'll check with you later. Thanks so much. Let's bring in Athena, Athena Jones now live at the White House for the latest on how the President is planning to respond to this developing and growing crisis. Athena if ISIS carries out its threat to march toward Baghdad, what if anything can the U.S. do?</s>ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well that's the question -- hi Fredricka -- that the President and his national security team are trying to answer this weekend and in the coming days. The President himself is spending father's day weekend in California, but he's maintaining close contact with his national security team, which is working to come up with a range of options short of putting U.S. troops on the ground to try to help Iraq force back these Sunni insurgents. But the President has said that any larger solution to this is not going to be purely a military one. In order to have a long-term resolution to this crisis it's going to require Iraq's government to make some political changes.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Iraqi security forces have proven unable to defend a number of cities, which has allowed the terrorists to overrun part of Iraq territory.</s>JONES (voice over): Three years after President Obama pulled U.S. troops out of the Iraq, he says the growing sectarian crisis there now threatens America's national security. The President and his advisers are discussing a range of options, including air strikes, to help Iraq fight off the Sunni militant group that has captured its second largest city, Mosul. He says Iraq's government won't get any U.S. military help unless Iraq 'Shiite minister, Nouri al-Maliki makes big changes.</s>OBAMA: This should be a wake-up call. Iraq's leaders have to demonstrate a willingness to make hard decision.</s>JONES: Maliki has long resisted calls to strike power-sharing deals with his Sunni Muslim and Kurdish rivals. Deals that could help bring stability to the oil-rich country.</s>KENNETH POLLACK, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Unfortunately what we've seen from the Prime Minister over the eight, nine years that he's been in office is that this is a man who is very reluctant to bargain with his rivals.</s>JONES: Shiite Iran have any interest in preventing Iraq from falling to Sunni militants and could help the U.S. push Maliki to bargain.</s>POLLACK: Iraq is one of those places in the Middle East where the United States and Iran actually have something of a confluence of interests.</s>JONES: Meanwhile, Republicans are criticizing the President's Iraq policy, saying it was a mistake not to leave some U.S. forces behind.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I predicted that this would happen when they decided not to have a residual force. Anybody tells you they couldn't isn't telling the truth.</s>JONES: A president under pressure at home, pressing Iraqis to do more to help themselves.</s>OBAMA: Our troops and the American people and the American taxpayers made huge investments and sacrifices in order to give Iraqis the opportunity to chart a better course, a better destiny. But ultimately they're going to have to seize it.</s>JONES: Now the President is going to be reviewing the options his team provides in the coming days, but it's going to take several days. Any plan for U.S. action is going to take several days to put together. So this is not going to be happening overnight -- Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: All right thanks so much, Athena Jones. We'll return to the topic a bit later. All right. So now let's talk about the crisis in Ukraine. The government there says rebels shot down a Ukrainian military plane in the eastern part of that country killing all 49 people on board. And now security officials say a homemade bomb was left outside the President's office in Kiev. Our Matthew Chance is live for us now in Moscow with the latest. So Matthew what can you tell us about these two developments?</s>MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, the bomb, that's right the Ukrainian security services say that an explosive device was found near the President's office, President Poroshenko just sworn in week ago the presidency of Ukraine. A device found outside his office in the center of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. They described the device as being made up of several hand grenades and then some metal screws and things like that that would have caused terrible damage and mobile phone there. Also a threatening note attached to the device addressed to President Poroshenko calling on him to end his military activities in eastern and southern Ukraine. But that's where, of course, the government is conducting what it calls its antiterrorism operation and also bring rebel controlled areas back under government control. And it's where the biggest single loss of life since the crisis in Ukraine began several months ago took place earlier today with an aircraft, a giant jumbo jet sized transport plane of the Ukrainian air force, shot out of the sky as it attempted to land at an airport in a city called Lahansk which is near the Russian border. The government and the defense ministry blaming pro-Russia separatist rebels for carrying out that attack; 49 people on board, nine crew members, 40 members of the parachute regiment that were going to eastern Ukraine to reinforce government position -- so as I say, the biggest single loss of life since the outbreak of possibilities in Ukraine -- Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: And then we also learned at least three Ukrainian soldiers were killed in a battle with pro-Russian separatist. The government had said earlier that it was making some progress against separatists. How much of a setback is this?</s>CHANCE: Well, I mean, it's sort of six steps forward and six steps backwards, if I can mix my metaphor in that way. Yes, the government has made a lot of gains. It recently took rebel positions in a city called Maripol (ph) in which they had been held by rebels for some time. It reestablishes positions there, so it's made some gains. At the same time you can see that there are sort of regular attack that cause a great of damage in the east on government forces. And so the battle is far from over, and it could be a long-lasting struggle for control of that part of the Ukraine.</s>WHITFIELD: And then Russia's response in all of this?</s>CHANCE: Well, Russia has been pretty tight-lipped on the issue of the downing of the transport plane. There have been a lot of accusations circling between Moscow and Kiev -- Kiev and Moscow, rather over the past couple of days, particularly regarding a very important and significant development is the deployment of Russian tanks inside Ukraine. Now the Kremlin denied that that is taken place, but Kiev says that Moscow allowed three tanks to cross its border into eastern Ukraine in support of the rebels. That's been backed by the State Department in Washington they say those tanks also came from Russia. And NATO, the western military alliance has within the past few hours put out some images, which it says supports the accusation as well. And so if it's true, that could have serious consequence for that relationship between Moscow and the West.</s>WHITFIELD: All right Matthew Chance in Moscow, thank you so much. Keep us posted. All right. Coming up, more of the crisis in Iraq. That country has seen some vicious militants in the past, but nothing like these terrorists that are now storming through the country. So who are they? Even al Qaeda says this group is too violent for them. Plus, what's life like on the ground for Iraqi civilians? Many of them are running for their lives now. Coming up, next I talk to an Air Force Reservist who served in Iraq about what it is like there on the ground.