[Becky Anderson, Connect The World, Cnn:] Very warm welcome and this is "Connect the World" and it is 7:00 p.m. in Abu Dhabi. I am Beck Anderson for you. We are tracking some huge global stories this hour. Reverend Billy Graham known as the American pastor decides more on his life and legacy. Plus, Donald Trump Jr. facing questions over his ethics, and we will get you to New Delhi for why, and that as a second person very close to the Israeli Prime Minister turns state witness as the corruption and investigation tightens. We will go to Jerusalem, and that is all ahead this hour. We start tonight, taking you what is perhaps the closest place to hell on earth and why? Because you need to see what it is really like? Warning, these images and the sounds will haunt you.
[Anderson:] Children, kids, dug out from beneath the remnants of their homes. Their small bodies are smashed to pieces by large metal bombs, bombs dropped on them by order of their countries own President. Kids like anyone else's, their moms and dads, mothers and fathers just like us, just unlucky to be there in eastern Ghouta one of the last Syrian rebel strongholds under siege, and for four years, this regime now wants this suburb of Damascus back for itself, and back it seems at any price even obliteration. More than 300 people there killed since Monday evening. That is a single person dead every 10 minutes. CNN Ben Wedeman is following this war along with us from the beginning as we burn through in every superlative of what you can think of what the people are going through. And Ben is with us from Beirut tonight. Ben, it seems impossible to show just how bad things are as it is quite frankly too graphic for TV, but there are rooms full of bodies lined up next to the one another, and side by side, and just help take us through what is going on inside of eastern Ghouta right now.
[Ben Wedeman, Cnn Senior International Correspondent:] Becky, this is a part of Syria that has been under rebel control for several years now, but it has been under siege, and the situation has always been very difficult there, and what we have seen in the last few week, and particularly in the last few days is onslaught by the Syrian regime against these approximately 400,000 inhabitants there. What we have gotten today is a statement from the international committee for the Red Cross saying that the few medical facilities in eastern Ghouta are running out of medicine. They also point out that the residents of a Damascus are also living in fear from the mortars being fired from the eastern Ghouta into the capital. The statement says that this is madness and it has to stop. Certainly there is no question that it is madness, but appears that there's no one restraining that madness at the moment. This report that we are about to show you, however, we have to warn the viewers that the images are indeed very disturbing.
[Wedeman:] Nadal weeps over to the body of his daughter. His other five children went missing. The Syrian government subjects the eastern Ghouta the rebel held suburb of Damascus to the most intense bombardment since the war began. Bodies line the floors in this hospital's morgue, and a bed sheet is a child simple death shroud. It is the children who suffer the most in the war without mercy. According to local tradition Ghouta was the original Garden of Eden, and now it is perhaps the closest thing to hell on earth. Home to as many as 400,000, it has been under siege for many years. Tuesday, the United Nations children's fund UNICEF issued a blank statement for this situation in eastern Ghouta, and a small footnote at the bottom explains we no longer have the words to describe the children's suffering and our outrage and to those inflicting the suffering still have words to justify their barbaric act. CNN reached out to the Syrian government for comment, they have no words. These are the worst days of our lives, a hospital Director told CNN by phone from the eastern Ghouta. It could not get worse than this she said, but she may be wrong. It is widely believed that the bombardment is a prelude to the offensive to retake eastern Ghouta, one of the last opposition's strongholds. Many of this disturbing images are captured by the local civil defense unit the so-called white helmets rushing from one bomb site to another. Here there are no bomb shelters and people huddle in their home, and all too often die in them. Beyond that, there are no words. And their words of course that were hearing are those of shock. We are hearing Theresa May the British Prime Minister is calling the situation and the eastern Ghouta appalling, but there doesn't seem to be any effort underway beyond the words to stop the fighting and one Damascus newspaper today is saying that the worst may yet be to come what within the next coming days it says that there may be a full-on offensive to retake the eastern Ghouta, Becky?
[Anderson:] Absolutely shocking, Ben. Local tradition holds Ghouta was once the Garden of Eden and days that must now seem almost forever ago, and the once that you will keenly remember. What was it like back in the day?
[Wedeman:] I lived in Damascus in the late '70s and the early '80s and the Ghouta back then was vast oasis and it was very popular during the weekend. People would go there to go on picnics. I remember going there with my family on picnics with my friend, and playing backgammon underneath the tree, there were water canals bubbling through the groves there. And during the 80s and the 90s, there was a lot of construction in the area and a lot of the poorer people moved to those suburbs of Damascus and of course, it is there where many of the supporters come for the uprising against the regime of Bashar al Assad. Today, the Ghouta obviously even before the war didn't remember anything of my youth, but of course now it is a moonscape, Becky.
[Anderson:] Ben Wedeman reporting on the story out of Beirut, Lebanon this evening. And let Syria crumbles back in to being [inaudible] and becoming more complex. We want to step back for a second. Give you a sense of the broad sweep of how the war stand now in three arenas. Bear with me on this. Arena 1 where we just were eastern Ghouta, the regime they are attacking rebels same as Idlib in the east, I mean the two that is where the war on ISIS is playing out. Back towards the north, I mean three a newly extreme intense front of the multi-faceted conflict. A month a Turkey launching a massive assault against Kurds in Afrin and in just the last 24 hours, Turkey shelling a convoy militia loyal to the regime as they head into Afrin and you can see the cloud of Turkish artillery firing here. There is a lot to take in, I know, but it is really important stuff. Joining us is now CNN Sam Kiley to help us make sense of it all for you. After Aleppo Sam, we thought had seen the worst of the sort of the scenes out of Ghouta and indeed Afrin and dual offensive from the Syrian government, is that what we are seeing here?
[Sam Kiley, Cnn Senior International Correspondent:] Yes, it is. In short order what east Ghouta was supposed to be as you see one in that map up to Idlib, and they were supposed to be de-escalation zone, and what had that proves to be is giving the Syrian regime a period of consolidation and ability to rearm and re-plan, and now what we had seen in Idlib and our Arwa Damon with the dramatic report reporting there. And then again in eastern Ghouta a massive assault being carried out by the Syrian regime. With the critical support of Russia and Iran without whom the Syria regime would have collapsed of the rebels at least two years ago, I think the tactic is to smash the place in to submission and then move in. That is exactly what happened in Aleppo, many though it was the end of it and the handful of survivors can be shipped out, sent to a place of safety, ironically the place of safety for them was Idlib where they are moved under pressure again by the regime. The regime is feeling much more emboldened even though territorially, they are invaded by the Turks.
[Anderson:] "The New York Times," and you are talking about the regime, and pick apart why exactly you say that you have alluded to it with the support of Russians and the Iranians. And The New York Times is quoting that the leader of the government's elite tiger force warning Ghouta, I promise to teach them a lesson in combat and in fire. Going on. You won't find a rescue and if you do, you will be rescued with y water like boiling oil, and you will be rescued with blood. How is it that seven years in that as you have rightly described, were looking at a Syrian government seemingly so emboldened?
[Kiley:] Well in the beginning, the Turks were calling for an air explosion zone, no fly zone for anybody on any side. That is what prevailed in Libya and then this allied forces started to attack the Gadhafi regime. And the collapse of Libya in to anarchy spooked the very people who could have imposed a no-fly zone. A no-fly zone would have been problematic, because the Syrians have a very powerful air defense, and quite relatively they started getting Russian support and started to boost the air defenses, and then the point at which the Syrian regime looked like it would collapse, similar to maps that CNN was showing three years ago an embattled Damascus and the growing rebel ownership and in came the Russians enforce with the doctrine of the overwhelming force. If you are recall in Aleppo, the deliberate attacking of the medical facilities breaking the back of spiritually and physically of are rebellion, and that is being repeated again in Ghouta.
[Anderson:] Very briefly, the Russians they have said that it is all over for them in Syria, and they are sort of scaling backed and is that true?
[Kiley:] Well, they are sneering of the Americans for getting stuck for so long and the American allies in Iraq, and now Syria. It will very interesting to see indeed whether the Russians can extract themselves in the way they want Or whether they want to want but the more they stay there they will hemorrhage blood and treasure as others this have. This is a quagmire of sand and it is extremely difficult to get out. But if they leave, they will leave that regime vulnerable, and whether it is to ISIS 2.0, the Kurdish rebellion or the reconfiguration of the rebel movements. They will permanently need the defense of that outside power.
[Anderson:] Sam Kiley in the house. Thank you, Sam. We will be on top of this story throughout the hour. Later I will to talk to the U.N. regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria crisis. Those all too well the complexities and the horror facing the people of the country right now. I want to get you to the U.S. State of Florida at this point where in the wake of last week's horrific school shooting, students are walking out of classes calling for gun control, these images are just coming into CNN. And we are looking at literally hundreds of kids walking out of schools in Florida. We have already seen the sea of activism earlier on in the week. The kids want their voices heard. Never mind what politicians are up to. It is these students who want some action, and they are certainly out there asking for that now. We'll have Jake Tapper's town hall later today on CNN talking specifically to this issue, but those are the kids. They are not waiting for politicians. They are out there. One of America's most famous ministers passes away. We look back at the life and legacy of reverend Billy Graham. That is next. And later, teenaged survivors of the school massacre take their message directly to Florida lawmaker, and they want stricter gun law in the hopes of saving lives. All of that coming up this hour. Stay with us.