[Becky Anderson:] After airstrikes, now Russian naval strikes: missiles rain down on Syrian rebels from warships in the Caspian Sea. Tonight, this hour, we're live in Moscow for you and in Turkey. Also ahead...
[Dr. Joanne Liu, President, Msf International:] Today we say enough. Even war has rules.
[Anderson:] The controversy over a deadly U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan is not dying down. We speak to a former U.S. diplomat about signs America's longest war isn't nearly over after all. Plus, fighting back: we meet the women taking on ISIS in Iraq. That special report coming up.
[Announcer:] Live from CNN Abu Dhabi, this is Connect the World with Becky Anderson.
[Anderson:] A very good evening. Just after 7:00 here in the Gulf. On the ground, in the air and from the sea, acting in concert Russia and Syria have launched attacks in Hamaa and Idlib provinces. Now Russia is providing air support for Syrian forces on the ground. Sanaa, the official Syrian news agency is reporting a coordinated campaign targeting ISIS and other rebel groups the government considers terrorists. Well, Russia has been in the skies over Syria for the past week, as you know. This level of coordination between the two countries is new. And now, Russian warships are launching strikes on targets in Syria from the Caspian Sea. This video is from the Russian defense ministry and it shows Russian warships launching missiles and the distance they traveled to reach their targets. The Russian defense minister Sergey Shoygu says 26 long range missiles have been fired and have hit 11 targets. The missiles traveled a total of 1,500 kilometers. Well, for the latest on what is happening on the ground in Syria, I'm joined now by Arwa Damon who is in neighboring Turkey, Matthew Chance in Moscow for you. Let's start with you, Matt. What is Moscow revealing about its strategy at this point?
[Matthew Chance, Cnn International Correspondent:] Well, it's very interesting, isn't it, because it said at the outset that it was striking at ISIS and other terrorist groups that it designated as terrorist. But in fact it's been pretty clear all along, Becky, that what Russia has really been doing is attacking the groups that pose a threat to Bashar al-Assad doing whatever it can to support the Syrian government in holding on to the territory that it's got and perhaps even expanding the territory and retaking some of Syria that it's lost to those various rebel groups. It's really important to see what's going on here, because Russia is bringing an unprecedented level of firepower now to the conflict in Syria. Nobody has been throwing anything like this at the Syrian rebels really for the past four years. And it's going to be really interesting to see how long these ragtag rebel groups can last against such an onslaught. As an illustration of that, we're not just talking about airstrikes, but today Russia further dramatically escalated its campaign in Syria, introducing naval power into the equation as well. You mentioned that a minute ago. Its ships in the Caspian Sea, which is some 1,500 kilometers, 1,000 miles away from Syria, launched multiple airstrikes, 26 long-range cruise missiles, the first time ever, by the way, that Russia has used conventional cruise missiles in a battle. It launched these missiles into Syria over that 1,500 kilometer area through Iraq and Iran, Iranian airspace and Iraqi airspace as well. So, this would have been, according to the defense ministry officials, planned several days in advance, striking 11 targets on the ground. And so again, Russia putting a lot of commitment into its battle against these ISIS and other terrorist groups, as it calls them, or other opposition groups fighting Bashar al-Assad. And so you know that's the strategy, it seems, as we move forward on the Kremlin's part.
[Anderson:] Right. And I want to bring up that video from the Russian defense ministry again. And as I said and you've been eluding to it shows Russian warships launching missiles and the distance they traveled to their targets. And just how significant is this? And Matthew, the U.S. has responded by calling Russia's strategy tragically flawed. Is there any coordination or cooperation between Washington and Moscow at this point?
[Chance:] Well, on that last point, I think the coordination exists only at a very low level to make sure that there are military to military talks, to make sure that the two very powerful air forces that are operating in the skies over Syria, or more than two, in fact, there's a U.S.-led coalition, which involves 60 countries that he's already bombing ISIS positions, adding into that mix the Russian air force as well. There's obviously a massive risk of some kind of unwanted confrontation. So, there's military to military cooperation in terms of that. What we're not seeing, though, is any sharing of intelligence, any coordination of what airstrikes to carry out by which air force. And one of the reasons for that is there's essentially a disagreement between Washington and Moscow over what should be his. Washington has been focusing its airstrikes pretty much on ISIS. As I've been mentioning, Moscow lumps ISIS along with the al Nusra Front along with every other rebel group opposing Bashar al-Assad into the same pot and he's just hitting all of them. And so that's why there's this fundamental disagreement between them. In terms of how important these missiles strikes are from the naval ships in the Caspian Sea, I think they're highly significant. First of all, they're very expensive. Each one of these missiles costs a million dollars. That shows a certain financial commitment to this fight. And it also had shown that the Caspian Sea can emerge as an important launchpad for strikes not just in Syria, but also in ot her areas of the Middle East is it's called upon by other countries, as Russia would say, to take action there as well.
[Anderson:] Matthew is in Moscow for you. I want to bring in Arwa who is in Turkey, neighboring Syria, of course. And you've spent many week or month in Syria since the civil war started there, Arwa. These Russian naval strikes now providing cover for Syrian regime ground forces, as we understand it. What do we know about what's happening on the ground?
[Arwa Damon, Cnn International Correspondent:] Well, it's not just the naval strikes, Becky, you also have various different reported airstrikes as well as artillery being launched against a series of anti-regime positions. It took out took place throughout the course of the day. And according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, those strikes that especially were happening in Hamaa and Idlib province really resulted in some areas in the fiercest clashes that have taken place there for months between anti-regime forces and Assad's own military. You also have the Syrian news agency reporting openly that this is a coordinated campaign between the Russian support that it is seeing at this stage and its own abilities to advance its own fighters into key areas that up until now it has not been really able to significantly gain ground in. You also have even bigger problems being posed for Turkey, which over the last few days have been dealing with several violations of its own airspace and also recently announcing an incident that took place yesterday where eight Turkish fighter jets were, quote, being harassed by Syrian surface to air missiles. So it seems that this not only is potentially going to alter the battlefield dynamics, as many activists and rebel leaders have been saying in favor of the Syrian regime, but also perhaps the regime feeling confident enough to be able to send these types of warning signals to Syria. And as we have been mentioning, not just perhaps sending these signals to Syria, but also to the U.S. and the U.S.-led coalition with Syria's foreign minister, Walid Muallem coming out over the last few days and saying that Russia is going to be the winner of this race. And when you look at it broadly speaking, when Russia came out and not just announced its support for the Syrian regime in terms of these various different forms of airstrikes, but also formed that very critical intelligence sharing initiative between itself, Syrian, Iraq and Iran, it really positioned itself as a very solid ally as opposed to the U.S.-led coalition which when it began its campaign of airstrikes was, yes, targeting ISIS, but did very little to significantly alter the battlefield dynamics. And of course the big question right now is what is the U.S. and its coalition going to do to try to respond to this military push advancement strikes by Russia? Are they going simply to allow it to happen? Are they going to allow Russia to openly as it would seem support regime forces? What is it going to do if the regime begins to make significant moves against these various different rebel positions? Because at the end of the day, the U.S. and Russia are on opposite sides of the conflict in Syria. And it just creates a phenomenally messy and violent situation in what already is a country that has seen too many deaths and too many of its own people forced to flee the violence, Becky.
[Anderson:] The latest on the ground in Syria from Arwa Damon and from the air and from the sea, Matthew Chance in Moscow for you. Guys, thank you. I want to get you to a controversy that won't die down for the United States, an airstrike on Medecins San Frontiers hospital in Afghanistan. Now, U.S. military officials say it was a mistake, but the charity has once again raised its voice demanding answers for the deaths of 22 people, including 12 of its staff.
[Liu:] This is unacceptable that the bombing of a hospital, and the killing of staff and patients, can be dismissed as collateral damage or brushed aside as a mistake. Today, we are fighting back for the respect of Geneva convention. As doctors, we are fighting back for the sake of patients. We need you as members of the public to stand with us, to insist that even wars have rules.
[Anderson:] Well, pictures have now emerged of what the clinic looked like before it was bombed. These images from earlier this year show far more peaceful scenes. This was, remember, the only hospital of its kind in the region treating thousands of people, many of them injured in the war. Well, fast forward to Saturday and you can see its charred remains. The shell of the building still stands, but the hospital no longer operates. Well, let's get you to the Afghan capital now, Kabul, where our man Nic Robertson is standing by for you What's the latest, Nic, as we know it?
[Nic Robertson, Cnn International Correspondent:] The spokesman for police chief in Kunduz says that they're in better control of the situation today, but there are still Taliban hiding out in houses. It does sound rather as like it did yesterday, that there is still fighting in Kunduz and the situation very fluid. All the NGOs and groups like Doctors Without Borders, they've all left. There's no international staff left there at all, working on humanitarian projects. Many of the citizens have been forced out. The roads are controlled in and out of the town by the Taliban. I talked to a group of people who have been forced out of Kunduz, many of them had had to sort of pick their way through mountains by foot to get out of there. This is what they told me.
[Nic Robertson, Cnn Senior International Correspondent:] Chased out of Kunduz, the city's lawmaker comforts residents. The government doesn't have any plan to help these people, she tells me. They have nothing. They left it all behind in Kunduz. In protest, they set up a makeshift camp outside Kabul's Ministry of Power and Water. It's not their only complaint against the government. They tell me they saw soldiers running away from the Taliban. Residents left to fend for themselves. My father was shot by the Taliban, he tells me. We couldn't get to his funeral.
[Robertson:] Is the Taliban getting stronger these days?
[Unidentified Male:] No. Taliban not strength. But government...
[Robertson:] Is weak.
[Unidentified Male:] Supported there, yes. Some. Some government supported...
[Robertson:] The Taliban.
[Unidentified Male:] Yes.
[Robertson:] His Parliamentarian has suspicions about how they entered and captured the city. Ethnic divisions may have played a role in helping the Taliban. How were the Taliban able to get into the city and take the city so quickly? "Lawmaker Aziz tells me that Taliban captured it easily within two or three hours. The government," she says, "did nothing for three days, allowing the Taliban to loot stock piles of tanks, vehicles, weapons and ammunition." Whatever the facts about how the Taliban took Kunduz, right now the people of the city are vulnerable. They feel let down by their government. I asked if they want American help. The Americans, they hit the hospital but they're supporting the Afghan army. Do you want the Americans to continue to help the Afghan Army "Yes, we do. He says. But if they hit more hospitals, then no. Do you still want American forces here to help the government? Do you still need American forces to help the Afghan Army? She tells me, the Afghan Army are not really capable of stopping the people she calls terrorists at the moment. We need help. But please, please, she adds, stop killing civilians. And of course all of this weighing in to the decision that will have to be made by President Obama shortly about the U.S. troop drawdown here. Is he going to stick to original plans, down to 1,000 by the end of next year? Or will he decide he needs to keep more here to keep supporting the Afghan army Becky.
[Anderson:] All right, thank you very much indeed. That is Nic Robertson with the very latest. We're going to do more on this in the hour to come before we take a short break. Still to come tonight, we visit the world's largest refugee camp housing thousands of Somali refugees. Hear why they are growing increasingly desperate.