[Becky Anderson:] CNN goes inside Kobani. We gain exclusive access to the besieged Syrian town and get a true sense of the devastation. We'll be live with Nick Paton Walsh in just a moment for what he saw there. Also ahead, an arrest in the Abu Dhabi shopping mall killing. Police say the suspect is an Emirati woman who wanted to, and I quote, "create chaos and spread fear." And as the ruble tumbles, Vladimir Putin warns of tough times ahead and says the west is trying to keep Russia down.
[Announcer:] Live from CNN Abu Dhabi, this is Connect the World with Becky Anderson.
[Anderson:] A very good evening. It is 8:00 p.m. here. First, a look at what it's like on the frontline in the battle against ISIS. A CNN crew managed to get inside Kobani, the city at the heart of the battle in northern Syria. Senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh went alongside fighters trying to keep the city from falling into the radical militants' hands. He joins me now in Turkey not far from the Syrian border Nick.
[Nick Paton Walsh, Cnn International Correspondent:] Becky, after months of seeing Kobani enraged in that conflict from the hills overlooking in Turkey, it is remarkable to stand in its streets and see the scale of devastation, to hear the almost constant crack of explosions and heavy machine gun fire, a quite chilling scene. From inside Kobani, the days ferocity gets no respite at night, a prize so small, but so valued that violence seems to swallow it whole, grinding its streets down to the bone. We're heading to the front line where nightly, daily, ISIS hoped to advance with Meedya, a Kurdish female fighter also in their egalitarian world this unit's commander. Coalition air power did this, pushing ISIS back. They abandon their dead as they retreat, the decaying smell haunts these front lines. Some call it Kobanigrad after the city Stalin sacrificed to make a point. Little left here, but a bulwark of Kurdish defiance 20 meters from ISIS. They think they see something in the rubble.
[Walsh:] Even after coalition support, desperately in need of better arms. It's the kind of exchanges that happen here hourly. ISIS literally meters to that side shooting at this position, but receiving return fire as well. This surely wasn't the death ISIS recruits were sold in their propaganda videos. Mortars are often used, so we pull back.
[Unidentified Male:] Up against the wall. You against the wall.
[Walsh:] Meedya is 22 and has been within five meters of ISIS. Here, friends are made and lost. Her best friend Reeban died saving others.
[Meedya Raqqa, Ypg Kurdish Commander:] There were very heavy clashes with ISIS. We were outnumbered and out of ammunition. She herself was injured, but she advanced to help save the other injured with her. ISIS surrounded her, because girls are very prized by them. She then blew herself up and killed a lot of them with her. I was near her then. Her last words were to me were, we will liberate our land with the last drop of blood in my body.
[Walsh:] The men bring us tea. This is the polar opposite of ISIS's worldview. They cannot afford to stop the fight, even if that means there's little left to live on when they do. Now Becky, when you're actually inside the city, we had heard before that ISIS controlled about a third of it, had been pushed back. It did seem inside that where those front lines were ISIS have more than that. The YPG Syrian-Kurds today claimed to have taken back some key neighborhoods in the southeast, but I think most of the estimates we heard inside were that they, ISIS, still have about 40, 50 percent of Kobani. The fight for it, really, in the balance every day and night when you hear the rounds being exchanged. And those Kurds, as you saw there running out of food and fuel as winter approaches and more particularly ammunition and the kind of weapons they need, Becky.
[Anderson:] Remarkable stuff. Nick Paton Walsh reporting. Nick, thank you. It was an attack that shocked a city and a nation. Police say the Emirati woman suspected of killing an American teacher at an Abu Dhabi shopping mall intended to kill again. Authorities in the UAE have stopped short of calling Monday's traumatic events here in the capital an act of terror, but after the fatal stabbing and the placing of a homemade bomb outside a doctor's hose directly afterwards, they do say the suspect seemed intent on spreading fear and chaos. Well, earlier police released new footage of the dramatic aftermath. 48 hours after the stabbing death of an American woman in a shopping mall toilet, UAE police raid the house of an Emirati woman in her late 30s and take her into custody. The woman is suspected of stabbing to death 47-year-old Ibolya Ryan on Monday. These images show a veiled figure on a mission of malice. Police now say shortly after the stabbing attack, the mysterious suspect was already aiming at her next target, another U.S. citizen, this time a Muslim American doctor with a homemade bomb. Fortunately, this plan was foiled. But who is this woman? And what are her motives? How old is the suspect? What does she do? And are you dealing with this as a terror case? UNIDENTIFIED MALE; She's nearly 38-years-old and she's from the UAE. And about the last point of your question, this is under investigation now and I cannot [inaudible] now. What authorities will say is that the suspect probably meant to spread chaos and fear. The car in which she fled the scene of the killing had several knives and walkie talkies. Whatever the circumstances, they are certainly highly unusual in a city renowned for safety. And the police video purporting to show the suspect's arrest catches a drama few would associate with the UAE. Now the Emirates is on guard. Ever since the Gulf nation took on a leading role in the coalition fighting ISIS, it's been increasingly susceptible to extremist retaliation. And on top of it, there's a glaring rift in the region between moderate and radical factions. The Emirati foreign minister highlighted the existential dangers at the UN general assembly earlier this year.
[Anwar Gargash, Minister Of State For Foreign Affairs Uae:] I think it's indicative of the threat that everybody feels is common. Nobody is basically immune. Everybody is threatened, the way of life, the values, this is I think a danger to all of us, terrorism. And I think this is indicative of how the coalition was built on the sense that we need to act. It we can't be passive.
[Anderson:] The UAE has long enjoyed a reputation as an oasis of calm in a turbulent and often violent part of the world. It's the modern face of the Middle East, attracting millions of tourists with its beaches, shopping and golf courses, and home to Dubai International Airport, one of the world's busiest. But for now, the uncertainty over this mysterious woman and her intentions has this normally peaceful nation on edge. More on what this incident means for the UAE and whether or not this attack will change this Gulf state's foreign policy. Let's bring in our regular contributor Fawaz Gerges, chair of the contemporary Middle East studies program at the London School of Economics, a regular guest on this show. Quite unusual for me to be doing a story from here with you certainly in London these days for me. But from the outside and the reason that this country got involved in the coalition they say is the existential threat that the UAE believes it and the wider region faces. And if an attack like this one, though they are falling short of actually calling it a terror attack, but surely they will suggest will mean their sometimes criticized anti-terror policy here is correct.
[Fawaz Gerges, London School Of Economics:] Well, Becky, as you just suggested the United Arab Emirate is a very active member in the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS. Also, another complicating factor, the United Arab Emirates has been waging a relentless campaign against Islamists of all colors and persuasions. Just a few weeks ago, the government basically listed dozens of Islamist religious based activists and put them on its terrorist watch. So in this particular sense, the United Arab Emirate is really on the front line. It's waging a campaign not only against ISIS, but against all kinds of Islamist and this basically not only complicates the security situation, it could basically I mean, inspire, motivate some radicals in order to attack the country and basically retaliate against its polities.
[Anderson:] Well, and that is clearly a concern here this evening and indeed over the past couple of days. I want to go back to something that you just alluded to there, this extensive list of groups and people who have been designated as terror organizations or belonging to terror organizations been widely criticized outside of this region, certainly, by groups like the Human Rights Watch, for example, how say that it simply doesn't hold water. And the sort of powers that this legislation extends to a government like this one is way too extensive. How would you respond to those sort of criticisms?
[Gerges:] Well, you know, Becky, this is not just a product of the last few weeks. This has been going on for almost one or two years. The leadership of the United Arab Emirates has basically made a conscious decision to basically crackdown against Islamists. They believe that the Islamist ideology, the ideology of the Islamist groups, not just ISIS, even the Muslim brotherhood, even the mainstream Islamists represent an existential threat to the country. And in this particular sense I think now the United Arab Emirates is really on the front line. It's really an active member not only of the U.S. coalition, but also a country that has decided to wage all-out war against Islamsits. If I might say one word about this particular sense, this is not just about the United Arab Emirates, Becky, you have an Arab Civil war now. And this civil war is between Islamists on the one hand, religious-based activists and nationalists. Nationalists basically in Egypt, in Libya and the United Arab Emirates and the United Arab Emirates now has made a strategic decision to basically battle the Islamists not just in the United Arab Emirates, even in Egypt and in Libya. The United Arab Emirates now is playing a leadership role in this particular Arab civil war that's raging in the region.
[Lu Stout:] Certainly the foreign minister and a delegation represented at the meeting that Kerry was chairing at NATO, which there were other dignitaries and not necessarily NATO members recently. But there to listen to, and one assumes discuss behind closed doors, with others any potential change in strategy as this war is fought against ISIS. Also looking to, I'm sure, and reports of, Iranian jets in the skies over Iraq, for example, and the involvement that many believe Iran is having in this war against the militant group. Do you expect to see a change in policy in the short-term going forward?
[Gerges:] No, Becky, I don't think there is any qualitative shift in the American strategy. As you know, the American strategy is basically prioritizes Iraq. The theater is Iraq, they want to roll back the ISIS advances. They want to help the Iraqi forces stand up the Kurds, the Iraqi government's Sunni and Shiite allies. They want to dislodge ISIS from Mosul, Takrit, Fallujah. And of course Syria is a secondary theater. The meeting yesterday in Brussels was really basically a review of the strategy, to go beyond the military attacks by focusing on ideology, focusing on basically preventing ISIS from getting financed, starving the ISIS financial system and also develop strategies to deal with the outreach and ideologically outreach of ISIS. In this particular sense, the United Arab Emirates, Becky, is one of the most important partners for the United States, for your own viewers. In fact, I would argue it's the most important member in this coalition now. It's active. It's proactive. And it has basically made a critical decision to go all the way not only against ISIS, but what it perceives to be the Islamist threat in the region as a whole.
[Lu Stout:] Fawaz Gerges, we thank you. You are an expert on the subject tonight. Still to come on Connect the World with me Becky Anderson, anger on the streets of New York as protesters demand justice for a man who died while being arrested. Details on that are just ahead. And tonight, we'll look at Vladimir Putin's popularity at home. Russia's president enjoys record ratings, but can he weather an economic recession? That after this.