ISIS Fighters Streaming Into Mosul.
ROMANS: The latest now on the battle for Mosul. Tens of thousands of coalition troops moving closer than ever to the city. The Pentagon expects the fight to drive out ISIS to be bloody. The extremist group reportedly sending in hundreds of suicide squad fighters from Syria, ahead of the upcoming battle. I want to bring in CNN's Michael Holmes. He's live on the ground near Mosul for us this morning. Bring us up to speed, Michael.</s>MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Yes, Christine, a very active battlefield. As you said, those suicide squads if you like coming in in the hundreds, according to the locals in Mosul, wearing distinctive uniforms, wearing suicide belts, coming in from Syria, obviously determined to fight to the death. Now, 15 kilometers to the south of Mosul, there is a town called Hammam al Alil. Now, this is the last major population center from that direction before Mosul. Iraqi troops have it surrounded, but we're told that inside, they have moved, ISIS moved in some of the better fighters. Their more capable fighters, Chechens, Tunisians, Moroccans, Afghans, foreign fighters, who obviously are there to try to delay the advance, cause as much problems as I can, damage as much of the Iraqi military equipment as they can, but also possibly damage morale as forces get ever closer to Mosul. Intelligence obviously coming out of Mosul, too, because we heard from locals there today that three houses that are being occupied by a squad of ISIS experts and anti-tank and anti-aircraft weaponry was struck at about 6:30 a.m. local time today. Those three houses destroyed and 20 ISIS fighters, we're told, were killed. On another point, we also heard that several ISIS police officers patrolling the streets of the city all this time have been shaving their beards likely, of course, to try to blend in with the local population, a tactic that has been expected and feared -- Christine.</s>ROMANS: All right. Thanks so much for that. Michael Holmes in Mosul for us. Two strong earthquakes hitting central Italy, some 50 miles from the site of the quake back in August that killed about 300 people. Just hours after 5.5 magnitude near the town of Visso Wednesday, a 6.1 quake struck in the same region. No reported injuries, but there were reports of historic buildings being damaged or destroyed.</s>BERMAN: All right. The World Series now all even. The Cubs, they beat the Indians 5-1 in game two. Just like Cleveland in game one, the Cubs kind of jumped out early. They won control from the start behind pitcher Jake Arrieta. He didn't allow a hit until the sixth inning, although I have to say, he was kind of all over the plate. It was a weird game. The series now goes back to Wrigley Field in Chicago, game three Friday night. The first World Series game played at Wrigley in 71 years.</s>ROMANS: So, you know why they won? They won because I put these on. I said I will wear these all day if we win this game. We are superstitious, Chicago people.</s>BERMAN: So, you'd have to wear that every game now. You'd have to wear it. And maybe every morning from now on. If they lose, it will be because they did not wear those glasses for very EARLY START of the World Series.</s>ROMANS: I'm very torn. I'm torn between keeping my job and I'm torn between supporting my Cubbies.</s>BERMAN: You know that our bosses are up watching right now. They are that committed to the news. Donald Trump pledging to dig deeper into his own pocket in the 12 days of his campaign. He claims he's spending more than a hundred million dollars. Is that true? A closer look ahead on EARLY START.