is the only purpose for having the geneva conference now, that there has to be a transition government. there has to be a new governing entity in syria in order to permit the possibility of peace. arthel: steve centanni is live in washington now with the latest. hi, steve. reporter: hi, arthel. yeah, john kerry turning up the heat on syria now, insisting that there needs to be this international peace conference as soon as possible. now planning for a peace conference has been underway since last year in geneva but the urgency is you know lined by recent car bomb attacks. another car bomb exploding in the rebel-held northern part of the country killing a dozen people. this comes after two car bomb attacks yesterday in the capitol city of damascus. this is the third year of the syrian civil war and it already has killed 100,000 people. kerry is in london on the last stop of an extended two week-overseas trip that takes him into japan,.
the massive car bomb attacks. you have those two in the past couple of days. there was one a week and a half before that. it s certainly something causing a lot of fear here in the syrian capital. the sense i get is people here are feeling that the war is getting closer and closer to home. and some people i m speaking to are saying they re getting ready to pack their bags and get out of here. so many people are. we ll check back with you tomorrow, fred. let s dig deeper into syria right now. and president obama s policies toward syria. we re joined by a former senior adviser to the obama administration, the author of an important brand-new book, entitled the dispensable nation, the foreign policy in retreat. vali, thanks very much. this so-called red line that the president has drawn, that they used chemical weapons against their own people. here s what the president said
assassinated in front of his home in damascus. this could be a sign that the regime is losing power in the capitol city. joining us now via box is dominic. dominic, what can you tell us? it is a significant shot to the assad regime happening as it did in damascus itself. what happened was three gunmen appeared outside of the front door of the high ranking general. a man isa alhooni and according to state run military runs a military hospital and himself a doctor and he was killed on the spot. this 24 hours after 26 people were kill would in two twin suicide car bomb attacks on military installations in the northern city and caught many people by surprise. the syrian government blamed terrorist for the opposition resisting the assad regime.
is spending millions of dollars to flood the airwaves with anti-romney attack ads. is this payback time for newt gingrich? i m wolf blitzer and you re in the situation room. president obama dropped a bit of a bombshell a little while ago in an unscheduled appearance announcing bill daily is stepping down after just a year. he ll. replaced by the budget director, jack lou. here s jessica yellin. she s working the story for us. jessica, what s going on over here? well, wolf, first of all the president actually said that bill daley wants to spend more time with his family. let s listen to part of what the president had to say and then we ll talk about it a little bit on the back end. here s the president. obviously, this was not easy news to hear. and i didn t accept bill s decision right away. in fact, i asked him to take a couple of days to make sure that he was sure about this. but in the end, the pull of the hometown, we both love. a city that s been synonymous with
we ll see you soon. meanwhile 22 people were killed at least 37 injured in two car bomb attacks in iraq. suicide bombers targeting a government compound. no one has claimed responsibility as of yet. the attacks happened as iraqi leaders debate whether to request u.s. troops to remain in the country past the withdrawal deadline set for the 31st of december. a historic visit from michelle obama after making an unannounced stop in south after can a private visit to nelson mandela s home in johannesburg. daughters were on hand for the history making moment. we have a lot more with kristen welker. tell us about the visit. reporter: hi there, jose. nice to see you as well. this visit certainly an iconic one as you said. first lady michelle obama, nelson mandela did get to meet earlier today. her daughters were there as well as nelson mandela s wife. it only lasted about 20 minutes.