them. we ll tell you what you need to know. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. captions by vitac www.vitac.com this is cnn breaking news. we re awaiting a news conference from president obama and it s expected to be under way very shortly. the deadly ebola virus is spreading and the world health organization reports more than a hundred new cases in the west african epicenter of the outbreak. ebola is suspected in the deaths of patients in nigeria and saudi arabia and one patient will be flown from liberia to spain for treatment with two americans undergoing treatment in atlanta right now, the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention has put the emergency operation center at level one. that is the highest state of alert. let s go live to our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. he spent time in that operation center earlier today. sanjay, this outbreak is growing. nine cases now in nigeria. are they taking a new strategy to try to contain
this is cnn breaking news. we re following breaking news. president obama authorizing more troops seeking more money for the u.s.-led war on isis, up to 1,500 more american forces will be deployed to iraq where vast regions of the country are under terrorist control. chris van holland is standing by to talk about this with us along with our correspondents and other guests. cnn chief national security correspondent jim sciutto, give us the latest. this is a substantial expansion of the u.s. military presence in iraq. we talk about doubling the number of u.s. troops from about 1,400 with this additional 1,500. in fact, it s ten times the number of military advisers since those first 300 were sent in in june. it s an expansion of where these troops are placed in eiraq. to this point u.s. mill he tear advisers have been confined to here and erbil and baghdad. the pentagon says they will set up two additional operation centers outside of baghdad in erbil. the locations discuss
new details on the fate of the top isis leader. u.s. officials say abark al baghdadi was wounded this weekend in an air strike. if he s out of action, how big of a blow would that be to isis? and iran is claiming credit for blocking isis attempts to reach baghdad. they say a top revolutionary guard commander led forces against the terror group in iraq. we go live to tehran. and our correspondents, our analysts, our newsmakers are standing by. the first american troops have now arrived in the very dangerous anbar province. u.s. forces faced years of bloody combat during the insurgency and anbar is on the front line of the brutal isis assault. let s go to barbara starr with the latest. reporter: u.s. boots back on the ground in anbar province, i don t think most military personnel thought that would ever happen but here we are. about 50 troops landed at al assad air base in anbar, one of the sites of some of the bloodiest fighting for u.s. troops during the iraq war. why are
young woman s horrifying ordeal and the combination of high-tech tools that led to her rescue. and dna link. a new report says that jesse matthew, the man accused of abducting hannah graham, is now being tied to an earlier assault by forensic evidence. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. we re following the breaking news. the apparent death of one of the most dangerous operatives in the entire al qaeda global operative making explosive devices that could get through airport security. a source telling cnn that david drugeon was killed in a u.s. air strike in syria. our guests and including the chairman of the house intelligence committee mike intelligence. let s begin with our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. she s breaking the news for us. what are you picking up there, barbara? good evening, wolf. david drugeon, a french jihadist, a member of the khorasan group, was killed in a series of air strikes. five targets were hit but drugeon was in a vehicle
outfront tonight, cnn just learning that the president sent a secret letter to the ayatollah, the iran supreme leader. it says they have a shared interest in beating isis. josh earnest won t even acknowledge existence of the letter saying only it came up in negotiation during nuclear negotiations with iran. we have also discussed on the side lines of those talks, on a couple of occasions, the ongoing campaign that is being conducted against isil by the united states. chief national security correspondent jim sciutto is outfront tonight. this is a huge thing that has happened. they are still not talking about the secret letter directly, and you are learning it is not just a letter. that is right. i m told that the u.s. has opened communication channels with iran, via the iraqis regarding action with isis and this is what i m told by a senior diplomat. it is not coordinating military action toward isis but it is necessary for what the military calls deconflict in milita