47 that links mosul in iraq and rack in syria, the two biggest strong holds. the u.s. say kurdish peshmerga have established blocking positions. >> reporter: the targeting of high way 47 and the ground operation by the kurdish peshmerga will help cut off cut off their roads. >> reporter: a superior force of about 8,000 troops led by the kurds is going up against between 400 and 600 dug in and determined i.s.i.l. fighters. the battle plan envisions taking two to four days to retake the city and then a week or so to move buried bombs. unlike the prison rescue last month, no u.s. troops are on the front lines according to a u.s. military spokesman in baghdad. >> the likelihood that american forces will encounter come backed is close to zero. we have american forces specifically set behind sinjar mountain where this is behind friendly lines and a few forces that are on the mountain are far enough back from the tam fighting that there's no expectation whatsoever that they will encounter any fighting. >> reporter: the u.s. says the force involves an militia. it is significant because it

reinforce the city of mosul which they controlled. what gave the advantage was u.s. led coalition air strikes. the building was likely to have been hit by an air strike, you can tell because it's almost constantina said in. what the peshmerga are saying is they need to go around. taking over the town was a first step. that first step took months of planning. peshmerga commander says the air strikes would be a useful tool in future operations. the coalition air strikes are the most important factor, the coalition bomb the main roads or supply lines between raqqa and mosul. without air strikes, a ground offensive would stop. thirdly, it's made a difference in sinjar. these soldiers cover over a pro-i.s.i.l. slogan, other areas remain under i.s.i.l. control, particularly in the provinces and northern iraq. there the peshmerga want more u.s. help. after sinjar, they are likely to get it. it may be a different story in anbar, where the main striking so far as, the popular mobilization forces >>> argentina's two presidential candidates are about to go head to head in a television debate. a

isil. that is because it sits across the main road between raqqa and mosul. cities which are isil strong holds in syria and iraq. the operation is said to involve about 7500 forces. when isil captured sinjar in august last year, they killed thousands of men and kidnapped women and children. >> reporter: in the early hours of thursday morning any operation to take back sinjar began. coalition air strikes hit isil targets in and around sinjar town which isil has controlled since august last year. the operation is on three months. the iraqi kurds are confident they will prevail. >> translator: today it's our duty to liberate sinjar from injustice and this is the duty of every kurdish citizen. we are fully prepared to attack and liberate it soon. god willing we will help itself people return to their homes. >> reporter: it's importance as been unz skoers by the rife of the kurdish regional president to monitor progress on the front line. success here will be seen as victory against isil. but isil fighters have proved themselves resilient and booby trapped houses and rigged car bombs.

would be a mistake. not because our military could not march in to mosul or raqqa or ramadi and temporarily clear out isil. but because we would see a repetition of what we've seen before, which is if you do not have local populations that are committed to inclusive governance and who are pushing back against ideological extremes, that they resurface. unless we're prepared to have a permanent occupation of these countries. let's assume that we were to send 50,000 troops into syria, what happens when there is a terrorist attack generated from yemen? do we then send more troops there? or libya perhaps? or if there is a terrorist network operating anywhere else in north africa or in southeast asia. so a strategy has to be won that can be sustained. the strategy that we're pursuing, which focuses on going after targets, eliminating the capabilities of isil on the ground systematically going after their leadership, their infrastructure, strengthening shia or strengthening syrian and iraqi forces and kurdish forces that are prepared to fight them, cutting off their borders, and squeez

routes. you can see behind me a sign there that says mosul. the kurdish president, they are monitoring the events closely. when they took over, isil took over in august, they got as far where i am standing before they were beaten back by kurdish peshmerga forces. right now, they are inside the town of sinjar and say they control it. u.s. and kurdish officials saying the situation in sinjar is dangerous. >> isil says it was responsible for twin suicide bombings that ripped through southern beirut. 43 were killed after explosions hit a predominant shia area of the city. 200 others were injured. witnesses say the blasts happened a few minutes apart. >> they targeted this place because they don't have any other way to fight us back. they have run out of options. let me be clear, they targeted this area because we are shia, but we won't be afraid. >> the area experienced a string of suicide explosions in 2014. >> aung san suu kyi's party in myanmar will form the first civilian governments in decades. omalley will not be president. >> the magic number for the party was 329 seats combined in

perhaps reinforce mosul. >> what gave the advantage was u.s.-led coalition air strooiningz. this building was likely to have been hit by one of those airstrik airstrikes. what the peshmerga are saying is they need to go around and clear the buildings before anybody can go back in taking over the town was just a first step the air strakz will be a useful tool in future operations. >> the coalition airstrikes are the most important factor against isil. the coalition bombed the main roads and the main supply line between raqaa and mosul. without airstrikes, a ground offensive will stall. other areas remain under isil control. the peshmerga want more u.s. help. after sinjar, they are likely to get it. but it may be a different story in anbar where a main fighting force is the shia militia called popular mobilization forces isil remain entrenched in anbar. em irancan, al jazeera, sinjar. >> much more still to come here on al jazeera including as police release details about one of the suspects in paris, we speak to criminalnologist about the investigation. plus, plus. >> reporter: i am john he

have entered the town. and the offensive has cut off isil supply lines from syria and mosul in iraq. he said that it paves the way to liberate mosul. >> without any victory, we'll have impacts on achieving victory in the remaining areas. and without doubt, the liberation of sinjar will have a big impact too. the retaking of sinjar could be a turning point in the fight against isil. northern iraq. >> let's go to more now, joined in the studio by alanj. and thank you for joining us here. it's a psychological blow for isil to lose sinjar, but how much of a setback is it? obviously now some of their roots will be stopped. but in reality, is it a huge setback for isil? >> i would say so, absolutely. you have to remember that sinjar is effectively how isis has been able to reinforce itself, repair, rebuild, resupply its front lines. it separates the major towns and cities in syria that it controls from the towns and cities that it controls in iraq like mosul. so now with sinjar liberated, we're undermining the organization'sest to repair and rebuild. >> but how will it be for isil forces

network of roads that links raqq a in syria and mosul in iraq. rebel factions have pushed isil out of a town in syria. we're just outside of sinjra with this report. >> they've been arriving here since thursday, hope to go home to sinjar town. this is no northern iraq, one of the routes into sinjar and an important supply line. the news that kurdish forces have declared the town liberat ed has given hope to the yazidis who practice an ancient religion. like many here they wonder what they're going to find when they get back. >> i just don't want to be here any more. i want to find out what happened. i don't care whether my house is burned to the ground. i just want to see my home. >> the kurdish peshmerga won't let people leave here because they need to hold the surrounding areas. now isil has used tactics of boobie traps and car bombs in the areas where they've fled. that's a problem. there is a curfew in the surrounding area of sinjar. they say they need to be clear and secure before anyone can control. that decision has angered many here who say they just want to go back to thei

on the ground. what with the mission look like? sen. graham: destroy the caliphate. take mosul back. take ramadi back. put up by its roots. -- played up by its roots. i am not a military planner, but i can say a modern army exists in egypt. turkey and saudi arabia have a large army. this is the reverse of what we have done in the past. normally, we have gone into afghanistan with large western forces. i do not think anybody believed in jordan or saudi arabia that saddam hussein would take over the government and cut their heads off. they don't believe the television would invade their countries -- they don't believe the taliban would invade their countries. everybody in the region sees isil as a threat to their leadership and their society. the neighbor next door would generate more interest than any other war we have had in the middle east. mark: i understand what you are saying. different enemies. american president has gotten those countries to commit to significant troops. -- no american president has gotten those countries to commit to significant troops. sen. graham: bush 41 d

awakening. one second. bernard-henri: if you take for whatle the case of mosul, is happening is a battle which will happen in the next month. we will need -- they will need an alliance between the kurds and sunni. what this is what is taking shape today. now, there is an emergency. the emergency is a bloodbath in paris as you had in new york. son, was abeloved lawyer. a member of a great american cabinet. he had his -- one of his best friends killed at the bataclan this is what is taking shape today. on friday night. the best friend of my son, a member of the new york lawyer cabinet. the emergency is to stop that, to make that impossible. for this, we don't have to reflect to make comparisons with iraq, with afghanistan. we, together, americans and france, has to act. what mr. obama should understand , no boots on the ground there means more blood on the ground here. this is the question. i understand no boots on the ground, but it will mean more blood on our ground. in america and in france. the last thing i want to say -- isis is not hitler. hitler was a huge power. of course, isis is

should take a stand to help people. in mosul, mass is no longer given after 1500 years. the yazidis are being exterminated. you have enslavement, beheadings. the brutality of islamic terrorism is such that i think we have a duty to act. john: but you don't disagree with the fact that muslims are vast majority of sufferers-- jeb: the vast majority are mulsims for sure. john: so why disseminate against muslim refugees? jeb: the solution as it relates to the innocence in syria and iraq is to create a strategy to destroy isis and to bring about change as a relates to the assad regime. that is where american leadership needs to be played. if we are creating an overflow of refugees, that is not an answer. that is once again reacting to events that you did not help to deter. john: many governors have said no to syrian refugees in their states. senator cruz introduced a bill saying no serene refugees at all in the u.s., muslim syrian refugees that is. do you support that bill? jeb: i have not seen the bill. i think people are legitimately concerned about the efficiency of the obama administ

back mose -- and especially when they take back mosul, there has to be a plan for that hold force. charlie: what's your assessment today of the willingness of the sunni tribes to participate against isis? david: my understanding is that they are quite willing. what they're waiting for is the authorization from baghdad in some cases, for us to provide additional assets to them, additional resources, and indeed they're waiting for some kind of official approval for their status, if indeed they're going to become part of the national guard. charlie: this is in the hands of the iraqi government. david: it is. this is why i stressed earlier that the center of gravity of this effort really is in baghdad. the iraqest, that is. syria is a different issue. sunni arabs have to be brought back into the fabric of iraqi society, as we did, by the way, during the surge. one of the key surge of ideas, one of the biggest of those was to make the sunni arabs feel as if they had a stake in the success of the new iraq, rather than a stake nits failure. right now there's a little indecision still on

question. mosul expected to go from 0.2 to 0.3. it to goeople expect from 0.2 to 0.3. remember that janet yellen speaks thursday and we get payroll on friday. a really big week in front of us. how do we set it up. thate we talk about all of , let's get you the bloomberg first word news. , the leaderse eu have agreed on a deal to help stem the refugee falls through the nation. some people get a package of 3 billion euros in assistance for bolstering border controls. this as the eu is dangling closer that could bring for potential membership. meanwhile, the russian president vladimir putin has announced measures against turkey. russia has suspended their tours, banned the hiring of turkish nationals, and will block the sale of some turkish goods. the turkish prime ministers saying his priority is to prevent similar incidents. the chairman and ceo has stepped down after he was bail -- jailed indefinitely. the brazilian billionaire was arrested in the world's largest corruption probe. he has denied the accusations laid against him. >> the u.n. climate change conference kicks off in pari

think they are strong enough to take the territory they have taken. charlie: like mosul? will: like mosul. but what makes them work so well is not the arms they have captured. what makes them work so well is there careful preparation of the battlefield. in terms ofhey do psychological operations and infiltration before they even sent the first man in. they have completely penetrated a town. they will assassinate -- they will know who to assassinate or if they have done to people who have stood against them in other towns, so when they roll in, the local security forces are out there. charlie: severed heads on sticks and all of that. >> that's right. thatld go back to the idea state may not exist if the sunnis had somewhere to go you see sunni muslims going into sunni muslim areas. at i think they probably do not welcome isis, but they look at the alternative something, you know, maybe it's all right for now. charlie: assuming you want to degrade or a road or eliminate isis, how you go about convincing the sunnis in those territories, and bar province for example? you made a terrible

raqqa and heading towards mosul the heavy bombardment over the is having impact on islamic state headquarters. francine: is it too early to talk about sanctions being as we see this rapprochement or marriage of convenience? john: it is a little early. we spoke with a french official yesterday who told us that the conversations about syria are being kept apart from the conversations on ukraine. that is how the french see it and certainly the russians are not talking about that either. down the line there might be an understanding that at some point next year, the sanctions could be ratcheted back. sanctions are not on the table right now. tom: an update on the relationship between hollande, merkel and friends and germany? john: france and germany stand side-by-side on this. was interesting last night, we saw the soccer game in hanover abandoned. abandonedt was because of intelligence the german security forces received from france to lookbe interesting at what sort of help france asked for. yesterday they invoked an eu defense clause which, in theory, we could see if friends decid

could raqqarch into mosul or or ramadi and temporarily clear we would but because see a repetition of what we have seen before, which is this you do not have local populations that are committed to inclusive governance and are pushing back against ideological extremes, wet they resurface unless are prepared to have a permanent occupation of these countries. let's assume that we were to spend -- send 50,000 troops into syria. what happens when there's a terrorist attack generated from yemen? do we send more troops to their or libya perhaps? network is a terrorist operating anywhere else in north africa or southeast asia? so a strategy has to be one that can be sustained. and the strategy that we are pursuing, which focuses on going wherevergets, limiting possible the capabilities of faisal on the ground, systematically going after their leadership, their infrastructure, strengthening syrian and iraqi forces and kurdish forces that are prepared to fight them, cutting off their borders, and squeezing the space in which they can operate until they are ultimately defeated, that is the stra

said yes, sure, we could send in troops and take raqqa. but then what? then you own raqqa, and mosul. then where are we? charlie: and the west bank. david: why'd you want that? what are you gaining? charlie: i thought the president expressed his own view, that some irritation that that question was being asked over and over. david: as -- they said that we needed to be more aggressive to obama and panetta. charlie: the president rejected it because he did not believe they were there. david: again, how do you prove a negative retroactively? the people who argue for that say they were, and safe havens would have provided special safety. charlie: the question for me, what are the alternatives? i would like for somebody who believes we ought to use -- that isis has to be stopped, and stopped soon, and you have to begin to go in there and find them, and hold them, and then do whatever else, we will find out. i do think we ought to hear what the president has heard, and that should be part of the debate. he says he has listened to military people and they agree. the other military people wh

help of u.s. airstrikes and its allies. the firsts sinjar step in retaking mosul? >> that is precisely the question we put to them. sinjar sits right in the middle ,f the isis stronghold in syria and on the other side, mosul. commanders say we will take sinjar first, break the supply lines, then look at other cities, then mosul. if it continues to go the way it is going, learning the lessons they are learning here, how they ul, ahen apply that to mos much harder offensive. question.ne last any possibility that iragi troops will be joining them? .> probably not in sinjar we have seen the wife e.g., g,rian-kurdish forces -- yp syrian-kurdish forces. victoriesroud of the they have had against isis, that they will have to work with iraq. seeing both sides of them working when they took control dam, there was tension between these two forces. they will have to find some level of coordination. they can't do it without each other that is for certain. charlie: thank you so much. charlie on the ground in iraq. we will be right back. ♪ ♪ charlie: turning to politics and the 2000 16

. if we chase isis out of mosul or will be there? you can lay out those principles, those objectives. the challenge is not getting bogged down into, exactly how many troops? what will your governing process look like? who would you engage? who would you include? you can go down a rabbit hole. you are not equipped. certainly for the intelligence to weigh in on. john: i'm thinking of paris. in issue comes along, becomes a big vivid point in the campaign. think back to 2012 when benghazi happen. that was a big moment. the reason it mattered, it provided a window on mitt romney, his character, his political instincts, etc. 30 you think, in terms of the havehat republicans reacted to this paris moment, have we gotten a snapshot that has been revealing, positive or negative? and jeb bushbio and have laid out strategies for how they would do with the real threat. on the refugee crisis, which is a real issue. day, they arethe symptoms of the problem. the real problem is we have failed dates in iraq in syria. you have a border that has been erased. taken been completely over by isis. unless y

don't you are in big trouble. charlie: is that the governing model in mosul? mr. morell: yes. another thing to say, general petraeus on your show was getting at this, for a lot of moderate sunnis, they see isis as protecting them from the shia, from the shia in iraq, in the iranian backed shia militia, and they see them protecting them from assad regime. there are pluses and minuses if you happen to live inside that safe haven. charlie: but here is the point, everybody you talk to, the key in iraq and somewhat in syria are the sunnis. if they feel like isis is better than the maliki government, then what do we do to ensure them -- assure them that that is not true and give them incentive to fight isis? mr. morell: charlie, when i think about what has to happen, we know what the two pieces are, shrink the safe haven and shrink the leadership. to shrink the leadership, i know how to do. shrinking the safe haven is more difficult. you have to do four things at the same time. you have to have a military solution in iraq, you have to have a military solution in syria, you have to

and its allies. charlie: is sinjar the first step in retaking mosul? >> that is precisely the question we put to them. sinjar sits right in the middle of the isis stronghold in syria, and on the other side, mosul. commanders say we will take sinjar first, break the supply lines, then look at other cities, then mosul. if it continues to go the way it is going, learning the lessons they are learning here, how they can then apply that to mosul, a much harder offensive. charlie: one last question. any possibility that iragi troops will be joining them? >> probably not in sinjar. we have seen theypg, syrian-kurdish forces. they are proud of the victories they have had against isis, that they will have to work with iraq. seeing both sides of them working when they took control of the mosul dam, there was tension between these two forces. they will have to find some level of coordination. they can't do it without each other that is for certain. charlie: thank you so much. charlie on the ground in iraq. we will be right back. ♪ charlie: turning to politics and the 2016 campaign, it

criteria for liftoff. has a that the market recovery, mosul think we're in that region -- given that unemployment is down 5%. but they have to be reasonably conferenced and there on cap for 2% inflation target. inflation has been very low, we see very little wage pressure. the question is, do they need to act now? unconvincing,of the growth we are getting in the u.s. right now. it does not seem to have the foundation that it used to rest upon. is this because the dynamic of the economy has changed? have we not come to grips with it? >> this is a big question. productivity growth has been quite low, we have been generating jobs, the outlook power has not been that high. so that is raising that question about how fast is the economic engine spinning? and the other question is just, would lower population growth in asian populations, we just saw lower growth in general. there used to 3%. >> that was normal for the u.s.. >> and we will have to get close to 2.5%. >> why has things changed? we seem to have limped along. there is talk of another downturn, we have any buzz left in the gun? v

over w mosul in iraq, they grabbed an estimated $1 million in hard cash and currency. that they're using. now, i mean, i wouldn't i is a they have the capabilities of a meaningful government and the ability of the islamic state to persist is vulnerability to attacks on the ground, whether from the kurd, from the iraqi government or at the margins from the russians. but that's very different from the capabilities of isis as an organization. which is expanding, which has gotten loyalty from dozens of organizations in over a dozen states. and which clearly is ramping up its capabilities to recruit. that's where europe is finding itself absolutely as ground zero for targeting increasingly these days. >> all right, we close in on the top of the hour. we appreciate it. ladies and gentlemen, if you have not been watching, welcome to cnbc. there has been a series of terror attacks in paris. here's where we stand at 7:00 p.m. in new york. 1:00 a.m. in paris. latest reports say at least 35 people have been killed in several locations across the french capital. >> there are also 100 hostages

mosul with a few hundred million dollars worth of currency in there. they have control of wide swaths of territory. they engage in extortion. they shake down businesses. they shake down individuals and money is only part of it. you don't need a lot of money to move across borders. you don't need a lot of money to buy explosive devices. so it's a part of the puzzle, but it's by no means the entire thing. >> you don't need a lot of money to buy explosive devices. i'm wondering what do you think -- is it just people who are the most important aspect of this campaign and, if so, how do we go about cutting off that source of assets being the people who they're recruiting? >> you're starting to see it now because law enforcement agencies and security agencies are raising the profile for interdiction and for detaining people. there's no longer going to be any low level of screening. they're going to raise the level of screening and you're going to see more detentions. the best example of it was this morning, over the weekend actually, when french intelligence agencies began to raid re

mosul in northern iraq. that is an example of more that should be done. >> you've seen the g-20 pictures and you've seen the conversations that obama's having with putin right now. what does that mean for the assad regime? does that mean they get more support in order to fight sis sis and syria? >> the day after the attacks on saturday, november 14th, there was an important conference in vienna. the first one was held on october 30th. at that table -- what happens is that these attacks in paris can also indirectly basically serve as a catalyst for the diplomatic process for syria -- for a syrian accord to be reached, resolution. so they're talking about having some form of integral government. before january 1st there will be talks between the assad regime and the opposition. possible cease-fire and opposition. one is, who is the opposition? secondly, the status of assad. in my personal opinion down the road, assad is expendable but the regime is not. what i mean by that, russia, the person of assad, eventually they may give him up, but the regime itself within which russian int

controls significant sponsored territory. still controls bracca. it stilz controls mosul. the iraqi army has yet to mobilize sufficiently to be able to take on ramadi. while the kurds have managed to put the united states support to siege sinjar which is an important junction en route highway 47 between racca and mosul. the fact of the matter is that after 6,700 air -- 75% of those sordis come back with their bombs still intact because the president refuses to deploy forward air traffic spotters on the ground. that's the problem. that's why we do not have more success because the president refuses to put additional -- a few more boots on the ground to accomplish the mission than is necessary. >> ambassador, talk for a moment if you can about the strategic importance of turkey. we don't talk about turkey a lot, but from everything i read it's key to having a sustained success in middle east policy for the west. the fact that turkey is now clashing with russia was not apparently on the same page with russia before russia wra started these air strikes over syria. what should we expect

that that would be a mistake. not because our military could not march into mosul or raqua or ramadi and temporarily clear out isil. but because we would see a repetition of what we saw before, which is if you do not have local populations that are committed to inclusive governance, and who are pushing back against ideological extremes, that they resurface. unless we're prepared to have a permanent onccupation of these countries. let's assume we send 50,000 troops in syria, what happen when's there's a terrorist attack generated from yemen? do we send more troop also or libya? if there's a terrorist network operating anywhere else in north africa or or southeast asia? a strategy has to be one that's sustained. the strategy that we're pursuing which focuses on going after targets, limiting wherever possibility the capabilities of isil on the ground, systematically going after leadership, infrastructure, strengthening shia or -- strengthening syrian and iraqi forces that are -- and kurdish forces prepared to fight them, cutting off their borders. squeezing the space in which they can o

have to take background around fallujah into mosul if we're going to defeat the islamic state. stroo colonel, it sounds good to say that it's going to take governments in the middle east that reach across the aisle and include sunni, shia, and others to really stamp out isis and prevent them from getting a foot hold even if we were to send troops in, but realistically it's hard to find examples of governments like that rising up and having legs over time. what is not the end game, but the middle step that's really going to degrade the capability here and perhaps keep isis, whatever we call them, from striking at other western cities? >> well, you know, francois hollande describes this as a war. it is a war, and if you understand that context, it's moved beyond just terrorism. you know, the islamic state is not a real state, but it's acting like one, and what it's shown in recent weeks, not only with paris, but also with beirut, you know, and with egypt, is it's now extending its defenses. we have to expect these kinds of attacks. i don't think that what we saw in paris changes our fu

forces at the battalion level. >> that would give you a chance for ramadi and mosul and effect the militia controlled by iran, which is the largest ground force in iraq. >> no one would accuse president obama of not wanting to protect the united states. >> i'm not accusing that. >> i know that. what do you attribute the, can you contain -- can you geographically contain isil or isis and not expect that to keep the homeland safe in you contain him geographically? >> absolutely not. >> why is he not doing everything necessary in your view. >> i think he believes his strategy is working. he got 3500. he always does just the minimum. there is an urgency i have that he zvenlt i think an attack is coming. i think it's imminent if we gone e don't get down on the region and destroy isil. i am intended to pull up the caliphate. i want to fate in raqqa, than paris or new york. >> have you seen an increase of donations and support, people coming your way since the attacks on friday? >> not really. i'm not asking people to give me money, to do anything other than to listen to the grand plan, w

to make it look like the war against isis in mosul is better than it seemed to be. >> the report of the inspector general is not, but there are a two things going on. the inherent problem of the intelligence reports. the pact that the folks went public is telling me that it is not a substantive problem, because management problem. this is not going out isside of the door unless you have a bunch of analysts saying that we are managed poorly, and that is what you will find. >> and president obama says he wants a full review. and he does not want any sugar coat canned reports of intelligen intelligence, and so when isis took over mosul, the second largest city in mosul, the iraqi forces ran away. then there was later documents that said they re-deployed. >> so it is unfortunate to have something like that to reach the highest level. so you take raw intelligence and indecertainable report and turn it into what has been made. and having been one of the guys at the low level intelligence at uniform, and then to the top levels, the top person must reach into the command to make sure that e

moved in. the main route goes from mosul in iraq where isis have a key city to raqqah in syria which is the company apital of their self-declared caliphate. it seems today they now have the road. we left them there, with a series of bull dotzers digging in huge trenches, putting in a number of ramp, the aim being, cut it off permanently, prevent isis from moving. an extraordinarily paerilous da because they faced a lot of resistance from isis. they sent a number of car bombs towards the peshmerga forces. huge mushroom clouds across the sky. at one point three at the same time. the peshmerga did have one trick on their side, a new missile, which enables them to shoot the car bombs before they get too close. in fact, we saw how one of those almost melted a car in its tracks. also, a lot of coalition air power to hammering isis to the far west of that sinjar town. a lot of damage, it seems, done in that particular direction. the peshmerga able to advance to west today and some to the east as well, largely because of the coalition, dozens of air strikes we saw overnight, lighting up the

mosul and the lands that isis holds in syria. our correspondent nick paton walsh is with the peshmerga forces outside sinjar. he joins us live. 7,500 militia troops moving. this is a major operation, nick. >> reporter: and they appear to be attacking sinjar from three areas. one from the north near sinjar mountain where you saw the terrifying pictures of people fleeing for their lives in brutality of isis. today, we understand the offensive started at 9:00 last night. intensification of coalition air strikes. we saw it throughout the sky in the dark. from where we are, toward the west of the city itself, we are seeing intense fighting around. you cannot see it in the distance behind me, but this is the chief objective. that is the many highway that runs through sinjar. it goes through mosul in iraq to raqqah in syria and the caliphate and self declared capital. the hope is from pentagon officials, you sever this road and you prevent isis from trading oil from outside world or resupplying people inside mosul. we heard intense explosions in the past 20 minutes or so. it is seemingly from

leaders are fleeing to mosul. they are trying to lower their profile not moving in large convoys and not putting luggage on top of cars. it seems isis is very afraid of what is happening and what is to come. >> interesting to see ian lee in cairo. you get the coalition would not bomb mosul. that has been a goal of theirs for a long time. very difficult. isis is dug in there. it is a big city with a lot of civilians. >> the interesting development though is if these isis operatives and families are fleeing, what kind of strategic difference will it make for the group in its operations in syria and ability to recruit and ability to establish a command and control structure inside raqqah. >>> meanwhile, something debated and discussed in the united states this morning. a development in honduras where authorities say they apprehended four or five syrian nationals who were carrying fake passports. the men arrived in the honduran capital where police are holding them. they say the passports were stolen in greece. at this point, there is no direct link to terrorism. no certainty where they

this operation to the west of mosul. yes, in terms of symbolism, it's important. but i think beyond that what we are seeing, and this may be part of it is that isis is slowly being rolled back. isha? >> when, you mentioned this being a symbolic victory, but isis understands the values of symbols and messaging. so for the u.s., it still presents a moment to exploit in those term terms, but the question is how? >> certainly, yes. this is somebody very familiar. he's got this cutesy name assigned to him by the british tabloids, but beyond that, keep in mind one thing that often times with these organizations, somebody is killed, somebody is removed. and they're quickly replaced by somebody else. it's the organization itself that certainly needs to be undermined. and we are seeing that after some false starts and trouble that the u.s.-led coalition with the help of kurds in syria and northern iraq is beginning to make progress. certainly, how could the u.s. exploit this? it does definitely send a message to key figures within isis that they could be visited with a similar fate. we heard

enemy if you want to defeat him. >> he went to mosul, an iraqi city about the size of philadelphia. population around 1.5 million. it's the biggest prize isis has captured. this extraordinary video gives us a rare look into every day life into isis. it brings to mind the writer -- the banality of evil. isis has its own license plates and traffic cops who give parking tickets. and there are friendly shop keepers. >> completely brainwashed. i've never in my life met people like this. >> this, of course is the mosul isis officials wanted todenhofer to see. they gave him written permission to come to the city, and he believes they let him leave alive to make a point. >> they wanted to show me that they are a state, and that this state is working. it's not a perfect state, it's not like the united states. it's a state. >> and it's getting bigger. todenhofer saw new recruits pouring in every day. >> in this recruitment center, we had every day more than 50 new fighters. they can lose fighters, they don't care. >> the amazing thing is that they are completely enthusiastic. they think it's

-contained isis, to mosul in iraq. they feel if they can cut off that, they can cut off the ability to sell off oil in the region. it clearly shows a coalition aircraft come to get support of what may have been isis counterattacks to move back down the highways. the kurds are clear. they need to cut that road off. they say they've done it in certain parts. that's going to be in the hours ahead where the greatest fighting is. it's both vitally and strategically vital to that. in the fight against isis. >>> back here at home, new video surfacing of a man who died in police custody after being repeatedly tased. the images emerging as this man's family pursues a $25 million wrongful death suit against the police department. cnn's justice correspondent pamela brown is live with the very latest. what do we know, pamela? >> obviously, this video received through the attorney with the family involved in the $25 million lawsuit shows the handcuffed man being tased by police. and the video shows him dying while in police custody, despite the fact the incident happened at the doors of the emergen

strongholds of raqqa and mosul. but just as important as divide ing the isis call fate is saving the thousands of people, the thousands of religious minorities who live right there. and how could any of us forget this devastating video here that cnn shot this. this was zin yar where cnn witnessed the desperate minorities on the verge of slaughter. the children, the families climbing in. these helicopters scrambling on board in order to escape the incoming terrorists. nick paton walsh is on the front lines for us on this battle. he joins me on the phone. nick, as we're talking about this area u of sinjar and hearing kurd you shaish forces retaken this stretch of highway, tell me what you're seeing. >> reporter: what we saw earlier on today and now moved away from sinjar was peshmerga moving into the west in huge numbers. they claim 7,500. you move to the west through the rocky mountain areas there down to the highway you're referring to, off to to the distance and a lot of coalition air power we saw to the west of sinjar. must have been targeted to try to push back towards the city an

mistake. not because our military could not march into mosul or raqqa or ramadi and temporarily clear out isil. but because we would see a repetition of what we've seen before, which is if you do not have local populations that are committed to inclusive governance, and who are pushing back against idea logical extreme, they resurface, unless we're prepared to have a permanent occupation of these countries. and let's assume we were to send 50,000 troops into syria, what happens when there's a terrorist attack generated from yemen? do we then send more troops into there? or libya, perhaps. or if there's a terrorist network operating anywhere else in north africa or in southeast asia. so, a strategy has to be one that can be sustained. and the strategy we're pursuing, which focuses on going after targets, limiting wherever possible the capabilities of isil on the ground, systematically going after their leadership, their infrastructure, strengthening shia -- or strengthening syrian and iraqi forces that are -- and kurdish forces that are prepared to fight them, cutting off their b

east to mosul. they will have a job to get there. the peshmerga have cut off the main route in iraq near the town of sinjar. there is a sense of pressure against isis on the ground. no doubt about that. there is a definite expectation in syria that the kurdish forces in the north may start moving against it really soon. they don't have the numbers or the fire power but they might be going for it anyway. and the americans could be advising them to. a lot of movement here and changing dynamics. and it's the civilians in raqqah whose fate is so important. whatever happens from the air strike must put their fate paramount if they wish to defeat isis and have a functional society afterwards. >> nick paton walsh thank you for that. joining me now is rick francona and james spyder marks. france and russian have increased their air strikes in syria in response to attacks. are they working and how would we know? >> the short answer is yes. there is a routine assessment that takes place after every strike. a lot will focus in on what occurred. it used to be called bomb damage assessment that

terror group out there that captured the oil fields, mike rogers near mosul. billions of dollars potentially. they had robbed the bank. mosul is a city of 2 million people and they have all that gold. this is a very, very powerful terror operation. >> clearly. one of the things that worries you about an organization is do they have space to plan operations and do they have finances to plan operations? and the space to recruit. if you look at the social media, none better, they can recruit here in the united states in france, in brussels, anywhere they want in the world using social media, some 90,000 tweets a day trying to encourage people to commit acts of terror or join isis. finances, billions of dollars. that's concerning because it doesn't take a lot of money to finance the operation of which you just saw but it does take some. this gives them an opportunity to do a lot of those types of events because they have the cash to do it. and that's -- they have certainly the land and the space and the freedom to plan these operations but that's what makes them -- >> i listen carefu

think a little flat footed when isis came out of syria and moved in over and took the city of mosul. we knew very little about them. as they morphed into isis, changed their op prapgs it became clear that we didn't really have a good handle on it. and you could tell that from our initial operations against isis. our pilots are returning to base with a lot of ordinance that they have not dropped. that tells me we don't have the intelligence to develop the targets needed to successfully prosecute a war against isis. that may be changing. we have either isolated their communications better, better persistence surveillance. that usually means more drones over the area. i think being able to operate out of turkey has given up a much better edge, especially over syria. it appears the intelligence is getting better. do you fear this, if confirmed, will are result in retaliatory strikes by isis? >> they may try, but my assessment is isis is already doing everything they can. if isis is proouch b to be responsible for bringing down the russian jetliner, they're trying to do that in retaliati

mosul, an iraqi city about the size of philadelphia. population around 1.5 million. it's the biggest prize isis has captured. >> this extraordinary video gives us a rare look into every day life under isis. it brings to mind of evil, isis has its own license plates and traffic cops who give parking tickets. and there are friendly shop keepers. >> completely brain washed. i've never in my life met people like this. this of course is the mosul officials wanted him to say. they gave him written permission to come to the city and he believes they let him leave alive to make a point. >> they wanted to show me that they are a state and that this state is working. it's not a perfect state, it's not like the united states but it's a state. >> and it's getting bigger. tottenhoffer saw new recruits pouring in every day. >> these recruitment center we had every day more than 50 new fighters. they can lose fighters, they don't care. the amazing thing is that they are completely enthusiastic, they think it's the time of their life. they think that they are part of a historic allal event, changine

offensive in sinjar, west of mosul. you see the kurds within syria also pushing isis back. you see the russians in some instances, hitting isis targets as well. so isis is really beginning to feel the pain from this almost year, rather more than a year of u.s.-led air strikes and this mounting campaign against the organization, separate, of course, from the killing of jihadi john or mohammed emwazi, the alleged killing, or the purported killing of him. jornl? >> and we don't know yet, ben, it's not yet confirmed whether he's dead or not. of course, we're waiting to hear some word from officials on that. talk to us about the importance, the significance if, in fact, this is true. the significance to the families. because these brutal videos, they were put out for the world to see. they were out on social media. they were out on youtube. and, you know, these families have had to live with that news and have had to see these videos. what does it mean for them to hear this news? >> well, for them in a sense, it means a chapter has been closed. it doesn't really reduce the pain and sufferin

town. it is also strategic. we know the town runs on a main highway between raqqah and syria and mosul in iraq. it is now in peshmerga hands. peshmerga is digging trenches and layering it with earth berms. we have to see this is the beginning of the momentum for the peshmerga and coalition forces who played a huge role in the skies. if this is beginning momentum for raqqah and mosul. >> nick, you said the collisiu played a huge role in the air. give us a sense of the u.s. role in the operation. >> reporter: predominately in the skies without a doubt. one canadian volunteer i spoke to fighting alongside the peshmerga as a medic, jason said if it wasn't for them, the air strikes, this would not have happen. he has seen soldiers die in front of them. he was fighting religious fascism. there are military advisers on the ground here. that is admitted by the pentagon. they are helping calling the air strikes and assisting with tactics. a swift victory here. some may say that is a victory for the obama administration in an advisory role in the fight against isis or it may be the peshmerga had

isis forces ragtag, if you will, mosul, the second largest city in iraq, they made some noise, that iraqi military, which the u.s. trained, equipped to tune of billions of dollars, simply ran away, the intelligence assessment said they ran away, later revised to say they redeployed to make it sound a little bit better. but that whole iraqi military turned out to be a total disaster. when you left the pentagon, did you know how bad they were? >> no, as a matter of fact, you know, we thought that those security forces, when we left, were actually capable of trying to provide security for that country. what happened was that maliki, has he continued to be the leader in that country, became somebody who went after the sunnis. he kicked the sunnis out of the government. he kicked the sunnis out of the military. those disenchanted sunnis joined with isis, and they were demoralized, and i think the military units that were involved became demoralized as well. so they fell apart. you know, that was a tragedy but the fact is, if we are going to regain mosul, the territory that isis was able