i am from syria. their study on that specific area in what is going on right now, do you think the great state is about to become real? thank you. >> i think that this has been a long-term goal for the kurds for many years and in the midst of this crisis which is a crisis that threatens everyone inside of syria and iraq the kurds are unique in that for the first time in a long time they face a gamble that could if they play it properly lead to autonomy. few were interested in this i recommend an extremely detailed article published in the new york by dexter filkins which goes into the details of this and it talks about the wager. on the one hand how do you deal with the existential threat of isis that kurdistan shares with central iraq and the government of baghdad on it and had the leverage this to create an opportunity for autonomy? that seems to be the current direction of history. i can put a date on it but i would not be surprised to see it happen. >> christian let me ask you a question again fro

especially those in syria. criticizing support for many groups, including isil. >> now it's 100% illegal in saudi arabia to accepted money to isil, and to encourage ideological support for isil, and also it's illegal to go abroad to fight with isil. >> in airstrikes led by the united states, saudi jets struck isil targets within syria, significantly on board one of those jets was a member of the royal family. it may be the clearest message yet to its own citizens that the saudis are serious about confronting the threat of islamic terrorism. well, the saudis have made progress in stemming the flow of might money intended with terrorist organizations, but it's worth noting that the public is concerned for public support for isil and alqaida. a report card on the war against isil on the ground, in the air and in the wallet. we're back in two minutes. >> the death toll could be much higher than anyone known. >> posing as a buyer... >> ...people ready then... >> mr. president >> who should answer for those people >>

al jazeera. >> all right, let's get to the issue of syria, where you see the special ebb i have to syria. stefan addressing the media just having completed a briefing to the u.n. security council, let's see what he has to say. >> the use of this drama inner crisis this is an opportunity, in order to mobilize some positive action is being now discussed, and last point, and i will give it to our lady, forgive me madame. >> how you want to implement the freeze on how do you want to do that? >> i will not be doing that now, because i don't need the environment at the moment. we need to prepare -- we call them incremental freezes. why incremental, and why freeze. when you call a cease fire, you know very well by experience, been hundreds of cease fires that are broken by one shot, one fire. which should not be imposed by any of the two sides. it should be something that freezes the frozes in the area and for the people to feel this h not be this type of conflict, thank you very much. thank you. >> okay, well, that was brief, but nonetheless, pretty interesting. stephon, the u.n. special envoy

military force in iraq and syria. now since congress left town without having that debate, we've started a new whip count of members of congress who say actually, you know, this is ridiculous that we are fighting a whole new war in iraq and syria and congress has never debated it or authorized it. we know we gave ourselves 54 days off, but let's pitch that. let's come back and vote. let's debate this thing and let's vote on it. let's come back now before the election. so we've got this new whip count going. as you can see, the number of members of congress who want to do that is still a small number. but the number is growing. and now the top democratic in the house, nancy pelosi has joined the count. she now says congress should come back to washington now ahead of the election an debate this use of u.s. military force in iraq and syria and should vote on whether or not to authorize it. again, the numbers are still small, but the small but the numbers are going. and meanwhile, the undebated war continues. and it keep

and it was inside syria and outside syria, for the whole universe to hear. now, after the presidential election, we'd like to tell everyone that those who look forward to a political solution in syria, they must first respect the syrian people's will, which was manifested explicitly, clearly, soundly, and most loudly. they chose a president for the first time in syrian's history in multi party elections with international monitors from several countries that witnessed the integrity, transparency, and the enthusiasm of the people to participate in these elections. mr. president, i would like to emphasize that the syrian people have made their choice. those who want to speak on behalf of the people must first be a representative of the people and secondly should respect the will of the syrian people and their decisions. any dialogue must be based on the foundation that should respect the will of the syrian people and their decisions. accordingly, we are open to a political solution in syria. but the real opposition that seeks the prosperity, security, of syria

they've slaughtered men from a tribe in syria that tried to resist them. hundreds of them. and you say to yourself, as a human being, can we allow this to go on? and i think, you know, we're talking about the complexity of this, but it's really hard to put yourself in the shoes of the president of the united states who commands the only military in the world that's capable, perhaps, of stopping this. here you have this horrendous civil war in syria, and i've been there twice now this year and i have, you know, and i've covered a lot of war. i have never seen such urban destruction anywhere, anywhere. i don't know how they're going to rebuild that country. >> two to three million refugees, syrian refugees and six and a half -- >> that's just outside of the country. >> -- million inwardly -- >> yeah. >> -- displaced people -- >> it's nine million people displaced, but beyond that, and you see, like, street after street, town after town, just completely devastated. infrastructure, bridges, roads, hospitals, schools, how are they going to rebuild that? how are you going to repa

because it is iraq and syria. uk right now as an estimated 500 young men who have gone to join isis. and like-minded radical groups in iraq and syria. and the concern is that some of them will come back. it's not clear at the moment if any of these men have been to syria. what the connections may be to isis. but the indications we're being given, a plot thwarted in its early stages, and the links to iraq and syria at this moment, the indications do point towards an isis connection, christine. >> you know, nick, just like the u.s., the fbi asking for help to identify this hooded masked man who speaks perfect arabic and perfect north american english, in the uk you have concerns about the homegrown young men who have passports and financial resources to be able to join the fight. this is a tough call, tough job for both of these governments. >> it is, we're certainly going to hear more from the british government about what they can do to take passports away from people who have been to syria and iraq to fight to jo

is so concerned about western fighters in syria. our clarissa ward managed to get inside syria where isis and other rebels are fighting amid the chaos of a three-year-old civil war. who are these men? what do they want? clarisa found out. >> and winter is coming. >> reporter: after months of negotiations, we met a 26-year-old dutch fighter called yil madz, born in holland but now one of the thousand western jihadis fighting in syria. >> i will fight anybody. even if it was my own father that was bombing these people i would fight him and kill him myself. >> reporter: do you feel this is your home? >> yes, of course. we left everything behind. when we migrated here, everything, everything-- our families, our friends, basically our future. >> reporter: heist a soldier with the dutch army, but when special forces turned him down, he quit. around the same time the uprising in syria began. yilmaz says his world was turned upside down by the endless, gruesome videos of the assad regime's brutal crackdown. >> so i felt the need as a person

turkey wants to protect the border with syria. the initial plan suggesting demilitarized zones would be created in idlib and aleppo. more from al jazeera's rosalind jordan. >> at least 11 bombing runs in and around kobane tuesday and wednesday. u.s. and allied fighter jets launching an 11th hour effort to take on the i.s.i.l. fighters. with residents seeking refuge in turkey, the turkish president recep tayyip erdogan wants the u.s. to do more, wanting a buffer zone inside syria, to send the refugees back. >> francis hollande endorsed the idea. and the u.s. secretary of state was open to the idea. >> if syrian citizens can return to syria and be protected in an area across the border, there's a lot that would commend that. at the same time you'd have to guarantee safety, guarantee there wouldn't be attacks by the government, other kinds of things would have to happen. it needs a thorough examination. we are all in favour of looking at this closely. >> kerry's comments appear to be out of step with the rest of the obama administrat

in syria this cannot be done at all in the wars in syria and iraq for many years to come. >> nick schifrin, from istanbul. thank you very much. that's our special report, for tonight. thanks for joining us. i'm john siegenthaler. live. >> i live in mosca, colorado aka the middle of nowhere. i can't always be myself. i'm considered one of the misfits. i haven't seen my mom in the longest time. my stepdad and i, we don't really see eye to eye. i really want to get out of here. i'm going to check out if i got accepted into colorado college. it is imperative that i get into college at this point. if i don't, i feel like i can't get out of mosca.

and east of syria. they have four to six big tribal concentrations. the two most important of them, the shmad and nessa, these are very well-connected to the saudis. to put this in perspective, the saudi royal family comes from nasad. the mother of the current saudi king, kim amduga comes from shama. so they are connected to saudi arabia. they have intermarriage. because of this they were under pressure during the assad days, the father during the days of saddam hussein. both saddam hussein and assad propped up the junior-ranking tribes. these junior-ranking tribes -- these junior tribes were doing really good at the expense of the blue-blooded tribes. by the way osama bin laden's mother comes from the area. so we have the mothers of saudi factions coming from various tribes in syria. so they were doing really well and they hold areas like in the province. how, how it changed hands from assad to the rebels is really interesting. the revolution broke out on march 15, 2011. most of the north and the north

turkey, isil and the war on syria on this program. the turks have been cagey about their role and any isil coalition, yet the war is raging right on the border. is the country ready to step on the large role of circumstances it has been asked to play . our guests , is turkey staying out of it so far? this may not be the case always, but staying out of it so far making it harder for countries to share its desire to bring down the assad government, like the united states. >> well, it's debatable. i think the u.s. is still committed to this idea of change through a political statement and putting pressure on the assad regime, and that, of course, is a divergence with turkey. now, i actually think, yes, in terms--i mean, as far as ground intervention goes, if there is a question of ground troops, then turkey, having turkey on the ground would be best in encounter isil. but this--this reluctance to get involved in that way, i think it does ultimately-- this helps isil at least for now. >> what happens to the kurds when you have autonomous

that, places places must be illuminated in syria. eliminatedes must be in syria. that site is territory which is threatening iraq. speaking toabadi nbc on thursday. sinan antoon for you elaborate on point earlier about the internal agendas for some of these regional states, saudi arabia, qatar, etc.? andaudi arabia, $2000 sporting some factions forces in iraq that poor at times working against evolution found this crisis. theously, they don't have interest of the iraqi population is either implicating him back because since 2003 but also before iraq was very weak. all of these countries and have more influence on the iraqi internal politics. most of the iraqi politicians are able to more or less on policy. that is a problem. it is at least two iran because a loan to the parties in the malicious and a lot of the sunni politicians also have been somehow drawn into either turkey or saudi arabia or qatar. that is the situation we live in. , the politicale class, is very, very corrupt. frankly, most of them are not patriotic. that is how most iraqis feel. they're very

join the group in syria and iraq. and isis is thought to have up to a thousand western recruits in its ranks right now. many european. also a dozen americans, wolf. >> and tell us what's going on, in britain right now. the effort to stop this kind of recruitment. these young men? >> well, there are a lot of efforts come from the muslim community. the community is stepping up. they're pulling up twitter hash tags, not in my name. so there is a lot of unity against this. >> i want you to weigh in as well. >> what i was going to say is that british prime david cameron and other senior ministers are very much aware of this threat and a lot of thought is now going into how do we stop these people? a lot of british citizens coming back. if they want to go to syria and wage jihad, does that mean the british government has the right to withdraw their british passports? these are big issues. a lot of thought is going into this. and of course, the intelligence and security services here in london are trying their best to monito

they go to syria. they certainly become radicallized further, if they might with the extremists they become battle hardened in the conflict there. they get trained on, you know, small arms and explosives. and then you know, especially the werners, they have western travel documents. it's very easy to travel from western europe, uk, france, germany, belgium through turkey into syria. so that flow of people is a huge concern. we're working really closely with our european partners too. >> so when they come back, i mean do we meet them at the customs, they come, we want to have a conversation with you? >> we take different steps, depending on what we know. and so but there are opportunities to interview individuals coming back in the united states, to learn more about who they are, what they have been doing. we have other tools at our disposal. and we use those. but one of the key points right now that we're working on is making sure that we're sharing that information with our european partners. they kno

of iraq and east of syria. six -- they have four to big tribal concentrations. the two most important of them, the shmad and nessa, these are very well-connected to the saudis. to put this in perspective, the saudi royal family comes from nasad. the mother of the current saudi ing, kim amduga comes from shama. so they are connected to saudi arabia. they have intermarriage. because of this they were under pressure during the assad days, the father during the days of saddam hussein. both saddam hussein and assad propped up the junior-ranking tribes. -- junior-ranking tribes these junior tribes were doing really good at the expense of the blue-blooded tribes. by the way sbin's mother comes from the area. so we have the mothers of very saudi sectors coming from various tribes in syria. so they were doing really well. and they hold areas like in the province of rack that. how, how it changed hands from assad to the rebels is really interesting. the revolution broke out on march 15, 2011. most of the north and the no

>> our estimate is over 100 americans have traveled to syria tosoft to travel -- sought travel to syria. >> do we know who they are? >> we do know who they are. some have come back. we keep an eye on them. >> they must know we watch them. >> the fbi director talked about that. the issue is, those guys who come back pose a threat. small-scale attacks. i think. the other is the homegrown extremist person never traveled. who sit in their basement on the computer reading this propaganda and decide i can blow something up. >> is if the boston marathon? >> a little bit of that. they did not make the trip to chechnya. >> it wasn't a serious issue but it is that same mindset. very hard for us to limit that threat altogether. it is too easy to become radicalized on the internet, pick up relatively unsophisticated explosive devices. >> what we think they are learning in syria? >> the concern is the individuals going to syria. 15,000. of that number probably 2000 are from western countries. that is a big number. they go to syria. they become radicalized further. they become battle hardened in the

everything is better in syria. the earth is fertile there. >> jordan has decades of experience taking in mass numbers of refugees, but with more than half a million syrians already there, tensions are rising. many say they are pushing up prices and rents. this teacher and activist does what she can to raise awareness of the plight of refugees. today, she is taking clothes to a syrian family. she says there are misunderstandings on both sides. >> both jordanians and syrians are upset. jordanians ask why they have to look after the refugees. syrians say they are getting a lot of help because of them, but we see none of it. >> this family, like many others, is preparing for a long stay in jordan. the challenge now is for syrians and jordanians to learn to live side by side. >> in the meantime, security experts say islam it state has some 3000 fighters in its ranks from europe. >> today in belgium, that country saw the opening of the biggest case yet against until -- alledge islam is. >> belgian prosecutors have charge

-led airstrikes in syria? in the strategic border town of doob, fighting between the islamic state of levan fighting testify. people have fled provinces since isil took glover th took over. >> the people have fled anbar province. it's tragic that a displaced people who have fled once, twice, three times, four times. >> reporter: throughout this sprawling battlefield they are what security officials call foreign fighters. militants attracted from the regions in far away places from europe, north africa and the u.s. there are 15,000 militants from 80 countries operating in those two countries now. the largest number of fighters have come from tunisia, saudi arabia and jordan. more than 100 fighters are from the u.s. alone. social media such as youtube, twitter and facebook play a large role in isil recruitment. there is one village in the south of france that shows the power of the message. 18-year-old sarah grew up in a town where her family says relations turn ed sour when she demanded to wear a full islamic v

there is a claim to do it now in iraq or syria. foright be very dangerous the parties in the region, to the western interests in the region. there is an aim to create this caliphate, islam x state -- the islamic state. far, they are deployed along the border with syria along with lebanon. the syrian armed forces or the kurds in kobani, in syria. they should be stopped anyhow. they are on the march. they attracted jihadists from all over the world to join them. the idea, we call it the awakening of the west, creating to deal with them , it might be successful. it will not include just air superiority, but supporting the ground elements, like the kurds ,n iraq, the kurds in syria other moderate position elements in syria, supporting them against isis. >> what is the threat they told to baghdad today? >> they intend to take over baghdad and whatever is available, like damascus. they are already close to baghdad. this coalition is going to use our superiority in an effective way. they can be stopped. to help the iraqi armed forces to d

. >> we want the united states to take down assad in syria and want a buffer zone inside syria so the refugees can stay there protected rather than have to flow into turkey. don't they have a point? and why do we have this quite unseemly for a coalition, fighting back and forth? >> it is but this goes back years over the u.s. and president obama and most and actually all of america's allies in the middle east. since 2011, they've called on the u.s. to intervene in syria against the assad regime. we're finally acting now but we're not acting against the assad regime but isis, why not assad? syria will not be solved unless assad is toppled. >> of course. we're not going to be able to generate a sunni opposition if we're hitting isis and allowing assad to gain that way. with the turks, there's a cynical element to what they are doing. turkey has a large kurdish minority population of its own and had to deal with kurdish terrorist groups for many years. and there's a view in turkey that this destruction of another kurdish enclave solves a problem for them, basically diminishes a kurdish t

we have seen money poured into syria. everyone was so focused on destroying the al-assad regime without paying any attention to the consequences of this, even arming the syrian rebels. just point to me this one brigade of syrian rebels that his so-called [indiscernible] this is not different from the somali war. imagine saying, let's arm this somali militia because they are moderates. this is what is the problem going on. a was so keen on toppling sharp. at the moment, there is an absurdity of having the saudi's fine airplanes to bomb isis that their that different from ideology themselves. it is pure hypocrisy. i think the americans -- again, i find myself in total some of the with obama and biden -- is finding themselves in the situation where they have to look to shop for allies amongst the people who are not that interested in finding a solution. unless we break the cycle, we disengage ourselves from toppling bashar al-assad and focus on isis and then continue the cycle -- isis is fighting enemies. each of the enemies

syria is what made isis isis. >> we don't know how many al qaeda in iraq guys move from iraq to syria in the 2011, 2012 timeframe. but once they move into syria, all of a sudden, they're able to operate once again. all of a sudden, they're able to recruit once again. their message gains traction with the sunnis of syria who are looking to wage a civil war against the shia government. (explosion) >> smith: al qaeda was joining the fight along with dozens of other syrian sunni rebel groups, but it quickly became a major force. >> baghdadi sends a bunch of guys into syria. it goes from being nothing to being the most powerful active group. they're running operations all over the country within, like, 12 months. it's extraordinary what happens. takes off like fire. >> smith: back in iraq, maliki's purges of sunnis continued. and maliki upped the ante in december 2012, when his police rounded up the bodyguards of another prominent sunni leader, finance minister rafi al-essawi. >> rafi al-essawi, everybody loves the guy. i mean, he's greatly respected. i've seen no evidence that suggested t

the turks and syria are not good buddies. if turkey sends grounds forces in, syria, the ground regime, has to weigh what it looks like. it it to take care of isis because the turks want a buffer zone inside syria, so is that what they are doing or a permanent relationship, so the assad regime has to react to the turkish incursion. >> the beheadings, massacres, rapes, so heart breaking. there was a compelling glimpse in "the new york times" interviewing a resident of kobani who fled. this is what he said, he's 45 years old. i worked as a laborer for 40 years before i was able to pay $15,000, and delivering goods was the way to feed my family. the coalition air strikes might push isis away, but i don't think they'll be able to give me back my car or the life i had. omar's claim makes is real. can the air strikes help omar and other desperate people of kobani who are fleeing? >> the air strikes can reduce the overwhelming capability that isis is displaying to this point, but it cannot eliminate it or degrade it enough to where i

in syria. and they're commemorating some of the people, some of the fighters, who've been killed in the battle against isis which has been going on for quite some time. if you look over here, these -- many of these women have lost sons or husbands in this war. and as you can see, they're chanting "long live oppo." that's the name of abdullah ojela fr ojel ojel ojelan, leader of the kurdistan worker's party or pkk. he's in prison in turkey. that's part of the reason america's decision to ally itself with these fighters is so controversial with its nato ally, turkey. ivan watson, cnn, reporting from northern syria. >> thanks to ivan. >>> now, if the war on isis has an epicenter, perhaps it's in kobani, but is the white house willing to abandon the rest of syria to win the fight in that one town? we'll talk military strategy straight ahead. >>> and get ready, join anthony bourdain on an african adventure. "parts unknown" style in tanzania, from zanzobar, to parts unknown. tonight at 9:00 eastern.

they are not living up to their responsibilities inside syria. what are they doing for displaced families and children who's homes are destroyed? areas of safety are hard to find. cities and villages have been bombarded every day. some of the worst violence on sunday happened in homs where dozens of people were killed. according to the syrian observe tory for human rights, in just the past week, the syrian military carried out more than 530 airstrikes and barrel bomb attacks. government forces may be making full use of the aerial advantage to defeat the rebels but on the ground, it's a civilians who are getting killed. gerald tan, al jazeera. in neighboring lebanon, there has been fierce fighting in the northern town of tripoli. at least 10 soldiers and six civilians have been killed in violence related to the conflict in syria. stefanie dekker is in tripoli not far from where the battles are being fought. there remains an incredibly tense stand-off between the army and fighters holed up in banatabano, the road where we are. you can hear it. it h

interpreter with greater focus on syria in recent weeks, more airstrikes in northern syria, a lot of focus on kobane, have people taken their eyes off of what isil is doing in western iraq? interpreter well, i don't think people have taken their eyes off of what's happening inside of iraq, but again, paying attention to it and sending more bombs there will not tip the balance. as i said, everybody acknowledges this is getting to be incremental and long-term, and it needs to be understood better. isil took the whole world by surprise within a period of a few months. they tripled, not only tripled, but they increased their wealth, their weapons, the number of soldiers, their armies by many many folds, and obviously, they took the world by surprise by their intelligence, the way they are campaigning and having their roots into so many other parts of the world and not just the territory that they control. they are facing an enemy that nobody is accustomed to, and it will take a while before it can be encircled and pushed back. so as we said, iraq is one frontier, and i think what's happe

and the tribal areas, the northeast as syria and the northwest of iraq and east of syria, these, they have at least 4-6 big travel company -- concentrations. the two most important of them, these are very well connected with the saudis. to put this in perspective, the saudi royal family comes from the area. the mother of the current saudi king, his mother comes. so these tribes are connected. they have intermarriage. and because of this they were under pressure. during the days of saddam hussein, they propped up the junior ranking tribes. these junior ranking tribes, i can cite a couple. and these tribes were doing a really good at the expense of others. by the way, the mother of osama bin laden hills from the area. coming from various tribes in syria. so, we are doing really well . and they hold areas, different provinces. now, how it changed hands from assad to the rebels is very interesting. the syrian revolution broke out on march 15, 2011. most of the north and northeast, assad just lost control really fast. the only province that kept holding and was still loyal to assad remaine

and i know you're in parts of syria where the government is not in control. but what about the danger to the doctors, because you have the savagery of the isis group which dominates a large portion of syria. >> the conflicts, and access is to hard. and we have had to be creative in delivery of our programs for that region. and we have had to juggle it with the beneficiaries that we're trying to serve, and the security of our staff. it's not just the expatriate staff but all of the doctors in the hospitals, but i've been there and they have a disregard for humanitarian principles, which is difficult for us. i've worked in many contacts around the world, where at the end of the day, at least ambulances were respected and we don't see that in syria. >> you see doctors in jordan and lebanon and iraq working with people. and let's look at the doctors, and a trauma surgeon at work. >> we have the three new cases coming. >> some of these doctors are working around the clock. this doctor was a refugee himself. how many people are there like him, who, in your group, w

the question is both iraq and syria. john referenced the debate of course that has gone on in other countries has really trieded to differentiate. but the way this question was asked to this sample of the american people clearly explains this is not just attacks in iraq but are attacks in iraq and syria. so nearly three out of every four americans favor air strikes. but six out of ten oppose the use of u.s. ground troops in iraq and syria. now, it's not really so surprising right. call it what you will. the bitter memories of the wars in afghanistan and especially in iraq, um, it's not so surprising the american people are not particularly enthusiastic about another major ground war in iraq or a new or additional ground war in syria. the one in afghanistan is obviously still going on. so this is where the public is on this question about what we're doing and how we go about doing it. and so the real question is whether an air only campaign can accomplish what president obama set out to do. has set out to do. so this is t

ukraine, what have you, in syria. and that what he does is through this low minimalist approach he gets people to rise up against their governments and then it starts a civil war and then it is used as a pretext for a u.n. resolution which allows for an american intervention to flip that country over to its side and that's the way it projects its power. >> organized chaos. >> right, organized chaos. and i thought to myself, i was one of five americans there. nato boycotted and i remember saying to a russian colleague. do you really think there's a plan? i mean really, i can assure you , this is not a plan. ok? i've seen plans. >> not as far as you know. >> you're not in the inner circles. >> what i mean is i think the problem that we have is very simple. that it's very difficult -- autocracies, in general, are much better at projecting their power than democracies. it's amazing. even though we relate on an individual level to the people inside these countries and their aspirations but we're just not good at projecting

around the same time, the uprising in syria began. he said his world was turned upside down by the endless gruesome videos of the assad regime crackdown. >> so i felt the need as a person, as a human, and, of course, as a muslim, i had to stand up and do stuff. >> reporter: two months ago without telling his family he left holland to join syria with a wide range of troops. >> it's scary. >> reporter: do you miss anything about home or the west? >> the food, electricity, warm water. these are the things that i miss. but the west? hypocrisy. it's filled with hypocrisy. >> reporter: he has become more extreme during his two years in syria. he does not fight with isis, but he won't join them either. he argues that it pales in comparison to the assad regime. >> beheading people, crucifying people, it's very difficult for the people in the west and the u.s. can justify how their tactics could ever be justifiable. they're war crimes. >> war crimes. what's a war crime? more than 200,000 dead is not a war crime? barrel bombs, chemical attacks

a key kurdish city in syria. >> in syria he would be the fourth hostage beheaded by i.s.i.l. the video ends with peter kasich, a former army ranger, he was working as an aid worker when he was beheaded, in coalition for coalition air strikes. >>> prime minister steven harper said canada's jets would participate. harper said canada will not deploy ground troops. >> syria is angry over turkey's decision to take part. meanwhile i.s.i.l. fighters are closing in on the town of kobani in syria. bernard smith reports from across the border in turkey. >> reporter: with tanks taken from the iraqi army, islamic state of iraq and the levant against fied their shelling of kobani on friday. a few,000 syrian kurdish fighters. shoot the tanks one commander tells the fighters. these men and women are unlikely to be able to hold this town for much longer without outside help. >> we wouldn't want kobani to fall. we welcome our brothers who came from kobani. we'll do whatever we can to prevent this from happening. >> reporter: but there's no indication that turkey's military is about to get inv

let's start to talk about syria. now that turkey is considering joining the coalition, the big elephant in the room is syrian president al assad whom the turks are moderate syrian allies and all the members want gone. let's listen to something president obama said about u.s. policy on al assad on sunday. >> i realize the contradiction in a contradictory circumstance. we're not going to stabilize syria under the rule of assad. >> there are lots of contradictions. of course, the u.s. is bombing isil who opposed assad, but we want him gone. the syrians are publicly boasting they're part of the coalition against isil. do we have a strategy? does the u.s. have a clear policy on what is going to happen with assad? >> i think the u.s. has spoken very clearly. this is a messy, complex situation where the united states, the sunni arab states, other countries in europe are taking military action by air power against isis in syria and iraq. yet, by no means do we wish to strengthen the assad government. i think the administrati

when he joins iraq and syria like that, it implies isis. so government and their own police here are not saying that specifically. but the implications here. of course, britain raised their threat to severe about a month ago. we know the security services here are very worried, about young men, about 500 of them left syria have gone to groups to join like isis. that's in the bag ground here. why were these young men arrested. one was tasered during his arrest. police were involved also. it underscores just how serious the nature of what these men may have been planning was. and from what we understand, essentially what the police are saying as well, that a terror plot was thwarted here, perhaps in its early stages, john. >> nic, we'll fiend out more in the coming days. our thanks to you for that report. >>> we turn now to the latest on the ebola crisis. the head for the centers for disease control sounding confident the u.s. could prevent an outbreak on u.s. soil. thomas frieden declaring we will stop ebola in its tracks. >> there are real

that's why he was so good in his work in syria. that's why he has had friends come out to say so many working things about him in beirut where he lived. people gravitate towards him. he's warm, passionate, determined. when he turned his attention to the syrian people, that same personalty came through and he was committed to the work he has been doing in that country. >> horace, tough question, i want to see if you can get into the mind of some of these isil captors. we see his parents tweeting out to him. is there anything that they can do to change the fate that isil has set for their son? do you see any wedge that could be driven in there? >> i think what's important for isil--isis to understand is that they are pressure porting to defend muslims in that region. they're pressur purporting that they're saving syrian and iraqi lives. and abdul rahman is an humanitarian. he went there to help the syrian people, to provide education and relief work, development work. if there is anything that they can see in terms of their humanity

is leading airstrikes against the group which has taken parts of iraq and syria and speaking of syria, u.s. and coalition airstrikes there have targeted isil's position in the besieged town of kobane. kurd curb forces say the airstrikes have helped them with their counterattack. kobane's residents have fled across the border into turkey. they began their assault the of the town more than three weeks ago. while the world's attention is being focused on the battle for kobane. fierce fighting continues elsewhere in syria. it's the government of the bashar al assad. a report. >> reporter: syria's parliament's in normal session. in attendance, prime minister and his cabinet have an upbeat assessment of the future. >> translator: as we enter the fourth year of the crisis, and the terrorists led by the western powers the challenges that we face on the security, political and economic levels are increasing. but our government is confident in our people that will lead to develop and build the future of syria and bypass this period. an optimism backed by military gains on the various battle fro

they will be speaking about syria and iraq. a news conference coming up at the bottom of the hour in about ten minutes or so if not less. this comes amid barbara starr reporting there has been what they described as a tough memo from hagel written to the white house complaining of a lack of clarity as far as u.s. policy towards syria is concerned. we'll see what the secretary of defense has to say. presumably he'll be asked about the way isis is treating women and we have a special report that's coming up right now, women are not only being forced to leave their homes in syria and iraq, they are being humiliated, they are battered, they're being kidnapped and they are being brutally raped repeatedly by these isis terrorists. teenagers, turned into sex slaves, by isis. our senior international correspondent ivan watson spoke to one young victim. >> janna was a 19-year-old high school senior with dreams of becoming a doctor when isis first came to her village. >> translator: they came to the village and said you have to convert t