correspondent jim schutto reports. >> after frequent white house denials that just troops would face combat in syria, today the president is orders dozens of u.s. special forces in combat roles, involving action with isis. >> these operators will be able to conduct raids, gather intelligence and capture isil leaders. >> is support forces will expand to 200. >> this force will conduct, will provide us additional intelligence that will make our operations more effective. >> part of the mission, raids like this within in northern iraq in october. a daring joint operation involving kurdish commandos and the u.s. army's delta force to free these isis-held prisoners. one delta force operator was killed. >> it puts everyone on notice in syria. at night, you don't know who's going tok coming through the window. and that's the sensation we want all of isil's leadership and followers to have. it comes in the aftermath of parents. >> he appears to contradict the commander-in-chief. >> have we currently contained isil? >> we have not contained isil. >> have they been contained at any time since

jim schutto, cnn, washington. >> steve is a contributor now to cnn. new year's eve, we've got a lot of people heading out for the evening, does it matter in terms of the security challenge if they're looking at new york, paris, london, rome, sidney? anywhere in the world? >> no, no. each one is going to be a potential target for isis. they like lots of people in one area. >> so if you're a security officer, if you're planning this, if you're an fbi, looking to how to keep us safe, what are you looking at? >> you're looking at anything that could have come up in the last month. you're looking at all your current investigations. you're looking at anything that has the potential to attack these things. and you are -- your threshold for interdicting is much lower. and so you're trying to basically round up the suspects before new year's eve. >> they'll be heavily armed. both cities are saying there's no credible threat. this is all about reassuring the public. could such a police presence have an opposite effect? >> for some people it certainly could. we'