one of which, i have already mentioned, but second, we targeted abu sara, one of the top isil leadersaying fighters in iraq. and these precise actions came after recent strikes that destroyed a significant quantity of improvised explosive devices and bomb-making equipment that could have been used against our partners headed for mosul. we believe these actions have been successful and have done damage to isil. as chairman dunford noted earlier this week, the momentum of this campaign is now clearly on our side. the united states military will continue to work intensively with our coalition partners to build on this progress, as our counterparts throughout our governments work to defend our homelands at the same time. one final note before we turn to questions. yesterday i spoke with my saudi counterpa counterpart. we agreed to convene a u.s. gulf cooperation council defense min steeral on april 20th in riyadh. ahead of president obama's participation in a usgcc leadership summit. this will be an important forum, to strengthen u.s.-gcc defense partnerships, including discussing a way a

one of which i have already mentioned, but second, we targeted abu sara, one of top leaders charged withg fighters in northern iraq. next, we targeted a number of isil associates who were directly involved in external plotting and training. and these precise actions came after recent strikes that destroyed a significant kwaunlt of improvised explosive devices and bomb making equipment that could have been used against our partners headed for mosul. we believe these actions have been successful and have done damage to isil. as chairman dunford noted earlier this week, the momentum of this campaign is now clearly on our side. the united states military will continue to work intensively with our coalition partners to build on this progress as our counterparts throughout our governments work to defend our homelands at the same time. one final note before we turn to questions, yesterday, i spoke with my saudi counterpart, deputy crown prince and defense minister, we agreed to convene a u.s.-gulf cooperation council defense ministerial in riyadh ahead of president obama's participation in the

. >> reporter: can i ask you the same about abu sara? you said he was targeted. can we assume that was an air strike? >> again, i'm not going to talk about how these guys went out. we have a number of ways to do that, and i'm going to ask for your forbearance there. we're going to be disciplined about that. >> reporter: you said to congress that the europeans need to step up their intelligence sharing. i know that several people who were part of the brussels attack have been on our terror watch list and would not have been led into the united states. are we increasing our sharing of our intelligence? did we share all that information with the belgians? >> i can speak military to military. i spoke broader to congress, law enforcement, and so forth. from a military to military, we've increased the intelligence sharing and we have specific locations where we bring together a number of coalition partners to do just that. i mean, we think that over 100 countries have dporn fighters in syria and iraq. you've seen the numbers that exceed 35,000. i wouldn't put a high de

also targeted another isis leader known as abu sara. the u.s.ss targeting isis's finances and some weapons caches and according to the pentagon, they're trying to go after members of the group's cabinet, erin. >> all right, evan, thank you very much. we are right now in the past 24 hours, there have been nine arrests. authorities here in belgium -- terror raids are really left and right at this point, just days after those deadly bombings in brussels. they're still looking for the man in the airport in the light colored jacket as well as others they believe. critics say until now belgium law enforcement has been lax. and now there are growing questions. ryan heath is with me, senior eu correspondent for politico. let me start with the fact of what is happening in these raids. to get everyone a sense of what's at stake here. think at home sometimes you say, here's another raid. sometimes the raids don't yield anything. last night near paris, 4 1/2 pounds of tapt. that's what they believe was used in these bombs, the one in the airport. 4 1/2 poun

significant number of actions this week, one of which i've already mentioned that second, we targeted abu sara one of the top leaders in iraq. next we targeted a number of associates directly involved in external plotting and training. and these precise actions came after recent strikes attacked a quantity of improvised explosive devices and bomb equipment that could have been used against the partners headed for mosul. we believe that these actions have been successful and have done damage. as the chairman noted earlier this week, the momentum of the campaign is now clearly on our side. the united states military will continue to work intensively with our coalition partners to build on this progress as our counterparts throughout the government worked to defend the homeland at the same time. one final note before we turn to questions, yesterday i spoke with my counterpart, the deputy defense minister. we agreed to convene the u.s. gulf cooperation council defense ministerial on april 20 in riyadh. ahead i had a president who promised effect participation in the gcc summit the following day. t