you find yourself back in anbar province to catch isis fighters. >> yeah.sure do. >> did you ever think that would happen? >> i did not. it's a very surreal experience to be back here in anbar 14 years later from doing offensive operations out here. >> remarkably almost the same fight plan. >> it really is. very familiar flight plan. that's right. >> we drive to the command center, where we learn there has just been a strike on isis fighters. has it been lucrative? >> it's been successful. >> reporter: u.s. strikes from the air and then the iraqi forces sent in on the ground. ns center. they take us past the concrete barriers, where we find u.s. troops and their eyes trained on isis. >> so welcome to anbar and task force spartan. this is our combat operations >> reporter: where they reveal to us the isis fighters they have just targeted. you were telling me you've already seen enemy movement. >> we have. >> reporter: and tonight abc news obtaining these images of that strike. they tell us two isis fighters were spotted where they were sleeping, not far from

you find yourself back in anbar province to catch isis fighters. >> yeah. we sure do. >> did you ever think that would happen? >> i did not. it's a very surreal experience to be back here in anbar, 14 years later, from doing offensive operations out here against al qaeda in iraq. >> we drive to the command center, where we learn there has just been a strike on isis fighters. has it been lucrative? >> it's been successful. >> hidden in the desert is their operations center. they take us past the concrete barriers where we find u.s. troops and their eyes trained on isis. >> so, welcome to anbar and task force spartan. this is our combat operation center. >> where they reveal to us the isis fighters they have just targeted. you were telling me you've already seen enemy movement? >> we have. >> and tonight, abc news obtaining these images of that strike. they tell us two isis fighters were spotted where they were sleeping, not far from where they were keeping their weapons. this is where they retreated to. >> we found them because they got up and moved. they we

we were in a place, al-anbar, the people was rising up -- the people was rising, then sunni uprising against his, guy named zarqawi and we were downtowns snubbed couldn't bring additional troops even though they their waiting in southern california to come in. so, shortly after we took over the district from the 82nd 82nd airborne division, four contractors, wandering around the battle field -- used to be very upset about this stuff. wandered into a town called fallujah. they got killed, burned in their bodies hung up, people were very angry near this town, and it was a tribal town, so what we did was we knew we could get ahold of a tribal element who basically hated the people who had done and we'd findy the body were, get the bodies back and then find the people who had done it, hunt them down and kill them but i wants to do it with rage into -- raids into their homes aft night and didn't want to major a city of 350,000 people. so after a couple of dives arguing about this i finally received the order, you will move that against fallujah and stay in fight. i new my boss and the bos

forces for an operation that took us deep into the anbar desert. and our team in syria, as well, where we showed you the refugee camps. one in particular where there are 70,000 refugees and where they believe isis fighters are now living. reports of children dancing around the isis flag. i want to bring in abc's kyra phillips tonight, because we know you asked mike pompeo about those camps. u.s. military leaders told me on the ground that they are a br d breeding ground, these camps, and here's what secretary pompeo said today. >> reporter: are you concerned about these refugee camps becoming a breeding ground for isis fighters? >> there's a long history of what you are describing, where prisoners were detained and extremist elements breeding in those places. but we've been working diligently on this. we will not take our eye off the ball, ensuring whether it's isis or others, continue to be under pressure from the united states of america. and that, just to close it out, and that would include in these camps that you're referring to. >> and kyra,

border crossing was actually taken over by eisel fighters they used it as a staging post to go into anbar province where we are right now to take over huge parts of iraq territory now in 2017 iraqis and on the syrian side the syrians managed to take back control of the border from eisel fighters they're in control now but even just a year ago it would have been very difficult for someone like me to stand here and broadcast live because there were still pockets of i saw fighters all the way around this area so this is now being seen as a big success for the iraqi people for the iraqi army who say we've managed to clear the entire area of ice or fight as you can are drawing through the province pretty much unmolested there are only a few checkpoints and now the idea being that they want to get these trade routes into syria reopened and this is the 1st one they're actually going to open 2 more border crossings with syria in the coming weeks to come what impact cimarron is that likely to have not just for syria but its neighbors as well. well it does have a big regional implication when the b

for these purposes, isis considers iraq and syria part of one operation and so what happens in al anbar and iraq and what the iraqi government does is also important and that is something that this committee will need to pay attention to. i would point to three things we need to do better than we have or keep doing to make sure we don't stop and one escaping of the counterterrorism pressure on isis using u.s. forces. for every sort of briefer that spoke to us said that will give new life to so we need to keep that pressure on it is very much in our interest because that would help to keep isis from returning. i don't think they will be able to take that back and help them with the reintegration of radicalization process and they are the ones that need to do that. they were great fighting partners to transition to be great sort of governing partners to the links to the inclusive in the way they govern so that you don't have discontent among the local populations that they can capitalize on. >> i'm going to add a few additional things. this administration the international coalition to de

on august 3, 2005 in anbar province, iraq, grant frasier was on a mission, operation quick strike to avenge the killing of his fellow marines when his vehicle was hit by a massive improvised explosive device. he was 22 years old when he made the ultimate sacrifice. now, i love our military but sometimes it can be bureaucratic and very bone headed. it took 11 long years and the tenacious, beautiful spifer rit of grant phrase -- spirit of grant frasier's mom, sharon, to get a proper burial at arlington cemetery. two days before the funeral in 2016, i was sitting next to general dunford at a dinner. i told him about grant's heroism and sharon long's heroic perseverance to get her son buried at arlington. and on an overcast day september 30, 2016, his friends and families and fellow marines were gathering to put grant frazer to rest at arlington national cemetery. a marine four-star general in his dress blues appeared solemnly on the sidelines. the most important member of the u.s. military decided to move his schedule and come to the funeral of this lance corporal. i had the opportunity