let us the government on that now dorian jones. richard walker joins us from washington d c. we are getting reports that sources are close in around the syrian city. we are also getting reports that local kurdish forces army and horsing assistant. -- reinforcing position. >> this isis seen as critical by both sides. it took themem 2.5 months of bitter fighting and they lost wealththundred lives and are determined to keep it. we understand the forces have drawn. -- withdhdrawn. they are bringining trucks and ammunition and fighters. he said that basically the -- these are local heard. they are refusing to give it over to enforce e d by turkikish forces. ththey are facing a a major shon which could be a a very long and bloody battle. >> we know that the u.s. is backing one of these militias. how big of a below is it to the u.s. effort and also to turkish -u.s. relations? >> the syrian democratic forces certainly including a militia group. now this is a group that turkey regards has terrorists but the united states is as very one of few available allies. when you have a nato all

terry: dorian jones is covering this story from the stumble. what can you tell us about the scope of this offensive? guest: the first objective of the turks has been successful with syrian rebels taking the town center and engaged in mopping up operations. islamic state did not put up any fight at all and decided to just cut and run. the key question is the second part of turkey's operation, to give up recent territorial gains they have made in the last few weeks. that is unclear. we had the u.s. vice president supporting demand that syrian kurds retreat, but we have had a strong statement warning the turks if they want to say -- if they want to stay, they will face the same date they have inflicted on islamic state. terry: there is a conflict between turkey and islamic state , but what about the conflict as a whole, sending ground troops is a big step. what could it mean for the broader conflict? guest: it does risk complicating things because turkey has the largest army in the region and they've made an step into the conflict. damascus has wa