syria is isis' sanctuary. we cannot succeed in iraq if isis is allowed to maintain that sanctuary in syria. we need a strategy now to defeat isis in syria. as you can see on the map that deals with the global rings, take a look at that, many isis -- on that isis map, isis is expanding beyond iraq and syria into sinai, yemen, libya, and afghanistan. this is where they actually have people on the ground and they have actually provided resources and they have actually have a contract, written and signed with the people on the ground who are affiliated with them. and they are also inspiring and motivating radical sympathizers throughout the world which are depicted in that map on yellow as we are painfully aware of in europe and the united states and australia. yet there is no strategy with our allies to counter that expansion. i would go further to say there is no strategy to counter the destabilization of the middle east. as to iraq, it certainly makes sense to assist iraq in reclaiming lost territory and avoid deploying u.s. ground comb

have been resourceful and capable and we underestimated their strategy to expand their reach in syria and iraqhost: a former senior cello -- fellow at the state department. some of the negotiations in regards with iran's nuclear program. guest: iran's role complicates this for u.s. policy because of the overlap -- overlapping interest in syria and iraq and the competition between shia and sunni multiple levels. host: it is important to put into perspective what the new york times piece is writing. it is the front page. the headline is "with two victories, isis dispels the hope of swift to klein -- decline." , they listed a series of setbacks in the city of kobani, battered by heavy airstrikes, forced out of a growing list of towns and cities in iraq. but the islamic state has turned that story around. it solidified its cold -- hold with a carefully carried up assault on ramadi. it stretched its territory into syria. the twin offenses have been a showcase for isis's disciplined adherence to its corpus of -- core philosophies syria fighting on multiple fronts. enforcing its caliphate in the sunn

syria is isis' sanctuary. we cannot succeed in iraq if isis is allowed to maintain that sanctuary in syria. we need a strategy now to defeat isis in syria. as you can see on the map that deals with the global rings, take a look at that, many isis -- on that isis map, isis is expanding beyond iraq and syria into sinai, yemen, libya, and afghanistan. this is where they actually have people on the ground and they have actually provided resources and they have actually have a , contract, written and signed with the people on the ground who are affiliated with them. and they are also inspiring and motivating radical sympathizers throughout the world which are depicted in that map on yellow as we are painfully aware of in europe and the united states and australia. yet there is no strategy with our allies to counter that expansion. i would go further to say there is no strategy to counter the destabilization of the middle east. as to iraq, it certainly makes sense to assist iraq in reclaiming lost territory and avoid deploying u.s. ground co

and syria, iraq and syria as the epicenter, this new trend toward jihadism is something we haven't wrestled with. we need to widen the landscape and keep focused on it to assess what we're doing and whether we're apply regular sources to meet those threats. in conclusion, i hope the events of the last week or so, and i hope our discussion today is a constructionive wakeup call to move from what i think has been a largely reactive crisis management and somewhat tactical approach to the problems that not only over the last year or two but over the last decade. i hope the events can mote rate all -- motivate all of us include you with your lead ship, to draw toward the source of unity. it reinvigorates our sense of purpose because as derek and others have described this is a dangerous adversary. we have not yet created that strategy to actually defeat them and we can. thank you. senator mccain: could i mention to my colleagues, a vote is on. if you'd like to go and come back, please do so. i'll try to c

in syria and iraq. this is something that will prompt security forces to beef up security across the country, and comes against a backdrop of saudi-led air strikes, targetting houthis >>> meanwhile, the u.s.-led coalition is under pressure to rethink tactics against i.s.i.l. it made major gains in iraq and syria and is moving closer to baghdad. zeina khodr reports. >> reporter: some of these men will be sent deep into the sunni heartland to fight i.s.i.l. others will be kept behind to protect the town. for these shia militia men, the battle is not just about recapturing territory, it's protecting roots from anbar towards southern iraq, to prevent an i.s.i.l. attempt to advance on shi'ite sites and holy areas. >> translation: i volunteered to join the battle to protect the holy shrines. we don't want i.s.i.l. to advance further. and threaten the shi'a holy sites. >> reporter: it was a controversial decision to use shia militia men in a sunni province. the iraqi government had no other choice. efforts wer

iraq. the historic city of palmyra in syria, and for the first time the group took credit for a suicide bomback on a mosque inside saudi arabia. joinings us on the programme is james jeffrey, the american ambassador in iraq during the george w. bush administration and is a fellow at the washington institute. also with us nyara hawk a state department official during the obama administration. thank you both for joining us tonight. james jeffrey, you heard jamie mcintyre describing back and forth tempo of the battle. is it too soon to conclude something is working or not in this part of the world. >> first of all, it tracks with everything i heard. this is fundamentally different with mosul, where troops refuse to fight. the security forces have been fighting off the attacks for a year and a half. they weren't inexperienced. it was typical military problems that i knew in the army, a lack of unity of command. logistical problems. one unit pulls out. it's like a couple of players go up the field, and the rest of the players think he lost a couple of guys. they have a tendency to go off the fiel

of isil' current difficulties we face in the region and the fight against the terror group in iraq and syrianow we have seen the size of the religious minority communities decline dramatically in iraq and syria as a result of isil's onslaught. sister diana, i'll ask you. you felt the pain and the suffering of your own community and you've been witness to what isil has done to ancient religious communities of iraq. you have been displaced twice. can you describe for us the conditions in mosul where you were forced to flee to kurdistan? could you please also detail the conditions in kurdistan? lastly what more can we do to meet the needs of religious minority communities? where can we be most effective? sister diana: thank you. i would answer your question in a story that touches my heart a lot and the heart of the people that we're working with. when we were forced to leave, we didn't -- our children became without any education, without school. so a congregation we care a lot about education as dominican. we start opening kindergartens. so we had 135 children in one of the kindergartens, we

senator johnson, we have to defeat them in the heart of their falsely proclaimed caliphate in iraq and syria. and we're doing that. we are taking back territory from them particularly in iraq. i was just talking to our commanders this morning. and in anbar province now we have thousands of tribal fighters organizing to fight isis. and that's going to be ongoing over the coming weeks. 1,100 of them volunteered just two days ago in anbar province near fallujah. and as they are defeated in iraq and syria, they will try to inspire attacks around the world. we've been seeing them do this here and they're trying to do it all around the world. >> sydney, other places as well. you talk about gaining territory back. i want to show you and the viewers a map of isis-controlled and isis-influenced areas in iraq. this is today. the red lines are under isis control. the orange lines under isis influence. and i want to show you the battlefield three months ago there. two months ago, rather. it's not a big change. and we have seen -- i can't really identify the change there, and we have seen some back and f

and the current difficulties we face in the region and the fight against the terror group in iraq and syria. now we have seen the size of the religious minority communities decline dramatically in iraq and syria as a result of isil's onslaught. sister diana, i'll ask you. you felt the pain and the suffering of your own community and you've been witness to what isil has done to ancient religious communities of iraq. you have been displaced twice. can you describe for us the conditions in mosul where you were forced to flee to kurdistan? could you please also detail the conditions in kurdistan? lastly what more can we do to meet the needs of religious minority communities? where can we be most effective? >> thank you. sister i would answer your : question in a story that touches my heart a lot and the heart of the people that we're working with. when we were forced to leave, we -- our children became without any education, without school. so a congregation we care a lot about education as dominican. we start opening kindergartens. so we had 135 children in one of the kindergartens, we handed

we look at a challenge to iraq or corner of iraq but we don't link it to a broader problem of iraq and syria. last summer iraq effectively eroded the borders between these two countries. what we did was we had a series of different tactics. some of which have been implemented, some have not. if we can all bring our thinking together to talk about how do we actually have an integrated strategy that focuses on isis both in iraq and syria. on the second level, the regional level, and here i hope we can think a little bit more about this but for essentially the last four or five years the middle east has slipped into this period of fragmentation. not only has iraq and syrian state structures collapsed we've seen libya and yemen fill these strains and a big part of what's going on and the challenge of isis is the struggle between the regional powers, i rap and saudi arabia but there are other actors too. much is sectarian but the conflict is multi-dimensional, multi-faceted. our resources matter but iran saudi arabia others have been funding their own proxies. and what i think is missing in terms

. >>> isis steam rolling over the enemy in week taking control of our key cities in iraq and syria and they did it right after washington says we had them on the run. >> we firmly believe daesh is on the defensive throughout iraq and syria, attempting to hold gain while conducting small-scale, localized harassing attacks. >> certainly doesn't look like they're playing defense to me. jonathan you say we better change our game plan or we'll pay a bigger price later? >> why have we resigned to this decades long conversation with savages? we've got the strongest military in the history of man kind. we can eliminate entire countries, let alone a couple of savages in the desert with pickup trucks they stole from us. it's almost like this president can't stand up for this country. we can't be self-interested. it's all about helping the islamic streets, the greater good. we can't stand up for america, put our interests first and that's exactly what's needed to win this war. >> jessica, is the white house winning the war? they say they're not but the president told the atlantic this week we're

in syria and iraq.s is something which is definitely going to problem security forces to beef up security across the country and also goes against the saudi-led air strikes targeting forces in yemen and those loyal to saleh. >>> in yemen a bomb has exploded at a mosque in the capitol sanaa, 13 people were injured. the targeted mosque was used by shia houthis. i.s.i.l. has claimed responsibility for that attack. yemen and planes from saudi-led coalition are in three yemen city and explosions rocked sanaa after the air strikes there and planes targeted an air base near the international airport as well as a stadium and a guard camp. there were also on aiden in the province to the east of the capitol. iran cargo ship banned for yemen is in djibouti and said the cargo of food and medical supply also be unloaded and taken by the world health organization taken to the port under houthi control. ♪ now iraq is appealing for help to fight islamic state in iraq and the levante and deputy prime minister says i.s.i

the difficulties we face in the region against the terror group in iraq and syria. size of the religious minority communities decline dramatically in iraq and syria as a result of isil's onslaught. sister diana, i'll ask you you felt the pain and the suffering of your own community, and you've been witness to what isil has done to ancient religious communities of iraq. you have been displaced twice. can you describe for us the conditions in mosul, where you were forced to flee to kurdistan. could you also please detail the conditions in kurdistan? lastly, what more can we do to meet the needs of religious minority communities? where can we be most effective? >> thank you, ms. ros. i would answer your question in a story that touched my heart a lot, and the heart of the people that were working with. when we were forced to leave, we didn't -- our children became without any education. without school. a congregation, we care a lot about education. so we start opening kindergartens. so we had 135 children in one of the kindergartens. in one of their classes we handed th

yochi: the reality is that by any measure isis is spreading in iraq, syria libya. u.s. integenerals believes that there have been isis commanders physically sent from syria to libya to take command of an isis branch there. and the list goes on and on and on. the president if he were to admit any of that, the question uld be why aren't you doing more? why aren't you willing to go back there and they're continuing to expand? this week his answer was no i done think he's losing and he went through a long litany of reasons why they're falling. but that quote, the no, i don't think we're losing will haunt him for a long time because we are. gwen: the u.s. foreign policy is we're getting out and you have to take over for you'res an we will do what we can do to -- and we will do what we can do to support you. what is the other option? yochi: there needs to be aer of some sort and clearly relying on the iraqis will not work. there's a quote from a general that they drove out of ramadi to talk about how they basically just surrendered. if those are your allies and you can't trust

isis has been contained in some parts of iraq and syria. they have been rolled back in areas. they were targeting kurds in kurdish territory and she at inside she a territory. now they rollback to other areas but the heartland in tikrit have not been threatened by any internal or external challenges and that won't happen. if you look at iraq -- you don't know what is going on. that is an indication when you have a blackout, an area that is an indication that isis is so entrenched, any potential rivalry and activist operating in these areas any tribal shape that might potentially be a threat to isis if there is an intellectual living in isis areas and has not pledged allegiance to isis they are marked as a threat and they watch them very closely and they are slowly and surely making good use of their time to build the project and make sure it is sustainable, to make sure isis is immune from rebellion in these areas so there's a situation favoring isis so far. >> let me ask you one more question. we have a lot of questions from the overflow. in your book you write isis is not a

it is failing in iraq, syria, and across the board in the region. >> why is it failing? >> it was ill-conceived to begin with because it focused on iraq and it was badly under resourced and excessive constraint have been put on the limited resources that we were willing to deploy. >> could you please elaborate on the constraint put on our military? >> we have forces in theater that could made a difference in the fight for ramadi had they been allowed to embed the lower levels have they been allowed to perform functions and bring in air support. some of the aviation we had been used in direct support. had the forces we had in theater been able to go out to the tribes and reach out to them directly rather than relying on the tribes to come to them there were a number of things that even this limited force could have done but the force was probably too limited to be decisive in any event. >> just to add on to that, >> there are huge problems with that as well. the military component is clearly under resourced the role of the advisors is fundamentally flawed itself. they have

we have to do it a lot more all over iraq and syria. and we need more american forces in iraq to help rebuild the iraqi security forces and if the shia militia are relied upon to deliberate anbar that gives iran a strong hand in iraq and i worry about a bloodbath in the process of liberating ra maud to have the shia militia do it. shows how failed the strategy is. >> senator, stand by. a lot more to discuss including a disaster in the anbar province unfolding. much more with senator lindsey graham, right after this. ♪ ♪virgin islands nice♪ ♪so nice♪ ♪so nice, so nice♪ book five nights to get one free. and $500 toward activities shopping and dining. that's virgin islands nice. ♪so nice, so nice♪ [ male announcer ] after john huntsman was diagnosed with cancer, he founded huntsman cancer institute. to fight cancer in new and different ways like combining 300 years of family histories with health records to treat, predict and in many cases, prevent, cancer. with the vital understanding that cancer moves fast. and we have to move faster. to

of isil'current difficulties we face in the region and the fight against the terror group in iraq and syria. now we have seen the size of the religious minority communities decline dramatically in iraq and syria as a result of isil's onslaught. sister diana, i'll ask you. you felt the pain and the suffering of your own community and you've been witness to what isil has done to ancient religious communities of iraq. you have been displaced twice. can you describe for us the conditions in mosul where you were forced to flee to kurdistan? could you please also detail the conditions in kurdistan? lastly what more can we do to meet the needs of religious minority communities? where can we be most effective? >> thank you. i would answer your question in a story that touches my heart a lot and the heart of the people that we're working

in iraq, ramadi. in syria, palmyra. arguably, this is the terror's group's best week in a year. combined their battlefield successes are isis' biggest strategic gains since the swep across iraq last summer. in syria, the radical islamists now control more than half the country, according to the syrian observatory for human rights. the latest attack added more oil and gas fields, more ancient artifacts. and the key highway intersection, all potential money owners. they also cemented their control of syria's border crossings into iraq late this week, taking the last outside the kurdish region not already under their control. their advances at types hard to follow. >> it's hard for to us nail down with any sort of granularity what's happening on the ground. >> reporter: the speed of isis' syrian advance questions the vulnerability or willingness of president bashar al assad's forces to hold ground. local reports describe the syrian army fleeing palmyra. by design or default, he's losing east of syria to isis. in ramadi, iraq, where ramadi special forces can call in u.s. air support,

the focus is iraq and syria and it's also globe annual. we have to cut down the foreign fighter networks and counter them in the messaging face, and we have a global coalition of 62 nations to do that. all of these nations and every capital we are in they understand it's a long-term multiyear challenge that will take a long time. >> you mentioned training of iraqi forces and syria and moderate rebels that is just beginning, a company sized group announced bisect carter this week, and i spoke earlier this week with the president of the syrian opposition council. this is what he had to say about u.s. support. >> we have the capability and the ability to fight against the terrorism and against the terror by the regime but we need more fighters and we need to have it much more fighter. >> he described u.s. support earlier in that interview as too slow and small, and they want thousands of fighters and how does that change the military calculous on the ground? >> the training just started last week as secretary of defense carter noted. we have

the terrorist have captured another town in iraq's anbar province in syria. >> reporter: isis making significant gains in sunni areas in iraq and syria expanding the territory it holds. this is the latest images showing militants capturing the syrian military positions around that historic city and equipment from those positions. everything from rifles to body armor armor. the fighters appear to be in full control and there is growing fear isis will destroy the ancient 2,000 year old ruins that are some of the rarest in the world. the news in ramadi is getting worse. isis expanding its presence with militants capturing other small towns and villages outside of ramadi they captured earlier this week. inching closer to a military base in that region and thousands, tens of thousands of iraqis fleeing that city. they are reportedly dropping their weapons and fleeing the area. one thing we are seeing jon is isis continues to make significant gains in the sunni areas in iraq and syria. and tend to be loosing territory in the non-sunni areas. but the sunni areas in iraq are large and nay hav

michael dante lead restoration activities and iraq in syria. >> the majority of their attacks, over 90%re directed at islamic heritage. a small percentage are directed at the pre -- preislamic period. the material is flowing out of iraq and syria into transnational crime networks. reportedly they do have that kind of reach where they can deal fairly directly with potential buyers but most of the sources that we have talked about on this issue, have told us that isil has a number of ways of drawing revenue from illicit cultural property. they license the looting of archaeological societies, where they condone looting, then they tax that and tax the trafficking as it comes across the borders, and then they also get a cut of the initial sales of the property that includes art, antiques, and other ethnographic material. >> he says looting is just one part of a greater humanitarian crisis in the city of palmar are and throughout syria. >>> president obama spoke a short time ago before one of the largest jewish congregations in washington, d.c. he says anti-semitism continues to affect the mo

syria most likely killed two children. the military for the last two months has denied that any civilians were killed in either iraq or syrias part of the campaign against isil. kimberly halkett has more from washington. >> reporter: this is the fist time we have the pentagon acknowledging civilian deaths. you are right, this is the result of a four-month investigation. the pentagon saying the civilian death of children likely occurred on november 5th and 6th. this was apparently an effort to target an al-qaeda cell. but the numbers do contrast some very respected numbers get from the syrian observatory for human rights they report 2500 people killed since the start of this complain. 131 of those civilians. now, the pentagon saying they are still looking into two other reports of civilian casualties. two deaths in iraq as well as one in syria. there's a lot of visiting of strategy in recent days. the president, of course defending the strategy acknowledging this is just a tactical setback, but the state department and pentagon saying that the u.s. will be sending an additional 2,000 anti-tank weapons, shoulder-fired type we

iraq syria, yemen and saudi arabia. no it's not saudi arabia. it's iraq, yemen, syria and -- there's a fourth country. >> what do you want to see happen senator? you mentioned leading from behind. what kind of a comprehensive strategy would you like to see take place? >> the other country is lebanon. what i would like to see is the united states establish a no-fly zone in syria, train and e equip people, work with other countries in the region in order to roll back the iranian influence. syria has become a client state of iran. the only way that we're going to reverse that is to have american leadership. right now there's a group of arab countries that are training some syrianens, but are also backing an al qaeda-affiliated group and they are the ones that are having success against bashar al assad, who is being significantly weakened. >> and it's certainly hitting many of our friends around the world who are wondering where the leadership is. senator, good to have you on the program today, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> with isis threateni

new victories for isis in syria and iraq. i want to go to barbara starr. . this is really bad news for the u.s. and its allies and also for syria. >> it is really extraordinary what is happening right now. isis has now essentially taken over a town and adjacent to that town are 2,000-year-old ruins. the united nations sounding the alarm now that isis has moved in. the world is holding its breath. the belief is that isis will try to destroy the ruins. they're moflg through the area executing people loyal to the syria regime. in recent weeks isis has made some gains and the syrian malitias have made gains. all of this opening the door for isis to move against president assad. really extraordinary. it's causing a lot of concern in the u.s. intelligence community. a bigger vacuum if you will is opening up in syria and there could be even more instability, more violence. isis very much on the move there brianna. >> some are questioned if baghdad, barbara, could really be at risk here after the capture of ramadi. what is the sense that you're getting? is that a r

isil has captured the last border crossing between syria and iraq and it's fighters move freely between two countries. the u.s. has down played the gains. president barack obama has said that the loss of territory were tactical setbacks and he insists that the war is not being lost but many disagree isil has taken over two cities in a week ramadi in iraq and palmyra in syria ramadi is near baghdad, and palmyra is on a major cross road that is strategic for the government survival. the government did invest power and resources over the years to reclaim homs from the opposition, if it loses there, damascus and the coastal region would be under threat. but for now isil controls the land. the fight between the armed group is being lead by shia militias. sunni politicians who wanted the tribes to be armed a long time ago are calling for a few strategy. >> translator: today anbar has fallen, and that as a special significant, because it's a third of the iraqi area and it's the province that expelled al-qaeda years ago. therefore, letting isil expand in anbar is unacceptable and there should b

directly to what is now the third war in iraq in my lifetime war against the islamic state in iraq and syria war that -- i do look forward to jim being here. in his book, jim argues that isis the islamic state in iraq and syria which i argue is al qaeda 3.0 steve asked how the war on terror has gone, and certainly if -- on september 12, 2001 someone had told any of news the room, except their naval academy kids who were in diapers at that point big diapers sometimes the kid up there, there would not be another significant attack on the united states territory in those 14-15 years we would have been delighted and astonished that was the case. in fact there have been a great number of successes in the war against al qaeda and the broader war against radical islamic extremism, and the drone war has been a success. the mistakes we have made in that war most importantly invading iraq unnecessarily and badly in march of 2003, have given new life to the radical islamists ideology, an ideology that i expect to continue to be a scourge on humanity for the rest of the center. a decidedly mixed report

ramadi, in iraq, and palmyra, in syria. ramadi is 100km from baghdad and is the last major city on the road to the iraqi capital. >> palmyra is 150km from syria's central province of homs, which is on a major crossroad that is strategic for the syrian government survival. the government invested man power and resources over the years to reclaim homs from the opposition. if it loses there, damascus, and the coastal region would be under threat. for now, i.s.i.l. controls the land. the land from palmyra to ramadi. in iraq, the fight against the armed group is led by shia militias, in syria, the u.s. coalition doesn't recognise the government's legitimacy. it doesn't have a partner on the ground. in recent months, i.s.i.l. may have been on the defensive. that has changed >>> today's suicide bombing in iron saudi arabia marks a first official claim of an attack. it comes as little surprise because they vowed to attack shi'as in the kingdom. john terrett joins us with the story. >> 21 were killed in a deadly blast, most if not o

momentum in particular over the last week as we have seen the ground that they have gained both in iraq and syria, and i would like to just break it down to what i see as the basic problem here especially in iraq where we are seeing the sunnis continue to be persecuted by the central government in baghdad, and there is distrust for the central government the iranian influence shia militia created a situation where just as a matter of survival they have no place to turn to protect their families and communities other than to isis and you have this solution and you have the kurds, and sunni tribesmen who are literally begging -- i met with a sunni tribal leader in washington, they are begging for arms heavy ammunition to fight against isis to protect families and tribal lands and territories, but still to this point the u.s. and senate iraqi government is failing to provide that and therefore isis continues to be able to grow. >> what do you make of that congressman, the president's assessment last week that we're not losing? >> well of course you are not losing and you are not winning because we a

they make major gains in iraq and syria. malaysia's prime minister orders his navy to search for desperate migrants. an estimated 4,000 are still adrift at sea. preventing protests police backing president clamp down on demonstrators on the streets of the capitol. and a state of emergency in california as almost half a litters of oil spill from a ruptured pipeline. >> and in sport, if i facebook page president now has just one person aiming to take his job. he will be his sole rival at next week's elects, as two others quit the race. hello, fighters from the zimbabwe state appears to have accelerated. this is in stark contrast to predictions that the group was in retreat isil fighters have entered a world heritage site in syria the ruins of the ancient city are one of the most significant archaeological sites in the world. it sits by the town, it is significant because it is on the cross roads between the capitol, and the contested town. in recent weeks isil has been expanding it's territory these areas in red are now contro

for about two years, they were making steady gains throughout syria and iraq.hat is no longer the case since the coalition airstrikes started picking up. you see movements by the kurdish and iraqi army. part of their success is keeping the social media initiative going, reaching out to their fan base that is globally located. without any success stories this is something they can latch onto. over the long haul, i think this is a feeling strategy. much like what we saw in al qaeda when they were in heavy decline, when they were preaching to do attacks at home on your own, you have a bumbling plot, like we saw yesterday. katty: do you see the islamic state under pressure, would you expect to see the flood of foreign fighters trying to join them diminish? >> i think the peak of foreign fighters was probably last fall, right before in just after the coalition airstrikes. i think that flow has slowed, though it is still study. i would look at wind to the foreign fighters in iraq and syria make a decision about where they want to go and when they want to leave. katty

in syria and iraq. now many question the president's strategy against isis. we'll have all the details ahead. >>> good morning. welcome to "early start." i'm john berman. >> nice to see you. i'm christine romans. it is friday may 22nd. 4:00 a.m. in the east. the manhunt for daron wint is over. the murder suspect was taken into custody last night near washington. the 34-year-old exmarine killed his employer along with the executive's wife son and family's housekeeper before setting the mansion on fire. here is what we know about wint's arrest. he was tracked to new york city and took off just before officers arrived. he was found at a hotel in college park maryland with five other people. three men, two women. police say all six left the hotel in two vehicles and followed for five miles before apprehended. no one was hurt during the arrests. wint has a long history with run-ins with police. he has three assault records dating back to 2008. he has an outstanding arrest warrant for violating an order of protection with a former girlfriend. he has been charged wi

director of national intelligence they're up to 22,500 estimated foreign fighters in syria, about 180 of those in iraq and syria are thought to be american citizens at least 40 have come back the fbi is trying to track all of those, but they know they can't track down every single one. >> 40 doesn't seem like a huge number they could easily be monitoring 40 americans who may have received training in iraq and syria, right? >> 40 is not a huge number but one of the things they look for is social media, things like these tweets the more popular isis becomes through attacks like this the more you've got this kind of social electronic footprint to comb through, to try to figure out who's real who's a threat and just expressing their constitutionally protected right to support this group. >> i assume the fbi is doing a postmortem on elton simpson, on their watch list convicted of terror related incident even though he only got three years probation, never served time in jail. they're looking to see what they may have messed also nadir soofi his roommate. >> what that does is raises the amount of people the

directly to what is now the third war in iraq in my lifetime a war against the islamic state in iraq and syria. a war that -- i do look forward to jim being here. in his book jim argues that isis the islamic state in iraq and syria which i argue is al qaeda 3.0 that's how the war on terror has bon good and if on september 12 2001, someone told any of news the room-except the naval academy kids kids who were literally in diapers at that point, big diapers in some cases -- the kids up here -- that there would not be another significant attack on the united states, united states inert those 14-15 years would would have been delighted and saystonnished. in fact there have grant number of successes in the war against al qaeda and the broader war against radical islamic extremism, and i believe the drone war inside pakistan has been a great success. i'm confident that view is not universal and i think jim dill disagree with me. however, the mistake wes have made in that war most importantly invading iraq unnecessarily and badly in march of 2003, have given new life to the radical islamist ideology,

the fact that he was insistent in withdrawing from iraq not attacking syria, was his dent to get involved in libya. they are suspicious of his intentions not to get involved when they need him most. they are skeptical of obama, and when you read some of the reports from the gulf what they write about is after obama. that's what most of them are already thinking about. and if they are not coming today, because they will probably show up for the next summit with the next president. it is also his legacy -- is to have a deal with iran something they suspect. >> thanks for your analysis appreciate it. that's it for this particular hour of news join me again in a couple of minutes for much more on that summit at camp david. ♪ ♪ president obama tries to reassure gulf leaders about the nuclear deal with iran. >> hello, there. and this is al jazeera live from london. also coming up. >> the battle fighting in the capitol between soldiers for and against the coupe. plus. >> where after the earthquake, empty buildings such as this one are a threat to people living around them. >> and fighting super

dramatic victories in iraq and syria.ally annexed lands controlling as much territory as ever. what does this mean for the president's strategy if there is a strategy to battle isis. a live report coming up. welcome back to "early start." i'm john berman. >> i'm christine romans. daron wint the suspect in the quadruple the murder was taken into custody near maryland. savva and his wife and son and housekeeper were killed in the house mansion fire. wint was tracked by police to new york city but they missed him. he was then found at a hotel in college park maryland with five other people. three men and two women. all six people left the hotel in two vehicles. followed for five miles before apprehended. no one was hurt during the arrests. who is wint? wint has a long history of run-ins with police. court records show he has three convictions in new york state. he has an outstanding arrest warrant for violating an order of protection with an ex-girlfriend. he is charged with domestic violence and burglary and assault. listen

in iraq and syria.mes against the back drop of a saudi-led air strikes targeting shia houthi rebels in yemen and those loyal to saleh and they put together and raise concerns here among saudis and security forces and security any way has been beefed up over the last few months to try to prevent any attacks by people affiliated with al-qaeda or i.s.i.l. in the kingdom. >> live from saudi capitol riyadh and thank you. planes from the saudi-led coalition have been pounding rebel positions in three yemen cities. huge explosions rocked the outskirts of sanaa after the air strikes there and the planes targeted an air base at the airport as well as a stadium and a republic guard camp and aiden in the south and the province to the east of the capitol. and all iran cargo ship arrived in djibouti in the horn of africa and food and medical supplies will be unloaded and taken by the world health organization to a port which is under houthi control. well iraq is appealing for international help to fight islamic stat

isil dominates large swaths of land in iraq and syria including mosul in northern iraq and this city in syria. crossing over to baghdad bringing in our reporter to bring you when we're hearing on the latest about what the iraqi government is going to do about this. >>reporter: well, it's under the control of isil. they launched a three will have day offensive -- three-day offensive first taking over the compound which houses government and police officers and then they moved on to take the last government stronghold the headquarters of the anbar commands center. there was a lot of fighting. we understand that up to 500 people were killed. security forces and civilians. some died in the fighting and others were executed. isil usually executes people who were cooperating with the government. yesterday the provincial council asked for the involvement of shia lead militias. the prime minister of iraq authorized their deployment and they're now gathering and preparing for a counteroffensive against isil. this is a very controversial decision and will not be welcomed by many sunni tribal le

as the national security threat when the islam could state is running across syria and iraq. >> rightadi for a time, it was a very difficult place for our forces for a long time, we lost a lot of really brave young men there. but al qaeda and iraq was defeated in ramadi, by the time we redeployed in 2008, violence had all but stopped now to see isis takeover, you know it pains my heart to think of sacrifices that were made by our men and women in uniform. to be talking about climate change as a greater national security threat than isis, they are not only beheading people in middle east and rampaging but they have a propaganda network that we've seen can know spire can inspire people he wage jihad against the american people. and you mentioned iran and deal he is cutting with iran that is sparking an arms race in the middle east. and also really driving more sunni arabs i believe to isis, because obama's policy is to green light ran iran as leading power in middle east. so if they think that choice is between shiite backed iranian forces or, isis, unfortunately many of them will choos

syria. that's what is so fundamentally flawed about this, which means even if we reclaim territory in iraq, f you don't do something about syria because it's a sanctuary. that permits isis to stay for years, killing mass assassinations behead examination enslaving and raping women. that's what we have underwrote here. >> how is special ops play a role. they'm conducted a raid. how do you want to see us fight this with special operations? >> well, it's bigger than special operations but just dealing with that issue we very successfully in iraq and afghanistan, particularly during the surge in both countries conducted eight to ten of these operations a night. in fact when win took osama bin laden down there was agent going down that night in afghanistan. and that's one way to put significant pressure on the leaders. other things we can do with special operations. we can take larger fors, like the rangers and do sizable raids against isis installations. at night surprise, go in there destroy the installations consecutive the isis fighters, or other critical areas they have and get out rapidly.

syria. they've institutionalized a different role for women than we see in the arab parts of iraq and syria. >> reporter: david phillips of columbia university is an expert on kurdish affairs. he served as a policy advisor under presidents clinton, bush and obama and has recently written, "the kurdish spring: a new map of the middle east." he says the united states was slow to recognize the threat last summer after isis seized territory in iraq and syria and believes the united states should supply more weapons to the kurds, including the p.k.k.'s female units. women fighters accounted for 40% of all kurdish fighters battling isis in the border town of kobani. >> reporter: the kurds are the point of the spear fighting against isis in all of the countries in the middle east. and the struggle against isis is an ideological struggle of those that share western values of pluralism and tolerance against those who are fundamentally intolerant and seek to kill their adversaries. >> reporter: but supporting the kurdish fighters is a complicated decision for american policy makers, because for decade