jamie mcintyre has a closer look.eporter: pentagon painted a confusing picture. 800 truck bombs, an ambush overwhelming a small patrol and sand storms limiting air support. thousands said to have been driven out in the advance of hundreds of i.s.i.l. fighters. it's what defense secretary ash carter was talking about when he told cnn about the forces fighting. >> they withdrew from the site. and that says to me to most of us that we have on issue with the will of the iraqis to fight i.s.i.l. and defend themselves. >>> pentagon sources say the iraqi forces in ramadi outnumber i.s.i.l. 10-1, enjoying what the pentagon term a substantial combat advantage over the enemy. there were 10,000 troops holding ramadi including 7,000 security forces, and 3,000 federal police and special operations troops that folded in the face of 1,000 i.s.i.l. attackers. the pentagon said after more fighting, the ramadi defenders were war weary, feeling ignored and badly led by iraqi commanders who were not communicating with each other and had

al jazeera america national security course dents jamie mcintyre joins me from the pentagon. ash carter said over the weekend that iraqi fighters have lost their will to fight. >> ali, to say that the u.s. is disappointed in the performance of those iraqi fighters in ramadi would be to risk serious understatement. the iraqi forces have a lot of things they blame for the loss of ramadi including ineffective u.s. air strikes and lack of support from the shia government in baghdad. slightly different story. sources tell me, by the way, that the iraqi forces in ramadi had a 10-1 numerical advantage over the advancing isil fighters. there were about 10,000 iraqi forces including 7,000 iraqi security forces and then another 3,000 federal police and special operations. the pentagon believes they should have nefr been overrun by this much smaller force of 1,000 isil fighters. so what happened? they said a series of things happened that spooked the iraqis in ramadi. there was a series of truck bomb attacks that killed more than 100 iraqis and eight attacks at once. there was an ambush

jamie mcintyre reports - the white house dismisses claims that the texas shooting was part of i.s.i.s. >> reporter: written in a report two i.s.i.s. soldiers carried out on attack often a festival drug prum. the audio praised the gunmen killed and promised more attacks:. >> reporter: the u.s. is viewing the claim with skepticism given i.s.i.l.'s reach to exaggerate. >> this is under investigation. it will determine ties that the two individuals my have had with i.s.i.l. and terrorism organizations around the world. it's too early to say >> reporter: the attack whether directed by i.s.i.l. represents what homeland security's jeh johnson describes has his biggest worry. >> we face threats from those that self-radicalize to the lone wolf and did not train at an al qaeda camp would became part of an enemy force, and may be inspired by radical ideology to do harm to experience >>> the fbi had one of the boston marathon bombers on the radar, it failed to stop the attack. it's cited as an example of hard to detect nearly impossible to prevent attack. it was conduct by independent americans w

jamie mcintyre reports from the pentagon >>> as syrian forces battle baz bashar al-assad army. they continue to fight. over 37,000 that volunteered to fight, the first 90 are being trained, not to overtake the territory but fight against i.s.i.l. >> many are motivated to take over. >> many are trained in jordan and another group will train in turkey but the training and equipping a fighting force is a long-term project and is months if not years away. >> we still have to train men to train over time. on the side of diplomacy and diplomats, there's the issue of finding moderate syrian opposition to establish a political structure to which the military force can be responsible. >> reporter: the war goes on the the pentagon says it's training anti-i.s.i.l. forces the reality means the u.s. could provide support and air strikes to soldiers fighting government troops. >> their mission is to fight i.s.i.l. so that is a combat we expect them to get involved in and expect to support them in that record. if they are contested by regime forces we would have a responsibility to help them.

jamie mcintyre has more from the pentagon pentagon >>> video posted on social media showed black i.s.i.l. flags flying over ramadi. the republican chairman was quick to declare the lose of the capital of anbar province, the result of a flawed strategy. >> the fall of ramadi it's huge. >> a statement was issued calling the defeat: administration officials, including secretary of state john kerry speaking in seoul insisted that ramadi would be retaken. >> it's possible to have the attack we saw in ramadi. i'm confident in the days ahead that that will be reversed. >> that is small comfort to 25,000 refugees who fled the fighting in ramadi and packed the road to baghdad amid reports that i.s.i.l. fighters were executing i.s.i.l. sympathizers. the government argues there's no reason to change u.s. strategy, which is to pound i.s.i.l. from the air, and relying on u.s.-trained forces to do the dirty, dangerous close combat on the ground >>> a spokesman argued this was not a case where poorly motivated troops cut and ran. noting that i.s.i.l. surrounded ramadi and iraqi forces fought to the end

jamie mcintyre joins us. was there anything specific that prompted this action? >> no, not really, tony. let me explain what i think is going on here. this was an order issued by the u.s. northern command responsible for protecting the homeland. he essentially looked around at what's going on around the world. what's going on in social media and decided it was time to up the security in all u.s. military installations just a notch to put people on their a-game. here's how a spokesman at the pentagon explained it today why this alert was raised from alfa to bravo. they told reporters the decision to do this now is in informed by a generally heightened threat level. he said we've seen what's happened in texas. we've seen other social media and internet-based discussions and threats so we've detected a general increase in the overall environment that has caused us to do this. they don't have a specific threat but they're seeing all of this chatter on social me. they saw what went on in texas. even though they don't believe that isil is directly directing people here

. >>> national security correspondent jamie mcintyre joins us life from the pentagon. does the united states have faith that the iraqis will be successful in this operation sfr let's face it the track record of the iraqi army isn't great. >> reporter: well, you know when it comes to the fall of ramadi there's a lot of blame to be spread around. iraqi forces point to what they say were ineffective u.s.-led air strikes and a lack of support from the shia government in baghdad for the sunni forces in the field. pentagon forcesources tell a slightly different story. they say the iraqi forces squandered a substantial combat advantage in ramadi. pentagon sources say they outnumbered the isil attackers 10 to 1. there were 7,000 iraqi security forces in ramadi plus another 3,000 police and special operations troops and they got in their vehicles and drove off as the 1,000 isil fighters were advancing. the pentagon says none of those fighters who were in ramadi though were trained and were part of the forces recently trained by the u.s. it was something that the white house was

. >> so let's look at closer at this with our national correspondent, jamie mcintyre. how much faith does the u.s. really have in this operation given the comments days ago from the defense secretary that the iraqi forces lacked the will to fight? >> tony, there has been a lot of finger appointing, and iraqi forces on the ground and named the problem of lack of support from the shiite government, giving them what they need, including simple things like ammunition. yes, there are shortcomings, but they say that the iraqi forces in ramadi have a 10-1 numerical advantage over the attacking isil forces, and they had a substantial combat advantage. they were 7,000 iraqi security forces in the city and 3,000 additional forces, including federal police and special operations, and they were attacked by about 1,000 isil attackers, and yet, there were some things that sort of scooped the defenders including a series of devastating car bomb attacks and a stand storm that raised questions about air cover but the government said nothing would really excuse the way that the forces r

it's a serious breech of pretty call for handling deadly anthrax flax spores. >> jamie mcintyre for us. >>> lawmakers in nebraska super overridden the governor's veto in a bid to abolish the death penalty. today's override means that nebraska is the first conservative state in 40 years to abolish the death penalty. coming up next on the program. the major sportswear program rumored to be caught up in the fifa scandal and the millions of dollars paid. >> . >> plus, how new orleans is getting ready for hurricane season. >> the world's most popular sport has been plunged into turmoil. several officials from fifa were arrested today to corruption charges. and several people, including two fifa vice president vice presidents were taken into custody in a hotel in wits switzerland. they were accused of racketeering and other charges. the police carried out raids at the govern body for the sock for the north and south america and the caribbean. >> the begin was hijacked. the field that was so famously flat was made tilted in favor of those looking to gain at the expense of countries and kids w

jamie mcintyre joins us from the pentagon. 90 seems like a drop in the bucket. how many will be trained? >> 90 is a drop in the bucket. it's a schedule going on for several years and producing several thousand fighters sent into syria to take on i.s.i.l. forces. the pentagon made a point of saying these troops are not trained to confront the forces loyal to syrian president bashar al-assad, but instead just to take on i.s.i.l. forces in syria. but at the same time the top general at the pentagon join general martin dempsey, the build up of the the forces could be a factor putting pressure on bashar al-assad. >> i do think that the regime's momentum has been slowed and from that i do believe the situation will be trending less favourably for the regime. if i was him, i'd find the opportunity to look to the negotiating table. >> while the first crop of trainees is taking place in jordan, they'll be in some number of months be sent back to syria. a second crop will be trained, continuing over the months ahead. a question coming up is even though the forces are batt

jamie mcintyre is live for us at the pentagon.s the pentagon responding to a specific threat here? >> well no in raising the threat level from alpha, which is the lowest level to bah woe, which is a higher level of threat the pentagon says it is not reacting to any specific or identifiable threat. technically this order came from the commander in colorado who is responsible for protecting the home homeland, he looked around and sees what is going on in social media and decided it wasn't acceptable for military bases to be at the lowest level. here is what he said, quote: and that's the point they are stressing here. no specific threat. no specific group, but just an increased amount of the kinds of things they can't keep track of on the internet. social media, people talking to each other, the rise of extremism in some places. they felt like this was a prudent step to take. >> so interesting, particularly in the context of texas and what texas -- that event was all about. so what thanks would all of this mean for military bases? >

jamie mcintyre has more from the pentagon. >> reporter: the source of the tension is a series of islands china has basically built on top of submerged reefs in some of the world's busiest shipping lanes in the south china sea. for example, here is the fiery cross reef as it appeared in a satellite photo last august. by march of this year it was built up enough to support an airstrip, and work underway on. what appears to be another run way. it is said that china is violating a dispute of a treaty settling ownership of the islands in the south china sea. it is a provocative flexing of military muscle. >> china's land reclamation could have a range of military implications. these could include developing long-range radars, deeper draft ships, developing air fields for carrier based aircraft. >> china's rapid reclamation around seven reefs alarmed the philippines and vietnam, that has territorial claims on other islandsin the spratley archipelago. the u.s. is concerned the ports, airstrips and storage will allow beijing to reflect power deeper into south-east asia. it is kerbing china's str

jamie mcintyre is on this, and the initial report said that these were live samples. what do we know? >> well, tony, let me tell you what happened here. so this is a case where the u.s. army has samples of anthrax that they use for research mostly to develop decks equipment. and last year, at the proving ground in dugway, they neutralized a batch of this and set it aside and began sending it to laboratories across the country, tiny vials that were sent through a secure fedex system in the laboratories. one laboratory in maryland took that supposedly dead culture and it grew live anthrax and said, wait a minute, it's not supposed to do this. and the army went back and tested the original batch. and they said, yes, it can be turned in the laboratory into a live virus, 10 based on that, they recalled all of the anthrax that's being sent back through a more secure version of fedex and the cdc is going to test it. but there's no evidence that anyone was exposed dangerously to the anthrax virus and they're trying to figure out how it was that the radiation system that was s

. >> jamie mcintyre for us. thank you.n yemen there are reports of fighting despite the humanitarian truce called by saudi arabia. there were clashes in aden and taiz meanwhile planes filled with humanitarian aid arrived in the capital of snaa. more aid is expected to arrive. the president of burundi is back in power after a coup attempt failed. as malcolm webb reports from the capital, the situation in the country remains volatile. >> this soldier came to hospital injured. he had been fighting for the leaders' attempted coup. >> it was here. after that, you see a group of policemen arrive here, and they began to shoot. everywhere, and they began to look for. >> out on the streets protesters tried to block the roads after hearing about the coup's failure. but they were quickly dispersed with gunfire. on wednesday the military takeover was initially popular among the demonstrators but since it failed many now think it's made things worse for them. >> this whole coup d'etat is something that they came up with by themselves.

jamie mcintyre joins us from the pentagon, and what did the secretary say today? >> well, for months, they have been talking about training forces in syria to go after isil. and most of the emphasis has been on the campaign in iraq. finally today secretary ash carter was able to announce that the 20 or so hundred volunteers have been embedding and they managed to get the first class to begin the volunteer training in jordan. but this immediately raised the question, by the way if the u.s. was going to start sending the troops into syria to fight isil, and the pentagon pointed out that these were troops only focused on isil, what happens if they engaged government forces, and ash carter succeeded that was a possibility. and in the eventuality, they would have the responsibility to come to their aid. >> it's not our program to engage assad's forces, about you if the question arises that assad's forces undertake to engage them, we would but they're not being feeled for that purpose. they're being fielded for the purpose of engaging isil and that would be their princi

has reduced the facility to rubble, or as one pentagon official said -- >> all right we lost jamie mcintyre there. there's still no sign of a u.s. marine corp helicopter missing in napal. it was on a mission to bring supplies to earthquake survivors in a hard hit part of the country. six marines and two nepalese were onboard. they are continuing to search for survivors in the rubble. and at least 90 more people have now been confirmed dead and 34 injured. the shock came two weeks after the 7.9 earthquake that killed more than 4,000 people. >>> coming up at this hour, the new deal to deal with the migrant crisis, and plus, new reports of a political purge in north korea. why the defense minister might have been executed. >> after the military claimed that it had taken over the government. but officials are denying the attempt to overthrow the president. the leader is seeking a third term. protests to get the president's re-election bid have been going on for over two weeks now and more than 20 people have died in the unrest. malcolm webb has more. >> right now we just heard from gunfire acro