around the province of dohuk in northern iraq. hundreds of thousands of yazidis have fled to this kurdish region to escape the so-called islamic state. this camp, called sharia, provides refuge to yazidi women and their children. sewing courses offer a welcome diversion, at least for a few hours. we talk to susanne. she escaped with her four children just a few months ago. other family members are still missing. while in captivity, susanne was raped repeatedly. >> they were disgusting -- so dirty, with matted hair, dirty weapons, barefoot, sometimes with just one arm. we were a group of 25 women. they sold us to the fighters. i tried to kill myself, but it didn't work. >> for the past two and half years, german-kurdish psychotherapist jan kizilhan has come to northern iraq regularly to visit the refugees. >> the psychiatric problems have gotten much, much worse. many of the refugees are severely traumatized. they've been mistreated and raped for three years. women in particular and young children who've been forced to fight just a

but we're kicking things off in northern iraq, where millions of refugees have fled the terror of i.sple who belong to religious minorities fall victim to discrimination in many parts of the world. the christian organization that issues the world watch list says

arwa joining us from erbil in northern iraq, not very far away. >>> coming up, we're standing by fors briefing. the return of sean spicer to the lectern after a series of questions about his whereabouts yesterday. we'll discuss that and more when we come back. wish your skin could bounce back like it used to? neutrogena hydro boost water gel. with hyaluronic acid it plumps skin cells with intense hydration and locks it in. for supple, hydrated skin. hydro boost. from neutrogena peobut they're different.ind it's nice to remove artificial ingredients. kind never had to. we choose real ingredients like almonds, peanuts and a drizzle of dark chocolate. give kind a try. ♪ ready or not, here i come.ek.) ♪ anyone can dream. making it a reality is the hard part. northrop grumman command and control systems always let you see the complete picture. and we're looking for a few dreamers to join us. the future isn't silver suits anit's right now.s, think about it. we can push buttons and make cars appear out of thin air. find love anywhere. he's cute. and buy things from, well, everywhere. how? b

. >> in northern iraq, a number of districts have been taken over by fighters. >> militants have swallowed up territory, and they're pushing toward baghdad. >> narrator: the terror group isis started capturing key territory in iraq. >> the jolting gong was when they swept into western iraq and took control of a third of western iraq. the banks that were robbed and stripped, the assets that were stripped in that entire area was huge. and that was, as i said, the jolting gong that said, "wait a minute, how could this happen?" >> deep concern about isis pushing into baghdad. >> isis has been seizing territory in iraq. >> they were able to swiftly take over huge areas of iraq. it was shocking how the army didn't even fight, didn't even put a fight. >> and taking over mosul, the second largest city... >> i think washington was stunned when the second largest city in iraq, a city of two million people, fell in a day. to a terrorist organization that we had not imagined was in the first order of terrorist organizations. >> narrator: but these fighters were not new. they had been at war for more t

three years ago when isis became in fact the ruling organization in northern iraq and northeastern syria, we were totally concerned with the calipha caliphate. that was a reasonable concern, and we mobileized the military force to deal with it but we forgot the fact that as the caliphate began to crumble and it's taken more time than i'd like, isis reached out in a kind of way beginning to build rantly new franchises around the world and to attack us in our homeland, but to attack our allies, who were admittedly perhaps more vulnerable in their homeland and this is clearly something that strengthening the intelligence community and strengthening our police cooperation and the linkage of intelligence and police plays a huge role in. it isn't bans on large segment of the muslim population of the world, which as we all know only increases the recruitment potential of something like daesh or isis to build strength in the franchises so we're facing a kind of alternative form of warfare, and as isis loses on the ground in syria and iraq, it turns increasingly to the new form of publicizing its

reared its - isis ugly head in 2014 in northern iraq, to main targets for genocide, sexual slavery, and other gross human rights violations, included these same people, iraqi christians, muslims, and other ethnic and religious minorities. in 2014 congress passed a resolution unanimously recognizing iraq's ethnic and religious minorities and victim of genocide in iraq and syria. obama hen both administration and trump administration has referred to these acts of violence against iraqi caldeans and others as genocide. but yet and still, we're going to deport these same people back to a country where there will be surely a confrontation of death or slavery. removing these individuals represents what many have described as a death sentence should they be deported into an active war zone. people who were convicted of offenses, we're told that the final orders are based on criminal activities. but we have -- we know for a fact some were for driving without license. some were was for having possession of marijuana, 25 years ago. furthermore, the removal orders are considered legal, and i suppo

back in twenty four table for more on that we can go to embroiled in northern iraq had that murdoch is a journalist for voice of america. and she's been. in mosul and damn bed. just day given what's happened out a body said earlier in the day is he right is isis finished in iraq. well i wouldn't know for very long bb and there was so heavy fighting are popular appeal. personal partly because we were limited ebola. but it's more alice nobel and they fled. it is almost done i mean he would collect inflated and have one but it's not quite done in that area go fighting going on. expect that by tomorrow were committed next they will be able to actually walk being treated and carry of both most about how they've been through. a lot of years. and did they underinvestment say is very symbolic in all of this as i mentioned this is where our bike that he at loans if you got the caliphate back in that twenty forty nine dead the jihadists. tried their best to destroy aids and a couple of weeks ago did you manage to see the mosque could you see what happened that. i got in the mosque and minarets w

the ceremony takes place during the white nights a time of nearly round the clock daylight in northern iraq. now after america's defense secretary admitted u.s. failings in afghanistan last week the pentagon seems to have been looking for somebody to blame and this found someone in his first report to congress since the election of the pentagon named pakistan as the single greatest xterm front to him during u.s. sanctions well the report refers to what it calls support of afghan insurgents by the pakistani government during sixteen years of of its involvement in afghanistan washington has given a range of reasons why it's afghan campaign isn't and. iran is reportedly arming and funding the taleban grew up in and is a huge challenge in afghanistan that russia is no meddling in afghanistan it's very difficult to succeed on the battlefield when your enemy enjoys. external support and safe haven we had the. over legitimacy lent to the taliban by the russians the problem that the us has and trying to carry out the occupation and subdue the population and i mean the real answer here is the us has

abu bakr al—baghdadi, made his only public appearance, after proclaiming the caliphate across northern iraq air strike. and the destruction has been described by the iraqi prime minister as a declaration of defeat by islamic state. with overwhelming numbers of iraqi troops now concentrated in the old city, and with backing from a us—led coalition, it does seem to be only a matter of time before isis is finally driven out of mosul. translation: our forces on the ground are moving forward. they have now penetrated the old city. it is true, the advance is slow, but we are advancing carefully, taking into account the lives of the civilians trapped inside the city. but the upsurge in fighting is leading to many civilian casualties. this is mosul‘s general hospital. it now lies just a few hundred metres away from the front lines. these people, most of them are children. there are children, lots of civilian casualties, that you see here. most of them are fleeing, and on their way out, they are injured. with at least 100,000 people still in the old city, the number of casualties is likely to keep r

cnn, northern iraq. >> thank you for that fascinating report. >>> coming up, republicans recalibrating and democrats saying no more hail marys. should democrats step in at this point and do republican leaders even want them to? introducing the new sleep number 360 smart bed. the only bed smart enough to change sleep as we know it. it senses your every move and automatically adjusts on both sides to keep you comfortable. and snoring.... does your bed do that? right now save on sleep number 360 smart beds. plus, it's the lowest prices of the season with savings of $500 on our most popular p5 bed. ends saturday. >>> a delayed vote and a mountain of challenges ahead and senate republicans regroup on healthcare, the major task for majority leader mitch mcconnell is pretty wide between republicans and moderates. >> that's in his own party. what are democrats going to do about this other than just fight? joining us, democratic senator maria cantwell. thanks for joining us. do you think this is dead? do you think the republican healthcare bill is dead? >> no, i don't. i think that as long as p

i remember in northern iraq where i spend a lot of time in the buildup to the iraq war i wanted to hang out with these fishmonger fighters. he said bring a goat. it is a sign of respect and they will take you in on it so it is things like that go a long way. i would like to bring the conversation back. this is true there is a bottle of debate. that's one conversation we can have, but a lot of people in the middle east find it hard to believe that it is incompetent. whether or not that is true ise another debate. but a lot of people over there think it is by design and that has to be relevant to the conversation we are having here and if it is incompetent or by design that is little comfort to the people on the ground and that are living their lives against these simplistic modes. it's not just the latest. these are the analysis of the conflict. this is how they see it and it should have relevance. >> they are just kind of incompetence. they don't necessarily know buth then what does that mean to them. are you telling us if they didn't want him gone for example he wouldn't be gone beats

brotherhood and ignoring what isis is doing is making the effort now to dislodge isis from mosul in northern iraqnd district stand created an enormous refugee problem that is now affecting the rest of the world. perpetrators last night probably weren't refugees from that attack. nonetheless, they have so many of them all over europe and the uk that keeping tabs on the ones they've actually been watching is becoming increasingly difficult. our challenge in the united states is to immediately establish a policy of no safe havens for terrorists anywhere. in other words, there's probably going to be an effort to merge isis and al qaeda. that will create an even larger global terrorist organization. if we can do that and get our allies to back us up that will seriously adversely affect the propaganda of evil, radical islam being propagated all over the world. two parts of it: no safe havens and start making sure that we don't have opportunities for them to distribute this propaganda. that will take somebody sitting down in the high-tech summit with the cell phone so can be used to establish a new wave

. >> in northern iraq, i spent a lot of time in the build-up to the iraq war and i wanted to go hangout with these kurdish fighters up in the mountains around iran and i'm getting packing up to go and the fixer comes out and says bring a go. bring a goat. why ? because it's a sign of respect and they'll take you in a lot better. it's little things like that that go a lot away. >> i'd like to bring the conversation back to syrians. there's a lot of debate that the us is completely incompetent not knowing enough about -- that's one conversation we can have. the reality is the middle east, seriousness of, found that the world's superpower is incompetent. whether it's true or not is another debate but a lot of people over there think it is by design. that has to be relevant to the conversation were having here and regardless of whether it's incompetence or by design that's a little comfort to the people on the ground or the people that are living their life against these really simple stick modes of analyses that were throwing out. syria is not just the latest bit players in our analyses

nick paton walsh, cnn, erbil, northern iraq.nearly encircled raqqah with syrian and kurdish militants backed with an awful lot of american firepower and guidance on the ground. almost complete about a kilometer away on the south until there's a court order put in place. it could be a fight, it is moving faster it seems, certainly than the fight of liberated mosul in iraq in its eighth month. when raqqah feels the pressure you'll see fighting intense in the streets, the sandbags laid out in defensive positions for isis but a much weakened force. >> a brilliant job of isolating just a main ingredient to peace there, which is resolve among that indigenous population to take control of its own community. thanks to nick. >>> so whether it is the situation of the united states in raqqah or in syria at large or in iraq or just in what people feel about this world, how is that reflected in a new poll? what does the world think of our new president in the united states? we'll debate it, next. i want someone that makes it easy to find wha

i am back in erbil, the relatively safe kurdish capital in northern iraq but just a short while ago,center of mosul. mosul is a city that is divided in half. there is the eastern and the western side of the tigress river. the eastern side looks very much like life has returned to normal. shops are starting to open up, refugees are returning to their homes. you even saw people sitting down drinking tea and coffee in small cafes. you cross the river, however, you enter the western side and it is still very much a battle front. a lot of destruction, a lot of military vehicles coming and going. american troops still present in the city advising iraqi special forces, iraqi police and several other kinds of iraqi security troops. then when you get to the old city, the ancient part of mosul, which is a warren of alleyways, that's where the front line is right now. it is just a few square blocks but the fighting is very intense as isis fighters are holed up there. they are making this old part of the city their last stand. it's unclear how long they will be able to hold out. american officia

abu bakr al—baghdadi, made his only public appearance, after proclaiming the caliphate across northern iraqby the militants as they retreat. although they blame an american air strike. and the destruction has been described by the iraqi prime minister as a declaration of defeat by islamic state. with overwhelming numbers of iraqi troops now concentrated in the old city, and with backing from a us—led coalition, it does seem to be only a matter of time before isis is finally driven out of mosul. translation: our forces on the ground are moving forward. they have now penetrated the old city. it is true, the advance is slow, but we are advancing carefully, taking into account the lives of the civilians trapped inside the city. but the upsurge in fighting is leading to many civilian casualties. this is mosul‘s general hospital. it now lies just a few hundred metres away from the front lines. these people, most of them are children. there are children, lots of civilian casualties, that you see here. most of them are fleeing, and on their way out, they are injured. with at least 100,000 people st

abu bakr al—baghdadi, made his only public appearance, after proclaiming the caliphate across northern iraqs as they retreat. although they blame an american air strike. and the destruction has been described by the iraqi prime minister as a declaration of defeat by islamic state. with overwhelming numbers of iraqi troops now concentrated in the old city, and with backing from a us—led coalition, it does seem to be only a matter of time before isis is finally driven out of mosul. translation: our forces on the ground are moving forward. they have now penetrated the old city. it is true, the advance is slow, but we are advancing carefully, taking into account the lives of the civilians trapped inside the city. but the upsurge in fighting is leading to many civilian casualties. this is mosul‘s general hospital. it now lies just a few hundred metres away from the front lines. these people, most of them are children. there are children, lots of civilian casualties, that you see here. most of them are fleeing, and on their way out, they are injured. with at least 100,000 people still in the old

and the reason for that is because if you go to the east of northern iraq and off the map into iran,e, they can go to iran and iraq through syria, and lebanon where we have been operating for decades now. so if you look at that and take it a bit further, you can see the influence that iran is trying to have. tell us about this and what we need to understand about that strategy and how we fit into that. >> you made it out exactly righ right. it is, the most important thing that we in the west have to recognize is that they have their strategy, and they have a master plan. we look at syria and worry about the russia, u.s. confrontation, that's very important. russia really doesn't want conflict, they're trying to bluff. who wants us to fight, the iranians do. iran has been masters of manipulating russia. their vision is for us to be out, the russians in them to be under control, and that sphere of inference that you described very well. >> bill: it appears that we give russia a lot of credit. from hacking our elections and who knows what. it appears that we give iran a lot of credit. i

we track those who are responsible, not just in northern syria and iraq, but those localized in the statesban. this is 1.6 to 2 billion people. we can't kill that many people. the more people we go after, the more people who will come at us. we need to go after the people who are the terrorists. not expand this beyond something that it isn't. >> how are we going on that front? how would you assess the u.s.'s fight against isis? something that president trump campaigned heavily on given the number of attacks ramping up in the uk. >> well, if we look at the build-up during president obama and really this is consistent, that fight with isis in northern iraq. you can look at raqqah and elsewhere. what we're finding is the caliphate is dying. it is falling apart inside of that region. but what it's also doing is pushing their fighters to fight in small localized ways. that's something called a ghost caliphate where they're working around the world. this isn't surprising that you're seeing that. i think what you need more than anything else is increased cooperation among the different intelligen

help putting the pressure on isis, this is northern iraq now, advancing onto that stronghold. we get more of this. 800-year-old mosque, u.s. and iraqi forces claiming isis destroyed that historic mosque today. u.s. army special forces, just to start with what this could mean possibly for isis and the elimination of it. >> so, bill, i think it is almost ironic, it is sadly ironic that they chose to destroy this. the fact is that all by daddy, the leader of isis, however, i think this shows that as i understand it, iraqi troops were within about 50 meters of his mosque, they wanted the world to see this as a rock having taken over where they announce their caliphate, it would be a significant individual defeat. to speak to that fact i was not aware of. that is where isis claims to be their ideological heart? >> well, it was where he made his one public appearance when we have seen photos of him preaching there. but the sad thing is that they chose to do it, it happened to fall on a night of power, the most holy day within islam, it says that mohammed received the quran, and this

military went into northern iraq, we extracted thousands of kurdish refugees, brought them to anderson air force base in guam and sent most of them to the united states. we saved their lives and to this day, the kurds remain one of america's strongest allies. helping refugees is not only the moral thing to do, it help os -- help ours national security. that's why i'm honored to introduce bipartisan legislation with representative ros-lehtinen to promote the health, savity and well being of refugees. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman s recognized for one minute. mr. poe: north korea released tto warmbier last week after seven months imprisonment and torture. he returned home in a coma, never again to speak or see his parents. yesterday, he died. murdered, actually. from brain damage because of the korean beatings that he endured. north korea had humiliated him for allegedly stealing a pro-government pla card, forcing him to peculiarly beg for forgiveness. these are the tactics of terro

we're seeing that in northern iraq and syria. but what's pushing them out and what created traction for al-qaeda was that overreaction from the west. we saw what the united states did in iraq, afghanistan and elsewhere, and the problem is it it actually created more terrorists than it killed. we can make a lot of bombs. we can make a lot of bullets and kill a lot of people. but the problem is we will create more enemies than we take down and we always need to remember that. >> i want to let you sort of evaluate the prime minister, who is running for re-election next week, actually. this was theresa may this morning. >> we believe we are experiencing a new trend in the threat we face. as terrorism breeds terrorism and perpetrators are inspired to attack, not only the basis of carefully constructed plots of years of planning and training and not even at loan attackers radicalized on line but by copying one another and often using the crudest of means of atck. >> and what is the proper response to that because indeed you have a cosmo

the group captured mosul in their trip across northern and central iraq in the summer of 2014. iraq launched a massive operation to retake the city last october. and they have driven the militants from all, but a handful of neighborhoods. united nations workers say as many as 150,000 civilians are trapped in the old city area of mosul where militants are using them as human shields. >> well iran's revolutionary guard says they have launched missile strikes aimed at eastern syria. in retaliation for recent islamic state claimed attacks on teheran. the website says those strikes involve medium-range missiles with no official confirmation from syria. those attacks have taken place. five islamic state attackers stormed their parliament and a shrine to the leader of the iranian revolution this month killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 50. >>> well the worlds eats leading online retail e of course i'm talking about amazon, they recently made headlines to buy whole foods. but tonight on that $13 billion deal that will change how people buy food. >> reporter: whole foods

militants to counterattack using large number of suicide bombers in different parts of the city, in northern iraq the vessel, which had four decks, began taking on water during a cruise on an artificial lake outside the popular resort of guatape. there are no details yet on why the boat sank. chinese officials say fewer people are missing than first thought after a landslide over the weekend — but the figure still remains high, at almost 100. it's emerged that several of those reported missing, from xinmo village in sichuan province, had been outside the area when the landslide took place. thousands of rescue workers are in the area. so far, 15 deaths have been confirmed. firefighters in southern spain are battling to stop a huge forest fire causing widespread damage to the donana national park that's home to rare species of wildlife. the blaze in a pine forest about 50 kilometres southwest of seville, in andalucia, has led to the evacuation of more than 2,000 people. surgeons have told the bbc that nhs england is using mesh to repair hernias which leaves many patients in chronic pain. one woman

. >>> in iraq today governmenforces started attacking isis in thety of mosul. the state group captured mosul when they swept across northerntral iraq. they launched a massive operation to retake the city last october. they have driven the militants from all, but a handful of neighborhoods. united nations workers say as many as 150,000 civilians are trapped in the old city area of mosul where militants are using them as human shields. >>> iran's evolutionary guard have launched missile strikes in eastern syria for retaliation in recent islamic state claimed attacks in iran. the strikes involve medium range missiles targeting the region of eastern syria. there is no official confirmation from syria yet, but the attacks took place there. five islamic states linked attackers storming their parliament and they're trying to revolutionize their leader this month killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 50. >>> and in weather the temperatures will continue to soar out there over a good portion of the bay area. triple digit heat with some relief for you tomorrow, but we will talk about the heat far good portion of your wor

they face the threat of what's going on today in north korea, what's going on in northern africa, libya, syria, iraq, he iran? than the threat of terrorism on the continent of europe were here, they are overwhelmed. they're very good but overwhelmed. greg: what should be done about that? >> well, you have to go after each other individually and design its own strategy according to after radicalism you have to eliminate the safe havens in libya, iraq, and syria. you need to develop a global coalition to go after these entities and absolutely destroy them. we need to get rid of political correctness. we need to identify the threat for what it is. i listen to the mayor in london talk -- this is about the same as what he said a couple months ago. i think the citizens of london and the uk are going to demand more of their politicians. they said the right thing for tonight but tomorrow or for what is now sunday in the uk, citizens will now demand for answers. greg: speaking of the safe havens which you prefer, iraq and syria for the terrorists -- are you disappointed that more nations in that region, arab

they view their bases in iraq and syria and northern africa's and specifically olivia, not only to wreakavoc in the region there also use it as a base to expert terrorism spreading into asian other parts of africa and with the ripe environment in europe with a large number of radical islamic individuals who have moved into the area's in the past ten to make 20 years. they are now exploiting those conditions. >> we cannot control those borders but you mentioned iraq and syria. what can the united states do there? >> we can do what donald trump tried to do the past 2 - 3 weeks. go to the middle east. we need the middle eastern countries to step up and contribute funding and soldiers and to call on religious leaders to condemn radical islamic behavior. we need our european allies on board to recognize the threat and develop a global strategy to confront the threat. we need a global effort that identifies the threat and goes to his court to eliminate it. >> and that means kill the terrorists, right? >> it means kill the terrorists, we've had a number of individuals have left guantÁnamo bay.

iraq. today, holly williams met theirn northern syria, a dirt airstrip for the u.s. military. tons of munitions. >> this is an american logistics hub to retake raqqa, the isis capital which began a month ago. lieutenant general steven u.s.-led coalition to fight isis. and came straight from a forward command post near raqqa. getting started good in ju raqqa. >> as u.s. backed fighters close in on isis from the north they have also clashed with syrian regime forces which are backed by russia. 'sd drawn into a direct conflict. but the general downplayed that risk. >> we worked out a deconfliction line with the russians and the regime. and they seem, content to let us work on the raqqa problem and there we have drawn a line. they're happy to work on their side of it. we'll work on our side of it. >> reporter: general townsend promoted young officer to first eu >> and acknowledged to us that u.s. troops went be leaving this country any time soon. >> i think u.s. troops will leave syria when isis is defeated. tau awe isis will surely turn into insurgency when they lost their territ

northern syria. gabriel clearly islamic states are losing ground both in iraq and syria but all we really coming close to the end of that so called caliphate. i think we're coming close to it how long the actual end game takes is another questions resort most so i took many many months from the start of the offensive. at to get right into the center of the city we're looking at something quite similar here in rocka i've been. on the front lines such as they are around the city of rucka and of the past we can more and what we saw was quite a rapid advance until they got into those. narrow streets near the center and then really getting bogged down with ios. fighting them house the house really with at snipers at suicide called bombs even weaponized drones said it may take sometime out for record to full but i think it is. away and not an ex when that happens it will effectively mean the end of the caliphate what it weight necessarily means the end of islamic state so cold. out or its ideology it definitely white mean the end. of the syrian war. and of course taking territory is a lot different to actua

to inherited territory of isis, which is to give them control of the entire northern part of the middle east, from iran, to iraqia, much of the mediterranean. the persians have not had that in 2,000 years and it was as within their grasp. so, the russians, the reigning ends, the syrian regime, they are all on one side. the maneuver is to make sure that they get the territory that isis loses. our interest is to make sure that that doesn't happen. that is why we attacked the forces of assad, who are hitting our allies on the ground, who are the kurds, and there are the syrian rebels, who together with the kurds, are closing in on raqqa. our objective, you were asking earlier, what is our objective in the region. it is simple. we don't want to see assad have a puppet regime which would be run by iran and russia, and control of all of syria. we don't want them to inherit the isis territory. we would like to see that held by pro-western, pro-saudi, sunni forces. and that would mean one settlement would be that you get a regime in damascus running the west side of syria, essentially, whereas the middle of syria is co

iraq. today holly williams met their commanding general. >> reporter: carved out of the desert in northern syria, a dirt airstrip for the u.s. military. and storage space for over 100 tons of munitions. this is an american logistics hub for the fight to retake raqqa, the so-called isis capital, which began almost a month ago. lieutenant general stephen townsend is the commander of the u.s.-led coalition to fight isis. >> hi, holly. it's good to see you again. it's been a while. in reporter: he came straight from a forward command post near raqqa. >> i think we're actually in the first 25% or 30% of the campaign for raqqa. we're just getting started good in raqqa. ( gunfire ) >> reporter: as u.s.-backed fighters close in on isis from -be north, they've also clashed with syrian regime forces, which are backed by russia. it's led to fears that the u.s. and russia could be drawn into a direct conflict, but the general downplayed that risk. >> we've worked out a de- confliction line with the russians and the regime, and they seem content to let us work on the raqqa problem, and they're drawing

iraq. the major battle now is the old city, part of the major northern city of mosul, as isis took nearly three years ago now and is down to street-to-street fighting. dense, narrow alleyways. isis are using human shields, civilians, tens of thousands of them. they often emerge from gaps in the rubble, desperate for food and water. the destruction is remarkable, u.s. official telling me there could be as little as 200 or so isis fighters left in this area. the progress by iraqi special forces, coalition fire power backing them up has been pretty fast in the last couple of days. isis has blown up a key monument for themselves, the mosque image, devastating destruction here now. the question is, how fast can they bring this nasty, bloody chapter to an end? one official saying to me it's a delicate balance to move slowly enough to preserve human life but quickly enough to get them before they starve. brianna? >>> republicans and democrats are wanting more time on the health care bill. how might the score influence a potential vote or even a compromise? we'll get the bottom line, next. >>> breaking

the northern ireland secretary could give the parties more time to negotiate or call an assembly election. the islamic state group is facing defeat in mosul, its last big powerbase in iraqy they're finally set to recapture the entire city. it's three years to the day since is declared a global caliphate. after prolonged battles and countless military offe nsives, is has been pushed back to the cities of raqqa in syria and mosul in iraq. this report from our correspondent 0rla guerin and cameraman nicolas hameon on the frontline in the old city of mosul. gunfire covering fire, as troops dart into position. wejoined them, pushing forward but keeping low. there's an is sniper ahead. they can see his hiding place, and he can see them. a heavily armed brigade from iraq's emergency response division, held up by the sniper‘s creed. 0ne shot, one kill. but they manage to press on across the rubble of a hospital complex, treacherous terrain, closing in on the last remaining is fighters. this was their main base in mosul. some are in the next building. but not for long. "please warn unit two that those is guys are on the move", he says. "thank god we don't have any injuries now".

its stronghold in sear yachlt holly williams is in northern syria where she met with the american commander in the fight against isis in syria and iraq. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. u.s. general council end is leading the u.s. led coalition against isis. we met with him yesterday here in northern syria. general townsend came straight from a ford command post in raqqah, the city isis calls its capital where u.s.-backed fighters launched an assault this monthis air strikes. >> i think we're in actually the first 25% or 30% campaign in raqqah. >> reporter: american troops have been welcomed in this corner of syria. this logistics base, this area carved out of the desert, has storage base for over 100 tons of munitions. but a surge this year in civilian casualties by u.s. air strikes bringing the total to over 500 deaths has drawn criticism. is the u.s. coalition doing something differently in the way it carries out air strikes? >> no, we're not. you're seeing the convergence of the fight in mosul -- a condensing of the fight in a very small space, and you have armies slugging it out with high explosives in close quarters. >>

northern ireland, whose support she needs to lead a minority government. all in all, it adds up to a pretty difficult in tray for the prime minister. thank you. eleanor garnier. reports from iraqslamic state, have mounted a counter attack against iraqi troops, who are trying to recapture parts of the old city. the battle is intense, and iraqi commanders have told the bbc that british fighters, as well as chechens and other foreigners, are among the militants. and other foreigners, the bbc‘s team of 0rla guerin, nico hameon, bader catty and rich stacey, were given exclusive access to the fighting. here's their report. exclusive access to the fighting. heading to the front line in mosul. exclusive access to the fighting. you have to run. exclusive access to the fighting. and beware of snipers. exclusive access to the fighting. but troops from iraq's emergency response division are advancing every day. emergency response division the target here — a hospital complex. gunfire. a hospital complex. we move deeper into the battle. a hospital complex. getting a chance to see how the fight has been taken to the so—called islamic state. the fight has been taken urban warfare at its most

position munitions capability allowed the northern alliance to take areas that for years they've been unable to make any headway on. then, it's critical when you get to iraq afghanistan counterinsurgency that you would never have been able to do these massive industrial scale raids under earlier technologies. vietnam we try to do things like this but the reality was you couldn't get information quickly enough to get people to where they need to be. by the time you got there, the enemy would be gone. when you suddenly have cell phones and laptop computers, proliferating in iraq, people are using those and we had the capability to use that to find people. things could have been very different in iraq without that. now, i think, more recently it seems like -- we certainly exploited that to some extent like syria but our enemies do seem to be catching on and they become more careful in using encryption and other means to hide what they're doing. the minute we used to have a monopoly on drones but some of our enemies are using drones against us and some of our adversaries are getting better and better at cyber warfare in our edge has eroded. i think in terms o

northern and eastern gates last week. but the u.s. military says the battle for the city itself will be "long and difficult." in neighboring iraq-- by comparison-- the fight to re- take mosul from isis has raged since october. and the fight for raqqa may be complicated further, by the crisis between the persian gulf state of qatar and other arab nations. president trump sided with saudi arabia and others today in the confrontation on twitter. the u.s. has about 10,000 troops in qatar, and a major air base used to launch strikes against isis. the pentagon says its posture in there won't change. state department spokesman heather nauert: >> we can't to cooperate with qatar and other countries in the region in the fight against terrorism. >> reporter: meanwhile, turkey is keeping a nervous eye on the fighting at raqqa, less than 60 miles from its border. the united states is now supplying heavy weapons to the syrian kurds of the s.d.f. they are allied with turkish kurdish militants, whom ankara and the u.s. consider terrorists. >> ( translated ): despite our many warnings, our ally, our friend, the united states has unfortunately

they allow the northern alliance to take an area that for years and been unable to make any headway on. then it is also critical when you get to iraqnd afghanistan counterinsurgency where you would never have been able to do these massive industrial scale raids under earlier technologies. in vietnam we tried to do things like this but the reality was you could not get, you just cannot get information quickly enough to get people where they needed to be. by the time you actually got there the enemy would be gone. when you suddenly have cell phones and laptop computers, proliferating in iraq, people are all using those and we have the capability then to use that to find people. and so, things could have been very different in iraq without that. i think more recently it seems like we certainly explore that in places like syria. but our enemies do seem to be catching on and have become more careful in using encryption, other means to hide they are doing. some of our enemies or using drones against his peers some of our adversaries are getting better at cyber warfare. i think in terms of what special forces do, it is hard to say because

iraq, a u.s.-led military coalition has begun its assault on mosul's old city, a densely-populated urban area and the last stronghold of isis in the northern iraqi city. the u.n. said friday as many as 150,000 people remain trapped in the district, , describing their situation as desperate. residentnts of western mosul who were able to escape described scenes of starvation. >> we have nothing to eat. no flour, no rice. nothing at all. we had to each grass and made grass soup to feed our children. amy: there were reports of heavy fighting and close-quarters battles in mosul's old city, with unconfirmed reports that more than a dozen civilians were killed in u.s.-led airstrikes over the weekend. in syria, u.s. fighters shot down as syrian warplane sunday the latest direct attack on the syrian government target. the pentagon said it down the airplane after a bond u.s. backed antigovernment rebels. meanwhile, the united nations said an estimated 200,000 civilians remain trapped in the city of raqqa is u.s.-led coalitition pounds the city in a campaign against isis. the u.n. says the airstrikes have killed at least 300 civilians in raqqa since