in raqqah. raqqah remains isis' administrative capital. forces partner with our coalition have entirely severed routes between raqqah and locations in iraq and the syrian democratic forces, a coalition of local, a rabs and kurds are aiming to isolate or strangulate the city. since this operation began about one month ago, the sdf has cleared 700 square kilometers north of raqqah and on saturday began a second phase of operations along a new axis to the west. this is proceeding quite well. the pressure on raqqah is bearing fruit. isil leaders come out of hiding which allows us to kill them. today we confirm the deaths of three terrorist leaders in raqqah. sala gourm at, sammy jidut, and waleed haman. gormat was a french algerian and a belgian. they were responsible for the paris attacks last year. also actively plotting attacks when they were killed on december 4th in the streets of raqqah. haman had been convicted by a belgian court for a terrorist plot in 2015 and was working with the others to plan new attacks. these three dead terrorist

-backed fighters near raqqah preparing to attack, hoping to drive isis out.nn could not independently verify this new video. now donald trump is inheriting an isis war that just got even more dangerous for u.s. troops since his tough campaign talk. >> we got to get rid of isis. quickly. quickly. >> the first of two hundred additional u.s. troops authorized by president obama to go into northern syria will be moving in and out of the air in the coming days a u.s. official tells cnn. but the region is so perilous american troop wills only stay days at a time. the focus will be on isis, the pentagon is concerned that as the turks approach the town of al bob, they fight kurds instead of isis and may turn towards manbij, a hard fought victory for the u.s. backed forces. it is raqqah to the south that the u.s. wants everyone to head for. the turks want u.s. support, even air strikes. the u.s. ground forces could call those strikes in for turkish president erdogan. one u.s. official tells cnn the u.s. troops will not initiate combat but may well find themselves in a

when it comes to raqqah, we want to get isil out of raqqah as soon as possible. this -- but this will be a sequence campaign. we're in the isolation, the strangulation phase now. and then we have to identify the forces to move in and seize and hold the city. there are a few options for that. one of the options is working closely with turkey. we're having a detailed discussion with them about this. but the most significant thing was their threat perception of isil is a significant threat to turkey, which it is. turkey suffered more casualties in isil attacks than almost any of our other coalition. we had a pretty good shared way forward. not to say there isn't some tension, obviously. >> are u.s. forces embedding with the -- >> there was a photograph of some -- so mobilization forces are known as being primarily shia militia forces, many of which operate outside the command and control of the iraqi government which is a significant problem, not only to us but to the iraqi government. but under the umbrella of the popular mobilization forces there are local forces

the river area leading up to raqqah and the approaches that are the eastern part of aleppo. they have less territory and less of a threat. as you noticed with the secretary defense being in iraq and talking about the effort in mosul, there's still 3,000 to 5,000 fighters in around mosul and you still got fighters and capability certainly in raqqah and that's the next step with regards to the future 200 plus addition of u.s. special forces going in for the raqqah campaign working with the syrian democratic force which is pro-kurdish as well. >> james mattis is working on a strategy to fight isis should be confirmed, what do you think he might or should be his first order of action? >> i think his first order of action is making sure we have the right force mix, especially be the end state with raqqah and i think he would be working with the state department and secretary of state and our future secretary of state and our diplomats to work with the russians. they have to be held to account. they're responsible for this entire northeast area of around aleppo with the air cover

raqqah, three times the size of that. mosul, three times the size of that. this is a huge urban area. islamic state has had a couple years to prepare their defenses. it's not going to be a cake walk. we don't want to give the impression it is. iraqis, developed a pretty good plan, executing it, making adjustments to it. and we are making adjustments as well with our support. so that will be -- that's the main focus and that's what we're trying to keep the focus on here right now. generally on track, a hard fight in front of us in mosul. in syria, we have now begun, seeing some of the isolation of the town of raqqah, there is an element of trying to synchronize both these things while our partners on the ground, iraqi security forces and indigenous partners in syria may not be self-synchronizing between them the coalition is trying to do that. it is important to provide pressure on the town of raqqah, at the same time we're putting pressure on the town of mosul. they don't have the ability to move back and forth. i think we're seeing good effects with that. t

they're much closer to raqqah and in a much better position to make the move.discussion. right now we're very sensitive to what the turks want. i don't know what the new administration is going to do with that. >> while i've got you here, i might as well ask, what do you think of the suggestions that general mattis be the one to take over? >> you know, i have no problem with general mattis taking over. if you look at his background, and i think the term mad dog as his nickname is a lig over raught. he's actually quite a thinker. he travels with a huge library of books. he's also known as the warrior monk. he's going to go through the vetting process in congress. i think the president needs to have who he believes he can trust in those positions. >> he does, indeed. lieutenant colonel rick francona, we appreciate your insights. thank you very much. >> thank you. >>> all righty. andy scholes is here with championship saturday. >> yeah, christi. the top seeds all in action yesterday. all taking care of business. we're going to discuss who's in and who's out of thi

kurdish fighters are not going to hold raqqah. we need more arabs in the fight inside of syria and security fier forces less sectarian. >> do you believe all these numbers, that 75% of the isis fighters in iraq and syria have been killed? >> nobody knows. we have patriots out there on the battlefield giving us the best picture they know, but it's one thing to estimate the number of isil fighters, but we know what the russians are doing inside toward our election and throughout the world. the intelligence community are patriots. they got it right when it comes to russia interfering with our election. in syria, if you leave assad in power, the arab also never accept him, the syrian war never ends because the syrian people will not accept him. turkey is going to be under constant friction. so i hope the president will re-evaluate. i would destroy isil with more of an arab force that could hold, train what's left of the syrian free army and recruit more people. i would have a no-fly zone and tell the russians and syrian it is they com

the group maintains strong holds in syria, including its capital in raqqah.the washington post" with some extraordinary reporting, getting within miles of the city where the paris and brussels attacks were allegedly planned. now, talking to residents of nearby villages, traveling nearby bombed out buildings, the conclusion, isis appears to be capable of holding it for the foreseeable futures, despite all the efforts to rout it. joining me now, graham wood, who has reported extensively on isis throughout its rise. grap, great to have you with us. let's start with the cease-fire. obvisl isis not a part of it, isn't goingo sign on to it. do you think isis will now actively work to undermine it? >> well, the cease-fire is mainly with groups in the western part of the country, where isis is not really active, certainly not in the same way that it controls territory in the east. so i think it's largely a separate thing and you know, it's a cease-fire between assad and rebel groups. and since assad has not been fighting against isis with much vigor, it doesn't seem

they have drones over raqqah. they watch constantly.y are getting better information on where these people are and they watch. so when they move, the u.s. can move in and strike them. >> we're also following urgent new developments in aleppo, syria. reports of dozens of women and children slaughtered. what are you hearing? >> summary executions are the words of what we're healing. aleppo being called a melt down of humanity. there is some talk of safe passage being granted to some people out of aleppo. but this horror continues. right now it does appear that the syrian rejean has control and the russians are not doing anything to stop in to stop the slaughter. that may well be a message to the trump people about what russia's priorities are and what the u.s. needs to consider under a trump administration in dealing with moscow, wolf. >> thanks barbara. >>> also tonight a shocking murder that's remained a mystery for two decades. a child beauty queen killed. her family under suspicion. now jonbenet ramsay's. >> one of the greatest unsolv

special operations forces watch raqqah around the clock from drones overhead.l led to key intelligence and a critical strike. one drone struck a vehicle with three isis leaders inside. operatives that had been involved, according to the u.s., in attacks against the west. two said to have facilitated the deadly attacks in paris last year. but even with the death of many fighters, isis has not given up the fight. isis has retaken the area around palmyra and captured syrian regime weapons. >> some armored vehicles, guns, heavy weapons, air defense equipment, possibly. >> reporter: the u.s. watching closely to see if in fact those weapons, possibly including shoulder-filed missiles, will threaten u.s. troops. of course there are still plenty of challenges. one of the enduring worries is that isis' ideology will still appeal to fighters around

officials said he was most likely hiding in raqqah, the isis stronghold.oint he's believed to have gone to mosul, iraq. but iraqi sources tell cnn just after the iraqi offensive began in october, baghdadi is believed to have left mosul, despite recording this audio message for his fighters. >> translator: holding your ground in honor is 1,000 times better than retreating in disgrace. >> reporter: officials tell cnn baghdadi's days are numbered, but tonight he remains elusive. how good is he at evading detection? >> he takes it to a whole new level if you look at the way he approaches operational security. the amount of information that we have about him compared to somebody like bin laden is much thinner. >> the rumors that this is the guy who used to cover his face, even when meeting with some of his own people, someone who took extraordinary precautions when it came to his own security. >> reporter: and that likely also applies to how baghdadi communicates. tonight, a u.s. intelligence official tells cnn baghdadi and his lieutenants understand that any l

there's still raqqah. the u.s. will not take raqqah before probably the next sis months. live to general townsend who sayses going to be another two years before iciss strategically defeated and again, so many curveballs thrown. turkey intervenes in syria. turkey and russia getting closer together. complications with the curds, both syrian and iraqi curds. any and all of these things, frankly, can disrupt this effort to expunge isis. >> speaking of a timetable, colonel, i was fascinated to hear the iraqi prime minister saying this week he believes that iraqi forces will be able to defeat isis in iraq in the next three months. do you believe that? >> three months is optimistic. remember, we had this conversation back when the iraqis were promising they would retake mosul by the end of the year, and none of us believed that, and i think that reality set in once they actually started the operation. and as barbara said, this two-week lull was actually a reset, and they're calling it phase two. in reality, they were stopped. isis put up a much more difficult fight than everybo

we are now putting pressure on its two so-called capitals of mosul and raqqah but this remains an unpre presprecedente. this fight is not over. it will remain a multi-year effort. >> reporter: multi-year effort because they still want to go after the self-proclaimed capital of raqqah. that's yet to come. when you look at the proliferation of isis cells and supporters and lone wolf attacks across europe, even here in the united states, that still is a very big problem. but he did talk about some success they have had to that end, that they did go after three leaders in raqqah, syria that were involved in the attacks in paris and planning attacks in brussels. those three leaders were killed. so they are making great gains against isis and its leaders on the battlefield in iraq and syria, but isis still remains a threat not only in the middle east but also to europe and the united states. >> very soon, donald trump will be taking on and heading up the mission to battle isis. great to see you. thank you. >>> so donald trump is also hosting today who's who of tech executives at trump tower.

raqqah is three times of size of that. mosul is three times the size of that. this is a huge, huge urban area and the islamic state has had a couple years to prepare their defenses. it's not going to be a cake walk and we don't want to give the impression that it is but the iraqis have developed i think a pretty good plan, they're executing it, they're making adjustments to it and we are making adjustments as well with our support. so with that, that will be -- that's the main focus and that's what we're trying to keep the focus on here right now. so generally on track, a hard fight in front of us in mosul. in syria we have now begun, as you've seen some of the isolation of the town of raqqah, there is an element of trying to synchronize both of these things while our partners on the ground are iraqi security forces and indigenous partners in syria may not be synchronized between them, the coalition is trying to do some of that. so it is important to provide pressure on the town of raqqah, at the same time we're putting a lot of pressure on the town of mosul. s

tremendous auction against the enemy, accelerating, putting pressure on two capitals of mosul and raqqaht it remains an unprecedented threat. this war is not over. it will be a multiyear effort. >> and tremendous success, as he calls it kwhash? what does it look like. 61% of territory in iraq that had been controlled by isis reclaimed. at least 75% of isis fighters, they say, have been killed during this campaign of u.s.-led air strikes and believe isis only has between 12,000 to 15,000 "battle-ready fighters" adding the terror group is no longer able to replenish its ranks. for more on this fight, fwling our senior international correspondent ben wedeman joining us from erbil in iraq now. ben, you're not far away from mosul, second largest city in iraq under isis control now since 2014. what are you hearing about the battle to try to liberate the city? >> reporter: certainly initially there were quite dramatic advances by the iraqi army, but now that they are actually within the city limits of mosul itself, on the eastern side, what is proving to be quite a difficult battle, in fact. to

so we don't know how many come from raqqah or mosul are running around the continent.could easily be the case the german police spent 24 hours interrogating the wrong man. if you are isis you are waiting for him to get away clean and make contact with you before you go out and claim responsibility. that is one explanation. >> maybe they waited on purpose. >> yeah. >> let me bring you into the discussion. obviously isis did make the claim within 24 hours. why was it so important to them to have their name attached? >> well because it was a lethal attack that succeeded. and we've seen repeatedly people inspired by isis in the west where isis does take responsibility, says they are a soldier of the cal freight which doesn't necessarily mean anything really in terms of direction by isis or even certainly training by isis. so this is a very typical claim. they may be taking a little bit of a risk here if it turns out that this person was inspired by another group. we saw in the ohio state university attack where eleven people were injured with a vehicle. the somali american

they pretty much have around-the-clock surveillance over raqqah.s a key area they're looking at wolf. >> barbara starr with the latest at the pentagon. thanks very much. that's it for me, thanks very much for watching. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in the situation room. for our international viewers, "amanpour" is coming up next. for our viewers here in north ameri america, "newsroom" with brooke baldwin starts right after a quick break. generosity is its own form of power. you can handle being a mom for half an hour. i'm in all the way. is that understood? i don't know what she's up to, but it's not good. can't the world be my noodles and butter? get your mind out of the gutter. mornings are for coffee and contemplation. that was a really profound observation. you got a mean case of the detox blues. don't start a war you know you're going to lose. finally you can now find all of netflix in the same place as all your other entertainment. on xfinity x1. >>> here we go. top of the hour. i'm brooke baldwin. live pictures here, oakland, california. h

raqqah is nowhere near being retaken.ng as isis controls these two population centers, they have a lot of territory. but even beyond all of that, what i'm seeing now, the transformation of this organization from a sunni arab. led jihadist insurgency, it's turning into a european jihad. the guys who lead isis' foreign operations, the head of essentially their cia, an suleman al fransy, he comes from france. he was raised in a town in france. he served in the french foreign legion and fought in afghanistan with distinction. was recipient of a nato medal. his deputy comes from belgium, was imprisoned in iraq for almost ten years, got out of iraq, went back to belgium, spent a couple months and headed straight to syria. this is a frenchman and belgian leading isis' operations. the caliphate is leaning on them. >> we should note we do not have any claim of responsibility for isis for the attack in turkey. we don't know if isis is wbehin it. and there's no shortage of people who may have a motivation to carry it out. michael we

carter says as many as 200 more american soldiers will be sent to help capture the stronghold of raqqah. authorized to help with the efforts. the announcements came during a security conference. >>> lawmakers on capitol hill have avoided a government shut down. it came down to the wire on friday night when the senate proved a spending bill with less than an hour to spare. the measure keeps the government running through april 28th and gives disaster relief to louisiana, more than $10 billion in emergency war funding and speeds up the confirmation process for retired general james mattis, donald trump's pick for defense secretary. >>> expect tight security at the army/navy football game in baltimore. president elect donald trump is going to be at that game. trump will spend half the game on the army side and the other half on the navy side. he will become the first president elect to ever attend. >>> trump is thank you tour across the country. he stopped in grand rapids, michigan last night to thank supporters after becoming the first republican presidential candidate to win there since

forces will help kurdish and arab fighters capture the isis strong hold of raqqah. carter says president obama approved the plan last week and this move brings the total number of american troops in syria to about 500. congress averting another government shutdown with less than an hour to spare, the senate approved a stop-gap spending measure just before the midnight deadline it keeps the government operating through april. the bill provides flood relief for louisiana, drought relief for california. >>> and help for the lead problem in the drinking water in flint, michigan. up next, back to black, the flyers unveiling the special jerseys they're going to wear for their outdoor game against the penguins. >>> plus -- destination north pole, some local families experience a trip of a lifetime today. they get to meet santa claus himself. erica? >>> i'm tracking two major weather stories. one includes a frigid saturday night and the other tracking snowshowers and rain details coming up in the full forecast. see you then. the roses are blooming in herbal essences hair is

will help train and equip local fighters in the push to retake the militants' de facto capital of raqqah. this latest increase will bring the total number of american troops on the ground in syria to roughly 500. i'm gregg jarrett, now back to "bulls & bears." and for all your headlines be sure to log onto foxnews.com. >>> congress battling over another spending bill this week as a new report claims pentagon officials buried a study exposing $125 billion of wasteful spending. gary b., you saw this as a great place for our next president to start cutting on day one. >> oh, my gosh, dagen, it would be so easy. like we said in the first block, the greatest government job is a government job, or the greatest job to have is a government job because every department keeps growing. just two quick examples, in 1935 the government started a rural electrify kags service to bring electricity to the heartland. i think after 80 years we've kind of accomplished that but the department lives on at the tune of $9.6 billion a year. we have sugar subsidies, sugar subsidies that put a minimum of double the

troops will help local forces that are driving towards the self-declared isis capital in raqqah.t least 50,000 isis fighters have been killed since the effort to annihilate the terror group began. cnn international correspondent, melissa belle, is joining me now from paris. melissa, what does this escalation tell you about where we stand in the fight against isis? >> reporter: well, it suggests that the united states does belief this claim by the syrian democratic forces, this group of kurdish and arab forces who have been saying for a few weeks now, that they are engaged in this offensive for raqqah and that they will take back this city. what was interesting today, as ash carter explained that he was sending these extra troops is that he also took the opportunity to criticize russia. to take this opportunity to express his frustration, really, at what has been russia's lack of focus on the fight against isil. he reminded his audience that, after all, when moscow had begun its intervention just over a years ago, boris, it had said that this was in order to ensure a smooth democr

we're in the middle of the campaign, and mosul and raqqah and syria. we look at some of the deaths, at least this year in iraq, i believe there have been 16 u.s. service members killed in iraq. not all of those have been during the mosul campaign. in terms of troop numbers, he's leaving behind more troops in afghanistan. just earlier this summer that he had vowed to do. these are all challenges. these are all problems handed off to the next president. one final note for you, kate, the former commander here, james mattis, tipped to be donald trump's secretary of defense. >> interesting trivia there. one last question. gone t guantanamo bay, another promise from president obama. he said he would close the place down. will we hear him talk about that? >> reporter: he'll likely talk about values and may get into the aspirational aspects of whether or not they can actually close it. remember just over the weekend, they released one more detainee. they're down to 59 detainees here. this are some of the most difficult ones to find. finding them transfers and,

there is talk of taking back rack raqqah, the kacht of capital of their claimed caliphate.t do you expect general mattis to advise donald trump who has expressed his desire to pull back from some of these crises? how do you expect and how would you advise this new head if he's confirmed to advise the president? >> i think what you can expect from general mattis because he's a pretty plain spoken person that he would tell the president-elect, look, we can do this, we can drawdown our involvement in the area. but here is the consequence. you will be empower the russians, the rash kraniraniansn ban ton support and here are issues that we see in iraq and the increasing iranian influence, the political problems that have still unsolved. conversely if the president-elect is inclined to use force in places and he has also threatened obviously to carpet bomb or to torture or kill families of terrorists, i think general mattis will be quite blunt about what does that really mean, let me tell you how that would be perceived, the impact of those kind of policy, the effect on the milit

three of his top lieutenants have been taken out in raqqah, syria. u.s.icials say they were responsible for planning attacks in paris and brussels last year. a u.s. intelligence official telling cnn tonight the coalition's made great strides in targeting isis leaders in places like raqqah. and cnn is told isis' vaunted recruiting arm like jihadi john, has been decimated. >> the united states government has killed a lot of isis propagadists. the amount of propaganda has gone down. >> reporter: but experts warn the terrorist group isn't close to total defeat. >> it still includes many places, including mosul where it's managed to keep its defenses. it still holds terrain in northern syria and other zones across both countries. >> reporter: tonight, we're told the coalition is really not getting much help from vladamir putin. a short time ago, i spoke to a u.s. intelligence official who told me that despite russia's claims that they were intervening to target isis, they were overwhelmingly targeting anti-assad groups. >> you reported a lot of isis casualties

nearly doubling the number of american soldiers fighting isis on the ground near the syrian city of raqqah to 500 special operations troops. >> matt bradley for us this morning in london. matt, thanks. >>> breaking overnight, at least five people were killed today when a tanker train derailed and exploded. it happened in bulgaria. 150 firefighters raced to the scene to sea scene to search for survivors. destroyed. police say the train was carrying propane and butane. >>> the pilot of a hot air balloon that crashed in texas last july was taking medications that should have disqualified him from flying. that's according to federal investigators. the balloon crashed into power lines near lockhart, texas, killing the pilot and 15 passengers. the ntsb says that pilot, alfred skip nichols, had at least a half dozen prescription drugs including oxycodone in his nichols also had at least four convictions for drunk driving and served time in prison twice. >>> high drama playing out in a florida courtroom in the retrial of a woman accused of hiring a hit man to kill her husband. at the center of it

trainers, advisers, and bomb squads will help local troops try to push isis out of its stronghold in raqqah300 u.s. troops are already in syria. >>> now to some chilling evidence at the trial of self-proclaimed white supremacist dylann roof. the jury heard a videotaped confession where he said he had to do it as he confessed to police how he shot nine worshippers to death at a south carolina church last year. roof said his aim was to start a race war. the defense doesn't dispute the facts in the case. they're trying to avoid the death penalty. the trial resumes monday. >>> samsung is virtually pulling the plug on its recalled galaxy note 7 phones. they are going to release an update that will prevent the phones from charging. the galaxy note 7 was recalled in september because the phones were bursting into flames. the company has most of them now, but they say more than 100,000 of the dangerous note 7s are still out there. >>> kirk douglas is proving just how tough he is. the acting legend turned 100 years old friday and celebrated with a bash in beverly hills. his son michael and michael's

join 300 already in syria, tasked with training and advising forces as they prepare to advance to raqqahisis's de facto capital city. we've seen the fierce fighting in aleppo. ravaged by four years of war. forces loyal to president assad have almost completely pushed out the rebels clinging to parts of the city. >> rounds coming from the front line which is about 100 yards away. >> reporter: tens of thousands of civilians have fled their homes in this historic city that has become the symbolic epicenter of syria war in the last months alone. >>> back here at home with the drama unfolding in a new orleans courtroom today, the man accused of killing nfl star will smith in a fit of road rage taking the stand, telling a jury why he fired that fatal shot. abc's phillip mena reports. >> reporter: tonight the man accused of murdering former new orleans saints star will smith during a road rage incident, telling the jury he feared for his life. cardell hayes shot smith eight times, seven in the back. his wife hit in the leg. >> my leg has been shot! >> reporter: surveillance video from april 9th

the coming fight for raqqah, islamic state's capital, same thing.e from what president obama was talking about is we have a dog in the fight. we have a significant military commitment to the mosul battle and an operations plan that's well thought through. it's going slowly because people realize it will be intense fighting. don't rush it. the battle plan for raqqah from what i know is basically pretty solid. what was really painful listening to obama is he watched the suffering, watched the kids getting shot and thousands and thousands die and the u.s. didn't really do anything in aleppo. that's the president's legacy that's so painful and mosul and raqqah he's got military force engaged. >> joining us now, national correspondent for "the atlantic" graham wood. author of the new book "the way of the new strangers." good to have you onboard this morning. tell us about the book and how it applies to the news that we're seeing. >> i talked to as many isis supporters as i could find over the last couple years and asking them essentially what's wrong wit

this sports report brought to you by river raqqah se-- rock casino. >> much more ahead. an arctic blast hitting much of our country right now. when you see what it's like in some other parts of the country, you probably won't think it's so cold anymore. ♪ ♪ ♪ all the care your family needs. all connected for you. bounty is more absorbent,mom" per roll so the roll can last 50% longer than the leading ordinary brand. so you get more "life" per roll. bounty, the quicker picker upper >>> live where you live, this is abc7 news. >> good evening, tonight's headlines a woman is dead and a four-year-old girl is in critical condition after a tree fell onto them in southern california. they were among a group of six people taking wedding pictures at a park. ann arborist will look at the tree to figure out why it fell. >> in oakland a 175 foot tall tree toppled onto a home. it crushed a car and put a hole through a living room. the homeowner is looking to the city to take responsibility because the tree is on public property. >>> and you can see your breathe outside in parts of the

and now gearing up to try to retake raqqah, isis's de facto capital in syria. as they do there are reports isis militants have e entered palmyra after a three-day assault, nine m the military pushed them out. this as the country ice vicious and bloody civil war continues, with thousands of people trying to escape the horror in eastern aleppo. russian's defense ministry released aerial footage of it says 20,000 people fleeing today. and military had to halt operations to allow the civilians to escape. >> translator: the militants will be pushed aawar oi eliminated. >> secretary kerry met with officials in paris to discuss the it foreign opposition leaders and in particular the withdrawal of opposition forces. >> russia and assad have a moment here where they are obviously in a dominate position. they have anability to be be able to show a little grace. >> secretary kerry said even if president bashar al assad's regime takes eastern aleppo it will still not end the horrific and vicious civil war. >> john huddy in the middle east. thanks. >>> two massive explosion

officials tell cnn there are a number of buildings in central raqqah under observation. the u.s. is looking forovement of any senior isis leaders. communications are being intercepted. from raids in mosul, iraq, documents and data seized and reviewed for fresh tips. u.s. special operations forces on the ground talking to whomever may know something. last month, a rare audio recording encouraging his fighters to stand strong in mosul. the u.s. just raised to $25 million the reward for his capture. the goal has been to take away his layers of protection and security. >> these people have to communicate. even if they don't communicate via the internet or via phone, they have to communicate in one way or the other. >> reporter: u.s. intelligence is focused on isolating baghdadi by killing those close to him. nearly a dozen senior operatives, so far. >> we took out three of isil's key leaders in the last couple of weeks. >> one of the most important isis leaders, abu al nanny also was killed in an air strike in syria. and this kuwaiti born operative killed just this week. so what if t

defense secretary ash carter says extra forces help kurdish and arab fighters capture raqqah. the plan was approved last week. it moves the total troops in syria to 500. >>> back in the u.s., hearing the chilling confession from dylan roof charged with gunning down nine in a church. >> i killed them i guess, i don't know. i didn't know how many people. >> the fbi investigators talked to him three hours june of last year. during questioning, roof declared himself a white supremacist. authorities say he killed the black worshippers to try to start a race war. he faces more than two dozen charges including hate crimes. >>> convicted former congressman chaka fattah is expected to learn his fate monday when a sentencing hearing to wrap up his racketeering case. a jury found him guilty in june. prosecutors recommend two decades in prison but fattah's attorneys asked the judge to consider his years of public service before deciding on punishment. we spoke to nbc10 legal expert to explain what factors the judge will be considering during sentencing. >> the history, background of the d

will there be moves together in raqqah? what do you do with iran? russia was part of that six-party agreement. finally, when you look at the role russia plays in the global economy, russia is very crucial in determining the price of oil. not always, not as much as the gulf states but you look at the most recent increase in the price of oil. international markets it's up to $54, 56 bucks, up almost 10 bucks over the last month. in part, that's because russia has gone on with the saudis and agreed to a production limit. so, they do play an important role in global politics, especially in the middle east. but also the price of oil. hallie? >> ron, get into the politics here. you talked about this a little bit, the idea that this is action that could potentially be reversed by donald trump once he takes office on january 20th. what is the white house trying to do to make sure that doesn't happen? is is there a pho reach out to republicans on capitol hill to bolster support for these moves? >> first, hallie, the question of why americans should care at a

it's based in raqqah which is far away, there's only isolating fighting between the government and isisin the city of iraqi border in the home states where the gas fields are important to power electrical plans but those are the only places that there's any type of fighting. it's in the government interest to have isis on the ground to be foiled, that they can say we are fighting the terrorists and they are threatening us and preventing terrorists from overflowing into europe and the united states and carrying out attacks. jenna: that's a powerful narrative. we hear president-elect trump that the priority in syria is isis. based on your time inside the country, what do you see as the way forward potentially for the united states when it comes to syria, when it comes to battling isis, when it cooms to resolving the conflict, these are big questions? >> i'm sure the president-elect trump will come to office and have a strategy how to take on isis. he might put troops on the ground but he'll be much more forceful than president obama. he might reach out to president putin of russia but i'm

including trainers, disposal units to help the forces fighting isis and recapture its stronghold of raqqah. it comes as the coalition carries out its largest air strike to date pounding and destroying 136 tanker trucks near the ancient city of palmyra. the battle for syria's largest with syrian government forces backed by russia claiming they control more than 90% of the city and residents fleeing streaming out on foot. more than 8,000 leaving since friday. just days after abc news tracked the return to the city with images showing buildings leveled and streets destroyed. paula. >> yeah, those images tough to see. >>> we want to move to the dramatic comments as dylann played for the jury. at times he was laughing his his confession and steve osunsami has more. >> reporter: for the first time we hear this accused racist and mass murderer try and explain himself this morning. >> i was sitting there and i was just thinking about whether i should do it for the. >> reporter: in this confess recorded by agents from the fbi 22-year-old dylann roof acts as if he's talking about a night out on the

you have the turks moving toward raqqah, they set up an enclave up there with the free syrian army.e the free zone. that had been talked about for the past year. the turks said this would be the perfect place to do it. many of us have said that's great somebody has to go down there and force isis out of the area the turks have done that. there is a possibility for that. i think that we're going to stand back and concentrate on isis and basically throw the syrian army under the bus. >> the u.s. now offering a $25 million reward for abu bakr al baghdadi for the capture of thelysis -- isis leader. there was a report they were close. >> he was injured in an air strike 18 months ago. he wasn't being targeted but it took him out of commission for quite a while. power struggles within the upper echelons. there is a complete paranoia of infiltration, coalition spies. some of it i think quite justified at this point. he still remains the leader of the organization. there's a $25 million bounty as opposed to a $10 million, or $11 million make a difference? no. it's not about the money. i don'

meanwhile, in syria isil's self-declared capital in raqqah is being squeezed. we've attacked isil's financial lifeline, destroying hundreds of millions of dollars of oil and cash reserves. the bottom line is we are breaking the back of isil. we're taking away its safe havens. and we have -- and we've accomplished all this at a cost of over $10 billion over two years, which is the same amount that we used to spend in one month at the height of the iraq war. so the campaign -- so the campaign against isil has been relentless. it has been sustainable. it has been multilateral. and it demonstrates a shift in how we've taken the fight to terrorists everywhere from south asia to the sahel. instead of pushing all of the burden onto american ground troops, instead of trying to mount invasions wherever terrorists appear, we've built a network of partners. in libya where u.s. air power has helped local militias dislodge a dangerous isil cell. in mali, where u.s. logistics and intelligence support helped our french allies roll back al qaeda branches there. in somalia wher

in raqqah they burnt down the christian churches there. this is a new tactative whic wh comes to targeting the west. >> in terms of it being a new tactic, one could make the case it plays into what they want to do and that is to get into the psyche of different cultures in areas in this world that they don't necessarily like. so if you're putting this out, talking about churches, talking about places of worship on christmas eve, tonight also happens to be the start of hanukkah. how much is that the focus, do you think for some of these groups to simply get into the minds of people, perhaps not even follow through on an attack? >> well, it's an aspect of terrorism, at large. michael is right we have to take it seriously. i would say this, this evolves. all right. so if we just look at isis, just look at the islamic state and you consider what their early calls were. as they were forming and claiming territory and the call was come out, join us. be part of the fight. come to syria, come to iraq. be here. this start today evolve and morph as

on the ground helping syrian and kurdish fighters fight begins isis and gear up for an assault on raqqah. that will be a major battle when it begins. >> absolutely. and it's also going to be a very sad situation if they are able to take palmyra because they've already destroyed so much of the ancient cities antiquities there. it's a very troubling situation indeed. >> absolutely. >> john, thank you for that update. >>> now to another developing story in the middle east, twin blasts rocking turkey's capital leaving at least 20 people injured there. we're going to bring you the latest on that story. >>> plus, back at home, ed rollins on the trump transition process. but first, here's the president-elect from a big rally in michigan last night saying thank you to voters. >> i am asking you to believe in yourself and i am asking you to believe, once again, in america. we will make america safe again and we will make america great again. ♪ [vo] is it a force of nature? or a sales event? the season of audi sales event is here. audi will cover your first month's lease payment on select models d

they'll support kurdish and arab fighters in the battle to capture islamic states defak cocapital of raqqah. the additional troops will join 300 u.s. special operations forces already in syria. >>> a snowstorm blamed for at least three deaths is threatening to leave several states under whiteout conditions over the weekend. the storm has already wreaked havoc from the dakotas to the northeast grounding flights and piling cars on highways. forecasters warn it could get worse into next week. nbc's morgan radford is in chicago where they're expecting up to ten inches of snow. you obviously drew the short straw. how cold is it there. we're expecting to see up to 12 inches of snow in the surrounding areas just outside of chicago. we're here in a winter storm advisory in effect at 6:00 p.m. that snow expected to strike at 5:00 p.m. local time. stephanie this is part of a larger storm system that started out west and is now moving its way here to the midwest and to the northeast. we're expecting to see about eight inches of snow where you are near new york city, also boston has to be leery of what

officials tell cnn there are a number of buildings in central raqqah under observation. the u.s.s looking for movement of any senior isis leaders. communications are being intercepted. from raids in mosul, iraq, documents and data seized and reviewed for fresh tips. u.s. special operations forces on the ground talking to whomever may know something. last month, a rare audio recording, encouraging his fighters to stand strong in mosul. the u.s. just raised to $25 million the reward for his capture. the goal has been to take away his layers of protection and security. >> these people have to communicate, even if they don't communicate via the internet or via phone, they have to communicate in one way or the other. >> reporter: u.s. senintelligen is focused on baghdadi. >> we took out three of isil's key leaders in the last couple of weeks. >> reporter: one of the most important isis leaders, abu muhammad al anani, chief of external plotting, was killed in an air strike in syria. and this kuwaiti born operative, killed just this week. now, what would happen if they did get baghdadi,

some are in touch with syria, in raqqah. some aren't. but it doesn't really matter. but remember germany's let in more than a million refugees over the last year. and it is simply impossible for the german police to keep track of them all. to put surveillance on the ones they suspect takes 80, 90 people and an eight hour period. so you can imagine the logistics of that. germans can't do it. so what they are waiting for like americans is to take one -- before they actually arrest him. avmry apparently didn'mri appar. simply discussing taking up action like jihadi isn't enough to warrant arrest. and this is simply the problem we're all facing is when they make the decision. and if it's hijacking a truck what, who's going to know. >> it is hard to know. he had been doing a lot of things and they knew about it at the time. paul cruickshank, do they think he's even still in germany right now is it. >> they aren't for sure where he is, obviously. but i think the working assumption is right now most likely still in germany. perhaps in berlin. he could possibly have been inj

then the battle will go to raqqah, which is the headquarters of the so-called caliphate.e will still inherit a very, very difficult, complicated syria that i think he feels he has a simple answer to, which is, to hand it over to assad, and, in fact, assad is now doing better and better. the assad forces are likely to take over aleppo, but it won't solve the problem, because assad run what is still in many ways a minority regime in syria. he is an alawite, minority of 15% in syria. maybe has support of some sunnis, clearly i think he does, but there are a large number of people in syria who are in violent positions against the assad regime. saying simply, well, let assad handle it, isn't going to work, and it is out of that context, out of that, that civil war in syria that all of these jihadi forces get formed and out of those bad lands in syria, groups like isis and al nusra have formed, so he will still need a syria policy beyond saying, just hand it over to assad, and it will have to be a policy that involves a much more, you know, much more active sense of what it is