policy in iraq and syria. i want to thank each of our expert witnesses for appearing before us today on this critical and complex topic. before i go any further, the secretary of defense and chairman of the joint chiefs were invited to appear admittedly very short notice and we will be asking them to appear after the recess is over depending on whether the bill is on the floor or not, but we certainly would like to hear from the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs. today we have general jack keane, former vice chief of staff for the army and chairman of the institute for the study of war, and general keane, we are pleased you could take time from your duties on fox news to being with us today. dr. fred kagan, who is -- that's a joke. dr. fred kagan, director of the critical threats project at the american enterprise institutes. colonel derek harvey, u.s. army retired, director of the global initiative for civil society and conflict at the university of south florida. and bryant who is the

brigham and women's hospital. >> martin smith: syria january 2011. the arab spring was sweeping across the region. >> thousands of demonstrators... >> a huge step towards democracy... >> smith: a new u.s. ambassador, robert ford, was just arriving in damascus. >> democracy taking place in a lot of these countries... >> demanding change, they're fed up... >> smith: at the time, it seemed syria's dictator would be next to fall. >> protesters in tahrir square drove hosni mubarak out of power... >> mubarak actually left power in cairo the weekend after i got there. and in my first meeting with bashar al-assad, i asked him point blank, "looks like kind of a difficult time for authoritarian regimes. what kinds of steps are you thinking of to get ahead of the problem?" and he kind of brushed it aside and said, "it'll never happen here." not three weeks after that meeting, the arab spring started in the haria market in damascus. >> the uprising of the syrian people was a secular one. one of its slogans was "wahed, wahed, wahed." >> smith: one, one, one? >> o

we equipped the rebels in syria. trying to foment that relation -- the revolution in syria.e equipped them with arms from libya and trained in these rebels. this is all part of our policies. [indiscernible] we get a response. caller: -- guest: early in the arab spring, there was a different coalition rising up against al-assad and his regime that was considered illegitimate by the majority of sunni arabs at the time. there is some real problems with trying to identify a moderate coalition in syria today. we did a similar thing, if you look at what happened in libya. we contributed to toppling the libyan regime. we toppled it. we left. it has been wracked with civil war. humanitarian disasters. islamic state has taken advantage. we have to be careful at looking at this issue of intervention and how we do it and make sure we do it smartly and have a plan all the way through from the beginning. that we are prepared to accept the costs and risks. that the leadership is committed to an action that is aligned with national and interests -- national interest and interests of those

policy in iraq and syria. i want to thank each of our expert witnesses for appearing before us today on this critical and complex topic. senator mccain: before i go any further, the secretary of defense and chairman of the joint chiefs were invited to appear admittedly very short notice, and we will be asking them to appear after the recess is over depending on whether the bill is on the floor or not, but we certainly would like to hear from the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs. today we have general jack keane, former vice chief of staff for the army and chairman of the institute for the study of war, and general keane, we are pleased you could take time from your duties on fox news to being with us today. dr. fred kagen, who is -- that's a joke. dr. fred kagen, -- kagan director of the critical threats project at the american enterprise institutes. colonel derek harvey, u.s. army retired, director of the global initiative for civil society and conflict at the university of south flor

or outside syria until the war is over.not sure. i think it would be very demoralizing for syrian people to see an international military intervention to protect ruins but not to protect the 50,000 people who live around those ruins. it would be saying to the syrian people your lights are not important, but these stones are. and that would reinforce the islamic front possible propaganda -- france propaganda that the world doesn't have at you, but we do. amy: talk about what is happening now in syria. what is happening with al-assad who is still the ruler, what are the different alliances that are forming, and then the role of the west like the united states. >> the alliances and syria haven't changed much. the arenas and russians still back the al-assad regime and the united states indirectly, france, britain, saudi arabia, turkey, are supporting the opposition will stop the united states as it is supporting a mythical moderate opposition. but the weapons it gives to those people end up in the hands of isis or the nusra fro

, and coming out of syria back into lebanon.s been important to opposition fighters in syria, because they have wanted to use -- they have wanted to use positions overlooking the supply route to try to attack hezbollah in the past several months. that's when a lot of the fighting really erupted. it's important for hezbollah because this is their supply route to get weapons into syria so they can support the syrian army as they have been do for so long now. we have heard several mortars in the past hour and other explosions coming from what sounds like kilometers away over in the mountains in syria. and we have been told by hezbollah officials that even though there is more of a sense of calm here right now, because key strategic towns on the syrian side of the border have been overtaken by hezbollah in the last few days there is still a lot of fighting going on in syria just a few kilometers away lauren? >> how hard is it to find out what is actually going on there? >> reporter: it has been so tough over the course of the syrian

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

the strategy in syria is to train and equip moderate opposition guys in syria to take on isis in syria. to be the ground force to go with the airpower and be the ground force that takes back that territory from isis in syria. there is not too many moderate opposition guys left because many of them have joined al nusra because they were taking the fight to assad more effectively than a moderate opposition was. a lot of them have abandoned shipping on to fights for either al nusra or isis. i don't think our plans -- our plans are not robust enough. you would have to train i think tens of thousands of moderate opposition guys a year in order to effectively take on isis in syria. i'm not sure we've got syria right yet. and i'm not sitting here like i have the answer to this question. it is really hard. i have some confidence in iraq and i lack the confidence in syria. >> sam with ita. give us a baseline here. mr. morell: i was president bush's first intelligence briefer. >> you are not technology none of the bush administration falsified information on -- mr. morell: i'm not a knology a be

syria the iran nuclear talks and to share the u.s.' view that the russians are still destabilizing eastern ukraine again that's the u.s. view one which the russians strongly dispute but this is a very transaction gnat mealing this is not a meeting where you will see major announcements coming out of it. and making certain that countries that have influence where it dud not, are basically on the same page when it comes to trying to reach what the u.s. says is preferable in nearly all cases and that is a political solution, the u.s. believes that a political solution is needed to resolve the tensions in ukraine, that is it is necessary to have political negotiations to end the civil war in syria, and certainly the on going negotiations in the iran nuclear talks almost go without saying. it is a matter of trying to deal with national security, through diplomacy and not through the military, that said the situation in yemen is also an area where both the u.s. and russia can share common ground, in fact, the u.s. and russia have been talkin

the coalition has not made as much progress in syria.he regime is not putting anybody on the ground to fight isil despite their claims to be contrary. charlie: the regime is not putting any forces to fight isil? at all? ambassador power: the syrian campaign generally against insurgents or terrorists has been by and large and air campaign. i don't want to generalize. isil is now on the outskirts of damascus. while anybody would be very concerned about having isil on the outskirts of your city center, the regime response has been to use, just in the last week, aerial bombardment against a palestinian refugee camp. it is not the case the regime is fighting isil nowhere but it is absolutely the case that their priority target has been moderate opposition over terrorists. charlie: now they are trying to make the argument it is either us or isil. ambassador power: we need everybody to throw their weight until we get a political solution, which throws their collective weight against isil until that happens, we will not be joining forces against

sent by syria at the beginning of the syria civil war to help al nusra organize itself. they have become the external operations arm for al nusra. they are attending to attack western europe and the united states. they are a greater direct threat than is isis. and then third, the al qaeda senior leadership, although significantly degraded in afghanistan and pakistan, still presents a threat to western europe and the united states. keith hill: two more questions before i open it up to the floor. in the groups that you mentioned, you did not mention al qaeda in the maghreb. are they still a threat? michael morell: so they are -- they are a -- very much of a local threat. they are not yet a threat outside the region. they could easily become a threat outside of the region. a couple of years ago, the french became so concerned that the french went in and took back a significant amount of territory that al qaeda and maghrib had taken and thereby weaken them considerably. and so could they become a threat someday? absolutely. are they right now outside the region? no. keith hi

by isis principally in iraq and syria, but elsewhere as well.nd we're joined by individuals who have personally faced this threat and are familiar with the extreme hardship, with the grief that displaced minorities face in that troubled region. isis has unleashed a campaign of brutal violence, depraved violence, not only against shia muslims and fellow sunnis who do not share their radical beliefs, but against vulnerable religious and ethnic minorities. and as ms. isaac put it simply in her prepared testimony, we cherish ethnic and religious diversity. isis hates it. many americans may not realize that iraq and syria are home to dozens of ethnic and religious minorities with ancient cultures, with deep roots. these communities, syrian and caldian christians, yazidis and others are under mortal threat in their ancestral homelands. and the mass execution of men, the enslavement of women and children, the destruction of religious sites is part of the isis effort to destroy these communities, to destroy all evidence of the preexistence of these comm

in syria when the revolution started there were certain families in eastern syria who joined the uprising from the beginning of this ideal that they are pro- revolution. this social establishment. they find it very convenient but i think the three other factors. one is a political project, although people don't agree the religious discourse, but they agree with the political project. they drift toward isis because they find it a very viable political force that can change the situation, restore the nomination. and the other one like i told you, the long-standing radicals they believe in the ideology they believe in the ideology of isis and all its details. the other one i think this is the most dangerous and important category. young people your toward because they find the ideology invigorating then listen to these clerics on the ground telling you about what isis is and how it can be part of this project that will restore the glory of islam. people who people who don't have islamic training drift toward isis through these kind of rhetoric. so they joined because they want to be adults t

special forces raid inside syria.is leader abu sayyaf has been killed and his wife captured. as we told you earlier officials telling correspondent richard engel that he was the emir. richard engel joins us live by phone. if you would, take us through everything you know right now about what happened. >> sure. first of all it's significant it took place inside syria. u.s. is operating quite openly and deliberately inside iraq. but moving inside syria is a very different kind of mission all together. there are no friendly forces on the ground. there's no real syrian opposition. this raid was launched deep into the heart of isis country, which means there were u.s. boots on the ground. this was initially a snatch and grab operation. they were trying to capture abu sayyaf alive. and find out what intelligence me may have had find out more about isis financing. there was a raid. there was a raid on a house. inside the house there were some sort of compound. abu sayyaf and his wife who is being called umm sayyaf was there.

the major new gains for isis in iraq and syria.ying that his strategy against isis isn't failing. he said quote, i don't think we're losing. i asked you before if isis was winning. you said they're on the move. do you agree with the president's assessment then that the u.s. is not losing. >> that's a difficult call. he wants to degrade isis capability. we're flying over hitting a hum vie that's an american hum vie that was given to the iraqi army then stolen by isis. some isis fighters are driving it now. we're degraded their capability. under that standard if we hit a truck, one of their vehicles, a machine gun nest we're degrading their units. that ear training. we should be engaged in training. we should be engaged in equipping the iraqi army. we walked away from the iraqi army and left them exposed. they're not performing well obviously at this point and walk away from community they should be able to hold. several hundred isis fighters can push out several thousand iraqi army from ramadi we know they're not well equipped and n

, very, very syria. we were lucky we didn't lose u.s. lives in that operation. it was very well done. but this is complicated and detailed and going to go on for a very long time. i just wonder how much longer congress is going to be a spectator. we can criticize the white house and administration strategy and i'm going to and we ought to keep doing it if we don't like it. but we haven't earned the right. we haven't earned the right to be critics as long as we stand back and don't do the one thing that congress is supposed to do. thank you, mr. chair. >> i know there's a question in there somewhere. senator graham. >> thank you, here's my question. does the current strategy in iraq and syria have any chance to succeed? >> senator that's been a debate -- >> i didn't hear it. we'll gladly say it again. >> say it again. and respect you asking the question quite frankly. the answer is no. >> does everybody agree the answer is no. does everybody agree under current configuration that the problems in iraq and

our top priority is stopping isil or al nursa in syria. that's what they said with me. >> i don't agree with that. >> rose: you don't agree that's the priority. >> if that's characterizing the administration's position >> rose: what do you mean, he is still >> he must go. i'm not going to talk about priority this or that. but the core belief, president obama's core belief is he will not deal with the isil problem sustainably until the assad problem has been resolved. because part of the reason the foreign terrorist fighters are flowing into syria is because they want to fight assad and they see barrel bomb attacks and they see chlorine attacks. so you can't kind of separate these two things. it is true that we have shown as a military matter that we're fighting isil from the air and we're not fighting the assad regime. we're offering support to the opposition to fight the assad regime. but to think that you can just make the terrorists go away without dealing with the root cause of this crises and without depriving them of the recruiting t

this as isis unleashes a new massacre in syria. team coverage breaking down the story this morning. good morning. welcome to "early start." i'm christine romans. john berman has the day off. it is monday memorial day, 4:00 a.m. in the east. >>> first, the scare near the capitol. the bomb squad called in to detonate a pressure cooker. a virginia man was arrested at the scene. pressure cookers have been used in several terrorist scenes. the incident taking place as people were gather for a memorial day concert. >>> iraqi forces rising up against isis. taking the city ramadi showing life after the u.s. defense secretary questioned their will. all this as we get disturbing reports of mass slaughter in syria at the hands of isis fighters. i want to start with the situation unfolding in ramadi with senior international correspondent arwa damon live in baghdad. good morning, arwa. >> reporter: good morning, christine. that force is attempting to push isis back is made up of the iraqi security forces and army and police but also perhaps mo

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

these are the first american boots on the ground in syria. yerl general marks, if i could go back to you momentarily. wouldn't you expect an operation such as this would have been accomplished with the support of other nations and, if so which countries? >> clearly iraq. the operation was based out of northern iraq. which is the closest point that you'd have to stage. so the iraqi government clearly was cognizant and provided not only approval i would guarantee that they provided layers of support, as well that would allow the special operators to stage. the special operators have to come into country. if they are in country, they're totally covert as barbara described. they would be in very very briefly and have to stage and go through some immediate final rehearsals rehearsals. all that would have to be done with the support and the understanding and the support of the host nation. the iraqi government got behind this and supported it completely. we did nothing to try to clear the air space or try to clear anything with the government of sy

special operations raid inside syria. the u.s.t announced this morning the mission was to capture abu sayyaf but he was killed when he engaged u.s. forces. his wife was captured and now in detention in iraq. a u.s. official said 12 enemy fighters killed in the raid. no u.s. forces were killed or injured in the operation. joining me from washington, d.c., kristen welker. what do we know now in this operation and its target? >> reporter: melissa, here's the latest. according to a statement released by nbc spokesperson bernadette mien president obama approved this at recommendation by the national security team. the mission was aimed initially at capturing isis leader who's known as abu save and his wife umm sayyaf but during the operation, abu sayyaf was killed. here's some of those details according to jim lifsashefski. carried out by special forces commandos, tilt aircraft raided an isis compound in eastern syria and then an intense fire fight started to break out and that's when abu sayyaf was killed. an official tells as you say

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

by isis principally in iraq and syria, but elsewhere as well. and we're joined by individuals who have personally faced this threat and are familiar with the extreme hardship, with the grief that displaced minorities face in that troubled region. isis has unleashed a campaign of brutal violence, depraved violence, not only against shia muslims and fellow sunnis who do not share their radical beliefs, but against vulnerable religious and ethnic minorities. and as ms. isaac put it simply in her prepared testimony, we cherish ethnic and religious diversity. isis hates it. many americans may not realize that iraq and syria are home to dozens of ethnic and religious minorities with ancient cultures, with deep roots. these communities, syrian and caldian christians, yazidis and others are under mortal threat in their ancestral homelands. and the mass execution of men, the enslavement of women and children, the destruction of religious sites is part of the isis effort to destroy these communities, to destroy all evidence of the preexistence of these co

the [ inaudible ] in syria against the citizens.y also urge the international community to take the necessary procedures to put an end to this crisis and stress the need to a political solution to achieve the -- ambitions of the syrian people. they also welcome a meeting to be held in riyadh for the situation. the situation in the security domains and the support of the iraqi people to gain their stability and welfare and sovereignty, the unity of its territories away from any foreign intervention. they also urge the support of the reconciliation in iraq. also the combat of terrorism of all its kinds and international cooperation in order to put an end to terrorism, and finally, thank you very much and it's now a time for questions and answers if you would like. a question from the french news agency. what specific steps has the [ inaudible ] taken today to address that situation? thank you. >> as you know the president of yemen has called for a -- a start of the dialogue in riyadh on the 17th of may, and we wish that everyone accep

ran successful campaigns in syria and iraq. biggest surprise was the capture of ramada in iraq, the u.s.-trained security forces evaporating in the face of the army. jamie mcintyre has a closer look. >>reporter: 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

. >>> now on to syria. isis is making significant gains on the ground. in just the past day, the terror group has captured the ancient city of palmira, the last border crossing into iraq. our pentagon correspondent barbara starr has this story. >> reporter: an intense fighting near these 2000 year old rooms, activists say executions are already under way. the ancient city of palmira now firmly in the grip of isis, the world holding its breath, worrying isis may destroy these priceless ruins. it's already destroyed artifacts in iraq. isis now controls 50% of syrian territory. an activist group says. the state department and the u.s. intelligence community now focusing on how to get ramadi back and save anbar province in iraq, a key approach to baghdad. pressure is mounting after the administration's earlier somewhat unconcerned views on the fall of ramadi. >> i am absolutely confident in the days ahead that will be reversed. >> are we going to light our hair on fire every time that is there a setback? >> congressional republicans heavily disagree. >> isil

on the lebanese side of the lebanon, syria border. >>> voting is underway in the u.k.'general election. 650 seats in parliament are being contested and around 50 million people have registered to vote. more now from lawrence lee who is in central london. >> reporter: election day in the u.k. for broadcast journalists contend to be somewhat of an out of body experience. from the point in time when the polls open until the point in time when they shut you can't say anything at all, which might be construed at potentially influencing the way they vote. it is very much like a court case, when a jury retires you are not allowed to say anything at all. so it restricts things like when the polls open and when they shut how many are edgeable to vote and all of that but when the polls shut it all goes back out in the open. there are exit polls then it will become later on exactly who has done well and who has done badly. these ruling don't apply to other sorts of media. twitter for example and social media are unregulated and so are the newspapers. and the newspapers are full of

the country's bordering syria. about the cattle in lebanon because large number of cattle growers in lebanon especially dairy cattle are very small growers and they own two three, four cows and are landless and they are poor and if one cow dies that is you know one-third of efforts and your livelihood is affected. >> reporter: the cows are immune but still need to be closely watched. cattle trading across border grazing between syria and lebanon existed before the war started. it is already impossible to prevent the herd following its instincts. for this man back home to syria is a dream and if it happens he is taking his five daughters with him as well as his goats and sheep. al jazeera, valley along the syrian border. >>> small company in new zealand joining forces with the coast guard to help save lives and their idea is to use drone aircraft to find people lost in remote areas and wayne has the story. >> reporter: using cameras on so called unmanned drones is nothing new but honing them specifically for search

delta forces who took out a top isis leader in syria. hello, everyone. i'm eric shaun and this is america's news headquarters. >> i'm arthel neville a. senior defense official telling fox news as those forces moved in drawing their guns in a fierce fire fight isis fighters tried using civilians including women and children as human shields. that raid ending with u.s. forces killing the top terror leader capturing his wife and rescuing a young yazidi woman being held as slave. molly henneberg has the latest. what can you tell us? >> reporter: hi. this was such a significant operation with with such high stakes such a high value target and such risk to u.s. special operations troops that president obama personally gave the go ahead. we're starting to get details on what happened whether an army delta commando team landed in eastern syria. there was a quote intense fire fight. one defense official says some of the fighting during the raid was hand to hand combat. u.s. forces tried to grab a sewn orisis leader and his wife. he put up a fight. he was killed.

for him going back to syria is a dream. if that happens he is taking his five daughters with him along with his goats and sheep. >> chronic fuel shortages in nigeria issue is still likely to be a major challenge for the new government which is due to be sworn in in a few days. al jazeera's ahmed idris is in cano. >> reporter: this is one of the few petrol stations selling the commodity in cano. no matter how long it takes they can still get a little fuel. what is happening here is reflected in other aspects of life in nigeria. electricity which is 3,000 megawatts, is down to 1500 megawatts. for all nigerians but there is also outstanding issues of subsidy payment to marketers importing the products as well as the corruption in the oil and gas industry. now airlines are banks hospitals and even telecommunications companies have or are considering shutting down their operations or scaling back their operations simply because of the energy crisis in nigeria. now transportation costs have gone up around cost of goods and servic

backed talks on negotiations to end the conflict in syria are underway in syria. the u.n. envoy is to meet government and rebel representatives as well as regional players over the course of the next few weeks. >> john kerry made an unannounced visit to somalia the first u.s. secretary of state to visit the country. the visit is to show support for the government fighting al shabab. >> egypt's military said a security force based in northern sinai has come under attack. it believes isil may be behind it. there has been fighting in the region for months now. living conditions there have worse inned as al jazeera's correspondent reports. >> this is what many buildings in the egyptian town look like, with the buildings including schools bombarded by the military. the egyptian security forces have been storming areas in rafah and evacuating houses before destroying them. they want to expand the buffer zone meant to cross egypt. despite the large troop deployment attacks are still happening. one policeman was killed when a play station was attacked and 14 others injured. the eg

special forces that killed a top isis leader in syria. a senior defense official telling fox news u.s. delta forces and isis fighters were involved in hand to hand combat and whether shots were fired the terrorists tried using civilians, including women and children as shields. hello, everyone. i'm arthel neville. >> i'm eric shun. sounds like a movie spectacular. as u.s. commandos took out a commander we're told oversaw the group's illicit oil and gas operations resulting in millions of dollars being funneled into the terror group. u.s. forces also capturing his wife and rescuing an 18-year-old he woman who was held as a slave. molly henneberg is live with the dramatic developments. molly, we're learning new details about what happened when the operation forces were on the ground in syria. what can you tell us about that? >> reporter: very dramatic detail attention. a senior u.s. defense official tells fox this was quote a real fire fight a no kidsing old school fire fight. some members of the force were fighting in hand to hand combat w

new alleged brutality in syria. but we have a story on the brave volunteers who serve as first responders p. sanjay gupta has our report ahead here. ♪ honey, we need to talk. we do? i took the trash out. i know. and thank you so much for that. i think we should get a medicare supplement insurance plan. right now? [ male announcer ] whether you're new to medicare or not, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. it's up to you to pay the difference. so think about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, they help cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. i did a little research. with a medicare supplement plan, you'll be able to stay with your doctor. oh, you know, i love that guy. mm-hmm. [ male announcer ] these types of plans let you visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. and there are no networks. is this a one-size-fits-all kind of thing? no. there are lo

he's still--bashar al-assad is still powerful in large parts of syria. i don't think it's going to end any time soon. >> when he does go, if it leads to that, what sort of space will syria be at that stage? >> it will be a nightmare. it will be a hellhole. the report issued this month on barrel bombs was called a circle of hell. and so it will be a breeding ground for radicalization, for the type of groups that we have all been concerned about in the region primarily isis to build support, and it will an tragedy first and foremost for the people of syria. it will be tragedy for region, as a result of the devastating effects that have engulfed syria over the past four years. >> thank you for explaining the circle of hell across syria. >> thanks. >> an air base in the capital of sanaa, coalition planes hit two compounds. houthi fight percent reportedly killed in those attacks. meanwhile, two civilians were killed by houthi shelling. there was heavy fighting in aden aden. search houthi fighters were killed there and three from the popular resistence forces.

they have accused syria of assassinateing this man's father and said that syria's meddling into lebanon never ended. syria's role in lebanon is neither new nor surprising to many people here, but this is the first time that they have shown syria's direct involvement. the latest development would only make the situation more complicated. >> one of osama bin laden's top aide was sentenced by an u.s. court. >> the wreckage of a missing marine helicopter has been found in nepal. the helicopter with eight people on board disappeared while delivering aid on use after a second major aftershock hit the country. three bodies have been recovered from the scene. >> moscow's transport system is celebrating it's 70th birthday. it is one of the busiest metro stations in the world. >> deep beneath moscow streets one of the russian wonders is buried. a subterranean world of mosaics chandeliers, architecture and exquisite detail. and however beautiful all this is it is not a museum it's a transport network. 196 stations, 10,000 trains a day, 12 lines 327 kilometers of track, and on an average working da

in syria.ortion. last night i ordered u.s. special forces or special operation forces to conduct an operation in eastern syria to capture an isis senior leader known as abu sayyaf and his wife, um sayyaf. involved in military operation and elicit oil, gas and financial operations, as well. he was killed and during the course of the operation when he engaged u.s. forces. the u.s. forces captured um sayyaf who we suspect is a member and played a role in terrorist activities and may have been complicit in what was the enslavement of a young woman rescued last night. straight out to barbara starr. barbara, we have reported here, you have reported so many of the air strikes, the drone strikes that have killed senior isis leaders. this was an operation to capture this senior leader and nick brings up the point of, was he worth the risk to u.s. special forces to go in and capture abu sayyaf and his wife, um sayyaf? >> well, you know, this is, this is the question that when the president signs off on a

syria has become a client state of iran. the only way that we're going to reverse that is to have american leadership. right now there's a group of arab countries that are training some syrianens, but are also backing an al qaeda-affiliated group and they are the ones that are having success against bashar al assad, who is being significantly weakened. >> and it's certainly hitting many of our friends around the world who are wondering where the leadership is. senator, good to have you on the program today, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> with isis threatening the middle east and americans here at home, we'll ask one man who commanded our troops in the middle east and run our country's spy agency. i'll ask general petraeus what he believes the u.s. must do to stop them. hope you're following us on twitter. back in a minute. excellent. researching a hunch, and making a decision. time for a change of menu. research and invest with e*trade's browser trading. e*trade. the real question that needs to be asked is "what is it t

this as we get word that they're now controlling 50% of syria. half of syria. president obama responding. what is he saying? >>> also one of those bikers arrested in that deadly shootout on sunday is now walking out of jail. hear why. and david letterman's run on the late show is now officially over. he went out in the a star-studded finale last night. coming up we're talking to the science teacher behind the popular kid scientist segment. stay with me. 40% of the streetlights in detroit, at one point, did not work. you had some blocks and you had major thoroughfares and corridors that were just totally pitch black. those things had to change. we wanted to restore our lighting system in the city. you can have the greatest dreams in the world, but unless you can finance those dreams, it doesn't happen. at the time that the bankruptcy filing was done, the public lighting authority had a hard time of finding a bank. citi did not run away from the table like some other bankers did. citi had the strength to help us go to the credit markets and raise the money. it's

policy in iraq and syria. i want to thank each of our expert witnesses for appearing before us today on this critical and complex topic. before i go any further, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs were invited to appear admittedly by very short notice. we will be asking them to appear after the recess is over, depend depending on whether the bill is on the floor or not. we certainly would like to mary from the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs today we have general jack keane chairman of the instituted for the study of war. general keen,ane you're pleased you can take time from your duties on fox news to being with us today. dr. freg kagan -- that's a joke. dr. fred kagan director -- dr. freg kagan, the director of the critical threats project at the american enterprise institute colonel derrick harvey, u.s. army retired director of the global initiative for civil society and conflict at the university of south florida. and brian katulis, seen year fellow at t

isil has a stronghold in syria.gy to deal with that stronghold and the longer isil is ahoured to survive in iraq and syria, the more likely they are to attack us here at home. i am sorry it's going to take reen gaugement by the american people through their, for their military economic support to iraq and syria. i wish it were not this way, but i'm thinking about running for president, and here's what i would tell the american people if i do run. the outcome in iraq matters to us. you can't allow isil to run wild throughout syria and iraq and thinking it won't matter to us. we're going to have to send some of our troops back over there, to partner with iraqis and arab armies making sure these radical islamists don't hit us here at home. there is no easy way forward. no way to win the war without some of us over there doing the fighting so they don't hit us here at home. >> still 3,000 military personnel in iraq. you want a lot more. how many troops do you want there? >> enough to partner at the battalion level. >> h

so that strategy in syria is , flawed. and obviously the only way that isis will eventually be defeated in syria is with some kind of ground force. our allies in the region are suggesting to us, we're not agreeing with them, is that what we should deal with bashar al-assad, change the momentum against assad by shutting down his air power, using no-fly zones and buffer zones to achieve that end, and that change in military -- in momentum militarily on the battlefield can shift the political equation to get some kind of settlement. now listen, that's arguable whether that's acheeable or not. but sitting here and doing nothing and permitting this to go on, i think that's quite irresponsible in terms of the humanitarian catastrophe that's taking place there and also that isis is expanding and gaining in strength in syria every single week and month. so the syrian strategy needs to be thought out, it needs to lead to a situation where we have our coalition of arabs in the region. and possibly the turks participating also and th