in syria, they are targeted at infrastructure. idea how manyy occasions out of the 43 airstrikes that have been inried out in syria december, january, february, march, april, how many of those were in support of forces fighting on the ground, and if support of forces on the ground, how many of those were in support of kurdish forces fighting on the ground in syria or other moderate forces fighting on the ground in syria? have any of our airstrikes been in close support of non-kurdish fighters fighting on the ground in syria? >> yes, they have. >> how many? >> most recently come in the last few days, north of aleppo in the fighting taking place along the murray online. i think they probably could you get -- could get you that count of information. we are part of a coalition. the selection of whose aircraft is a part of each particular mission is something that is decided on a coalition basis, but we will do our best to get you that information. share and also amplify the sense that in terms targeting, there is much less of a distin

occupations a force in syria.ike many others who are the russians are playing a very instrumental role. in the recent intervention in the airstrikes that have been conducting since a number of months now, more than 50% of the people who are killed are civilians. alsoussian airplanes have bombed bakeries. and that is one of the strategies of the syrian regime. basically, propagating and imposing the politics on the syrians who live in those areas are besieged areas. and most people despise and really reject the russian thatdent's organization the syrian regime has imposed on them. most recently, the russians have also organized trips for journalists. more than 100 journalists visited military camps and military bases, russian bases in syria, and celebrating the russian president, which is very detrimental for the syrian and basically making the contribution of the conflict possible, backing the certain regime and violence and its vicious war. so i very much oppose what seymour hersh is trying to do and represents.

and to make any progress on a transition in syria?>> that's the aim and the path that secretary kerry is on. he's the authority on that and has been managing that but that's precisely what he's trying to accomplish. >> i appreciate that he's managing that but obviously one of the significant factors in encouraging syria to do that is the success of the military efforts there and assad being able to say that he doesn't have a path to continue staying in power. >> i'll just repeat what i said before. that's why when russia, that's why there's such a difference between russia said it was going to do and what they did. they said they were going to contribute to the ending of the syrian civil war and that propping up assad it militarily is not doing that and has not done that. and they also said they were going to fight isil but they were mostly propping up assad, no doubt about it. >> thank you both. >> thank you all. secretary carter, have you ever heard of the ty d? >> i have. >> who are they? >> they are a kurdish group, one of a numbe

>> 2-3 years ago, i was studying in syria. i was trying to flee the country to find any way to leave. i was one of the young people in syria who is dream was demolished during the war. the principal concerns transformed into a question of whether or not we would be able to see the morning the next day. there is nothing worse than experiencing that every minute. my parents are still living struggling with no electricity or water. i try to call them every day to make sure that they are still alive. am speechless about the current situation. last week, hundreds of innocent souls were killed in such a savage civil war. during the time i was still living in syria, i studied business administration and i graduated from the university of aleppo. i was also employed as a violin teacher at the arabic institute of music. p -- music has always been my passion. and i was 20, i auditioned got admitted to a school for musician scholarship. i was the last class and aleppo university, delayed three times but i cannot graduate in time. disappo

about 45% in iraq and less in syria but strategic lands in syria. there's the core in syria. there is the global networks, propaganda, recruiting and financing networks, then eight self-declared affiliates around the world. with one we're most concerned about is libya. so it's the core, the networks and the affiliates. so it truly is a global problem, a global challenge which is why we built the global coalition. >> rose: how much support or how successful have they been in recruiting al quaida and other groups to pay allegiance to them? now, i'm using al quaida, as al quaida members or some spinoff from al quaida because they have tried to establish themselves as the principal terrorist organization. >> yeah, so there's this kind of competition between i.s.i.l and al quaida. i mean, look at syria. the al quaida affiliate in syria which answers to swa zawahiril n pakistan, i.s.i.l is the same mindset, but they both came from al quaida and iraq, came out of zarqawi, migrated to syria and split. the split happened when baghdadi said we want to establish a caliphate, and i think

really strategic land in syria. so there is a core in iraq and syria. there has been the global networks, the foreign fighter network, the propaganda recruiting and other networks. the one we are most concerned about is libya. it is the core, the networks and the affiliates. it is really a global challenge. hat is why we built the global coalition. charlie: how much success has there been in recruiting al qaeda and other groups, to pay allegiance to them? i am using al qaeda or some spin off. they have tried to establish principal as the terrific location. look at syria. an al qaeda affiliate in syria, which answers to someone in pakistan. isil is kind of a sprate entity but of the same jihaddy mindset. they came out of zharkov, my greated to syria and then had to split. baghdad happened when aid we want to establish a califhate. charlie: osama bin laden was always opposed to that. >> yes. the argue to that is it won't be popular, and you can't really governor at a state, and we have other things to do first. charlie: it is a great recruiting tool and s

then to syria. >> the member of the security council expressed outrage at all recent attacks in syria directed against civilians and civilian objects, including medical facilities. as well as all indiscriminate attacks and stress these actions may amount toward crimes. amy: as the death toll in syria's five-year conflict reportedly reaches 500,000, we'll look another story that receives far less attention. that of syrians working at the local level to survive and organize in the midst of war and to keep the revolutionary spirit of the 2011 syrian uprising alive. we'll speak with yasser munif, a syrian scholar who specializes in grassroots movements in syria. he is cofounder of the campaign for global solidarity with the syrian revolution. then bird feeding. that is the charge prisoners are leveling against guards who are cutting back on their food in order to force them back to work , in some cases, with no pay at all. after a 10 day work strike over labor and prison conditions. the humanto deal with rights abuses. a staging ground for future efforts to obtain the full effects of the

war. -- syria's civil war. strikes against new labor reform measures, beginning with mario draghi. in cann, the parade of hollywood stars continues along the plaza, with robert de niro hitting the red carpet. we begin in vienna, where world powers are meeting to stabilize a shaky syrian cease-fire, while reestablishing peace talks. these are the differences between world leaders. that's cross to our correspondent anthony mills in vienna. what is expected to come out of today? the different parties involved in these talks are hoping that they are going to be cease-fireive apache that has been -- a apache cease-fire that has been shattered and use those patchy cease-fires that will in some ways diminish the violence in syria, and hoping they will use those cease-fires to draw the opposing parties, the assad regime on the one side, and the militants who oppose him on the other toward some kind of dialogue, something that can manage this peace process, if that is one could call it, forward in the direction of the o

so i was born and raised in syria. the one fact that many people do not know or do not expect is that we had a very normal life. we used to go to restaurants. we used to go to the beach. we used to do everything that you guys do here. we used to go to universities, form friendships, have girlfriends, everything that you can imagine. so it is not the country that some people would imagine, the country, the image that isis might try to enforce right now. i consider myself as a person who had a wonderful childhood in syria. all the memories i have are a very beautiful country that i love a lot and i appreciate a lot and i enjoyed a lot. however, one thing started to happen in 2011 everything changed. this change that we had as individuals and especially as young people is huge because you are from a very safe country where you had everything you wanted. we had worries and worry about our future and everything and a lot of short comings and concerns. you are now living in a war where on a daily basis you experience feeling

frank: an army on the move in northern syria.y are backed by the u.s., they aim to take control back from the islamic state in raqqa province. russia has offered support. back here, the man who controversially sent british forces into iraq admitted today that he underestimated the forces unleashed by that invasion. now, he wants the west to intervene in syria. >> they have to be tackled on the ground now. it doesn't have to be our forces all the time, our forces can be do not be under any doubt that if you want to defeat these people, you will have to go and wage a proper ground war against them. frank: our local forces of to the task? kurdish and arab units have been trained. i thought well when supported by airstrikes, but lack the suicidal fanaticism the jihad's are facing. they are in northern raqqa province, 30 miles from the city. raqqa is the de facto capital of the islamic state, where hostages are held and atrocities carried out. crowds have often been ordered to attend public headings and amputations. they have warned r

this picture here is most likely taken in syria in 2014. most likely. fareed maluk escaped prosecution of the attacks in '95 in paris and went underground in belgium. and soon from there, he was operating support cells for al qaeda for which he was arrested, transferred to france, prosecuted and jailed. now this here is another interesting picture taken by french spies in the contal region in south-central france in 2010. at the left, you can see fareed maluk again. and he's together on his -- on his left side you can see one of the brothers who attacked the offices of "charlie hebdo" in january 2015. sharif couchi. beside couchi is another g.i.a. veteran who became a recruiter for al qaeda whose name is begal. begal supervised a terrorist network plotting attacks against u.s. targets in europe in 2001 for which he was arrested and jailed. on this picture here, he was out of jail again. the man right of begal, again, is ahmed liduni linked to begal's network operating baghdad. i don't have time to go into what's going on here obviously, but it's surely

if you look at how isis entered into syria, it's the exactly same model that is entered into syria in two 14 and exploited in mosul in 2012, 2013 and 2014. it knew all of the tribal leaders. it knew all of their dirty histories. it knew how certain tribes were against other tribes. it knew how certain militias had a certain history maybe 20, 30 years prior, which it could use to its advantage to play off another actor. this learning the lay of the land is something that isis has been very well practiced in in syria and iraq and arguably was the key to its entrance and is essentially a de facto capital in libya today. estimates in terms of its manpower vary but arguably it represents between 3,000 to 6,000 fighters. some estimates suggest as much as 70% of its manpower in libya is made up of non-libyan fighters. tunisians have turned out to be a significant recruitment tool for isil in libya as tunisians have become extremely significant for icer foreign fighter recruitment in syria and iraq. the same has taken place with regards to senior commanders who have been fighting in syria and

she says she would like to return to syria someday. >> to find a solution in syria, i think it's far away. the most important thing is safeness. that's what i feel. everything else will come. >> reporter: from civil war in syria, to a refugee camp in lebanon, to a new beginning in italy. >> i hope good things will happen. i'm hopeful. really. >> this is pbs newshour weekend, sunday. >> stewart: today's presidential election runoff in austria pitted two men with diametrically opposed views. norbert hoefer of the nationalist, anti-immigration freedom party finished first in the first round last month. if hoefer should win, he'd be austria's and the e.u.'s first far-right head of state. he's opposed by former green party leader alexander van der bellen, who supports admitting refugees. hoefer has a small lead in what has been a very close race but there are absentee ballots still to be counted, with the outcome expected tomorrow. earlier, i talked about this election with reporter zeke turner of "the wall street journal," who joined me via skype from austria's capital, vienna. why is it

it's not just in syria. it's also next door in iraq and there are risks, of course, of spillover beyond. until such time as the war does come to an end, our mantra as the refugee agency is, of course, that the international community must find ways for refugees and asylum seekers to find safety. to have access to territory. to be able to be able to move and to be able to make their claim. to hear their story so that they're not subject to forcible return and they're able during the time that they are forced to be in exile to have as normal a life as possible. and michel was talking about 2013 as being kind of a watermark year. and in fact, it's true that over the last couple of years in the absence of sustained investment, our budgets are all underfunded quite significantly, notwithstanding the very generous support from the u.s. taxpayer and the u.s. congress and in particular through the state department. notwithstanding refugees are suffering the consequence and that finally led to impoverishment. we have

since the threat started in syria, there were hundreds of europeans who came to syria, and even beforeo iraq. but is there anything also done to stop them from traveling from europe to the middle east, or just the policies to stop those who go from middle east or return to europe? thank you. >> yeah. i mean, of course, terrorism in europe is a huge topic. and it's been a long history with separatists terrorism by the irish i.r.a. and eta in spain and other groups as well. but my work focuses only on, you know, the plots and attacks that can be attributed to actors i define as jihadi. and it's a specific time period from 1994 when the first attacks that could be defined as such happened until today. i also in my work, i have focused on attacks within europe. and not looked at the activities of the foreign identifyingers abroad. -- fighters abroad. there are other studies looking more at what the foreign fighters are doing in the conflict zone. as for the policies to try and prevent the foreign fighter flows from happening, i think they are improving by the hour now. it's becoming more a

general goes inside syria. what do you learn today about these latest attacks in syria? >> reporter: well, these attacks in syria are something that joe is watching very carefully. they came just hours after we left syria and arrived here in ayman. a long standing member of special operations. he knows what it takes. he's determined to go inside syria and visit his troops. these are the first images ever shown publicly from a u.s. special operations training camp in northern syria. from here and other secret nearby locations, the u.s. military is racing time to train enough local syrian forces so they can push south towards raqqa, the isis self-claimed capital. he was on a secret day long trip to syria. bot votel leads. >> i was in multiple locations and meet with our advisor teams. >> reporter: general votel has come under extraordinary security conditions to syria. we have asked not to reveal a number of details on how we all got here. but votel considers this part of the war a top priority. he is here to meet with the u.s. military advisors that are helping some of th

other embedded syrian forces outside syria.eeping our focus as we had in recent months on battle hardened proven anti-áuntran5á leaders . whom we can make more capable as any blurs and amplifiers of our effects . in this context, let me say that the section 1209 program is central to our ground campaign in syria and we are now carrying out a different approach and instead on that we use to train and enable local elements that have proven themselves against isil on the battlefield. we've moved away from last year's disappointments with a rubber program and we need your support to fully overcome them area to focus on the program as it is now and in particular release the now $349 million and 1209 funding currently blocked by congress. mister chairman, i understand you help to clear these funds with the committee and i hope other committees will follow suit and i am grateful for that. the fact is for our commanders to be agile and accelerating our campaign against isil we need a similarly agile congressional funding process. we ar

but more intensively. >> how important is military action in the islamic state in syria? to think there's a territorial holding, did it shrink or did the training camps are they significantly reduce that this what numbers would decrease in europe or that the increase that was seen in recent years that if it's not serial it will return to yemen, pakistan or even to mystically train now? >> i think it is a question about long-term effects and short-term, think in some cases shows that military efforts against the network and the camp will make them operate differently or less successfully in executing successful attacks. at the same time, the phenomenon generally transnational and i think isis is facing much more pressure in syria and iraq today. i think their focus and activities will change to other conflicts owns, absolutely. >> thank you. is is there any mention in your book about -- who is one of the leaders of islam in 2003 in iraq but now he is now spending time in prison in norway. what you think, some people criticize the laws in norway that they are too lenient ag

. >> sreenivasan: nidalha says his son reda went to syria to join the muslim militant group isis. >> ( translated ): in the weeks leading up to his departure for syria, he fooled and misled us all. >> sreenivasan: the family is muslim, but nidhala says, they are not very religious. he believes when reda visited an uncle in belgium for a few months in 2014, reda fell under the sway of isis recruiters. after that, he traveled to turkey, the gateway into syria. >> ( translated ): reda called his sister and told her "i love you, i love dad, i love mom, but i'm going to syria to help children and help the women being raped." >> sreenivasan: as soon as he learned of his son's plan to go to syria, nidalha says he contacted dutch security officials. >> ( translated ): everyone told me, "we can't help you, because your son is already 18 years old. he can travel to wherever he wants." even when i told them my son is planning to join a terrorist organization and is going to fight in syria. still they said, "sorry, we can't help you." >> sreenivasan: reda is one of an estimated 220 dutch residen

he's allergic to syria. he has not wanted to do syria from the beginning. he's found a level of commitment he's now comfortable with, which is training and deploying these ferocious syrian kurdish fighters i met who broke out of kobani, they're the toughest fighters in that part of the world that people have seen. i mean, they are really the match for i.s.i.s. i met the women's militia of this syrian kurdish group the y.p.g., women who i was told by the u.s. military advisors wear suicide belts when they go into combat because if they're taken prisoners by i.s.i.s. they knee they will be turned into six slaves so they'd rather blow themselves up. they're remarkable fighters. talking to these women was really a revelation in that part of the world. to see women in trenches alongside the men which is the way they're said to fight, that's different. >> rose: the coalition, how engaged is the rest of the coalition other than the united states and the kurds? >> the last stop on our trip was the air base in turkey where the turks allowed the u.s. and other coalit

at the same time, preparing for an attack in syria and mosul. isis is attempting to spread this out a little bit. let's pull the security forces back towards baghdad to continue operation in mosul. it's a very smart move on isis' part. >> in addition to air power, to where they've controlled for nearly two years. in addition, the u.s. air power, what other role will the u.s. play? because there are some 5,000 u.s. ground troops in iraq right now. >> it's got to be intelligence, wolf, and some resupply logistics. that's what is driving the operation. there was also massive tunnels found in and around moe zul sus. where the isis forces, that's critically important to the iraqi military. >> you think the iraqi military this year is going to be able to liberate mosul? because that was their publicly stated objective. >> it's very ambitious, wolf. i don't believe it's going to happen this year. they may continue to try and tighten that noose around mosul, but in order to clear and secure that town, it's going to take a long time. >> it's been two yea

a warning to syria's christian community.re in maloula have been restored, others remain exactly like this, completely destroyed and mostly burned out. and of course many people who live in this town ask themselves whether christianist still has a future here in syria. syria is home to one of the oldest christian communities in the world. maloula is the last place where the aramaic that jesus spoke is still in use. but groups like isis have vowed to oust the christians from this land. this member of maloula's city council shows me just some of the priceless icons that were damaged or looted, especially the most ancient ones. >> they stole it, and then they fire the other. the new one, they fire it. >> they burned it? >> burned it. >> reporter: as we left maloula, a christian song was playing on a loudspeaker system in the entire town. a sign of defiance from a christian community that hopes the children learning about their long heritage in syria will have a future in the land of their ancestors. so as you can see there, erro

didn't want to get injured. >> you just had been in syria several times. >> i know. it's a really conflicting thing. as he got older i realized that my -- this sounds very selfish and some people might think i'm irresponsible, and i would not be able to argue with you about that. feel like what do is much more of a calling in a sense, and i really believe in what i do, and i think it's hugely important that there are reporters that bear witness to atrocities and human rights violations, and without us, without our eyes and ears on the ground, we don't get a view, a window goo into what is happening. do you know what is happening in aleppo right now? you don't. just felt that in some way i had to make this breach, and it's been really hard. can't say it's been easy. >> and it's story by story. pick that up. that happens all of the time. all of us. you balance work and life, but if you're -- one thing, work, life, family, when you're an insurance person in pittsburgh, about if you're trying to manage risk and going to just about the world's most dangerous places, which

it's not just in syria.it's almost next door to iraq and there are risks of course that bill over beyond. until such time does come to an end, our mantra as the refugee agency is of course that the international community must find ways for refugees and asylum-seekers to find safety, to have access to territory, to be able to be able to move and to be able to make their claim, to hear their story so that they are not subject to forcible return and they are able during the time they are forced to be in exile to have as normal a life as possible. michel was talking about 2013 s.b. and 13 s.b. in a watermarked here. in the last few years in the absence of sustained investment, our budget are all underfunded quite significantly notwithstanding the very generous support from the u.s. taxpayer and the u.s. congress and in particular through the state department. notwithstanding the refugees are suffering the end that finally led to impoverishment. we had data from the world bank, unhcr clearly referring being the

but more intensively. >> how important is military action in the islamic state in syria? to think there's a territorial holding, did it shrink or did the training camps are they significantly reduce that this what numbers would decrease in europe or that the increase that was seen in recent years that if it's not serial it will return to yemen, pakistan or even to mystically train now? >> i think it is a question about long-term effects and short-term, think in some cases shows that military efforts against the network and the camp will make them operate differently or less successfully in executing successful attacks. at the same time, the phenomenon generally transnational and i think isis is facing much more pressure in syria and iraq today. i think their focus and activities will change to other conflicts owns, absolutely. >> thank you. is is there any mention in your book about -- who is one of the leaders of islam in 2003 in iraq but now he is now spending time in prison in norway. what you think, some people criticize the laws in norway that they are too lenient ag

to attend events about syria and syrian refugees. so i used to stand up in every event and say, look, i am syrian, i do not cause any threat. as you can see, i am not the stereotypical perspective of syria the people that you used , to see in movies, that that -- the bad guys who will bomb everything. , these are silly questions, but i want to make people know that, yes, there might be syrians among you and you might be noticing them and they will not do anything bad to you. i tried to do that, i will be honest, joining organizations -- syrian organizations here -- they are risky. part, blaming the other part -- know it is isis -- no it is -- it is not like us, ok? it has been five years but i think nobody is right and the other is wrong. there is no ultimate villain who if we eliminate him, everybody will be happy, the hero will get yeah, and wend have the end. we have a civil war where people are fighting, trying to kill each other, so all we have to do now is try to save those who have potential and refuse to be dragged into this

not just in syria. around syria, in iraq, 3 million displaced persons. and now europe and the challenges there and the risks to international law and european law and what that means for asylum and the polarization of public opinion in europe, in the united states. i guess it's good because for every critical xenophobe there's somebody who's been positively engaged, but still, the public opinion has become very challenging and then it becomes personal. the first refugees resettled to kansas city. you know, it was almost -- when that happened, and there was a family that was supposed to go to texas and they had to stop in new york and they weren't sure, are we going to be safe going to texas? that kind of situation was unheard of. i mean, we never had to deal with that. so, yes, there's been a failure. there's also been a fail wrure south sudan and central africa. all over. partly that's funding an inability to realize the plans that we've got for individual support, for community support, for sustained engagement at the humanitarian level. so, yeah, more

enteredook at how isis into syria, this is exactly the same model it entered into syria into 2013. it is exactly how they exploited the city of mosul. there is a variety of open source information out there nowadays that talks about how isis learned local dynamics. it knew all of the tribal leaders and all of their dirty histories. it knew how certain tribes were against other tribes. it knew how certain malicious at a certain -- militias had a certain problem. and they used it to its advantage. this learning the lay of the land is something isis has been very well practiced in and it arguably was the key to its entrance into the capital of libya today. so, what does isis represent in libya today? estimates vary. in terms of manpower. but arguably, it represents between 3000-6000 fighters. some estimates suggest as much as 70% of its manpower is made up of non-libyan fighters. sians, in -- tuni particular, have turned out. and they have become extremely significant in iraq. again, there is a lot of information existing today about how tunisians have left syria and iraq to bolster t

he is allergic to syria. he has not wanted to do syria from the beginning.e found a level of commitment he is now comfortable with, which is training and deploying these ferocious syrian kurdish fighters. they are really the match for isis. i met the women's militia of the syrian kurdish group, the ypg, women who i was told by the suicide advisers, wear belts when they go into combat, because if they are taken prisoner, they know they will be turned into sex slaves, and so they would rather blow themselves up. they are remarkable fighters. they are remarkable fighters. talking to these women was a revelation. in that part of the world to see the women in trenches alongside the men, which is how it is said they fight, it is different. charlie: the coalition. how engaged is the rest of the coalition other than the united states and the kurds? david: the last stop on our trip was the airbase in turkey, where the turks have allowed the u.s. and other coalition forces to operate. i was told by the commander of the a-10 squadron, those are the sort of workhorse pl

this is something we have seen in syria and iraq. time should be spent, as i'm sure my fellow spiegel -- speakers will talk about better , uniting the political structure in libya after the december 2015 agreement. most importantly, uniting the east and west structures under the current government that was agreed to in december 2015. unless those two forces unite, i can say with significant certainty that isis will exploit those two divisions. it will certainly try to. it will devote resources to doing so. on terms of the influx of weaponry, there is currently a u.n. embargo. it has not done on off a lot of good. various outsiders have been sending weapons. it is now a discussion carried out last week about finding a way out in order to send weaponry to infected, acquired armed forces on the ground. again, i would urge caution. until there is a unified structure and forces have been sufficiently vetted and trained and sufficiently linked up with i would western forces, hesitate to send an large influxes of weaponry. we have learned m

, and syria is the cancer of the middle east.give damascus to the iranians by keeping assad in power. the arabs won't accept that. and if you don't deal with isil, they're going to hit us here. >> that is a very important point you're making especially right now. it seems while you talked about that with donald trump, he says he disagrees with you on that point. he talked about you just this morning. he was on "morning joe" and he said specifically on the point of the u.s. approach to isis in syria, he disagrees with you. he would stay out of syriaen. here is what donald trump said. >> we have iran and we hav russia totally on the side of assad, and that's not the reason i stay out necessarily, but certainly it's a complicating factor, but we have them totally on the side of assad. we have to knock the hell out of isis and if we are going after assad and isis and they're fighting each other, people are going to say what the hell are we doing? >> so, senator, this speaks to a broader foreign policy. this speaks to a broader foreig

these images the continued violence in syria's biggest city. aleppo has not been part of the existing albeit faltering sensation of hostilities. now the slaughter might come to an end. >> and now the russian and american militaries are you the end of negotiations and how they can help implement a cease-fire and i hope that very soon maybe in the coming hours, this decision will be announced. it does not come soon enough for this hospital struck today, killing and injuring dozens. syrian state television blames rebel forces. the one security council has meanwhile unanimously passed a resolution amending hospitals be protected in more zones for the -- war zones. >> direct attacks on hospitals are war crimes. denying people access to essential health care is a serious violation of international humanitarian law. >> escalation of violence has further undermined efforts to end the crisis. a u.n. syrian invoice says there is hope but only one solution. >> they want to hear no bombs, no rockets, no canisters so they can start believing in what we are

the isis capital in syria. u.s.kesman, colonel steve warren said today it looks like isis declared a state of emergency in raqqa. what can you tell us about that situation? >> i think they're concerned in raqqa as they see the territory they have around raqqa shrinking. as they see military maneuvers undertaken by kurdish and arabic forces in the region and don't know what's coming or when. and, you know, they're under real financial pressure. we have, i think, attacked their oil infrastructure. we have attacked literally their holdings of cash so they're having some difficulty paying their fighters and their pl employees, effectively. very lethal though and still don't see the light at the end of the tunnel and even seeing them hunkering down in raqqa, we see the timeline for the reconquering of mosul. still a lot of hard work ahead. >> enormous work ahead. thanks very much, congressman. ad adam schiff. >>> the untraceable ghost killed in syria. no one is claiming responsibility, at least not yet. >>> in the last f

a little less in syria. there is a core in iraq in syria. there are global networks of foreign fighter networks. propaganda and recruiting networks. they may have eight self-declared affiliates around the world. the one we are most concerned about is libya. global problem and challenge. that is why we built this global coalition. charlie: how successful have they been in work crooning al qaeda and other groups to pay allegiance to them? -- they've tried to establish themselves as the principal terrorist organization. there is this kind of competition between isis and al qaeda. just look at syria. syria qaeda affiliate in and isis is a separate entity. they both came from al qaeda in iraq. was -- happened when back down he said he wanted to establish a caliphate. a debate in jihadi circles. osama bin laden was always supposed to that. brett: when sue do that, it won't be popular. you cannot really government like us day. they said it's a great idea. i have to say that i was hdadi wasd it when bag there. what it has done is it supercharged thi

i began by asking him about the conflict in syria. >> syria is spiraling into real disaster. of -- a virtual suicide. and the only sensible approach, the only slim hope, for syria is efforts to reduce the violence and destruction, to establish small regional ceasefire zones and to move toward some kind of diplomatic settlement. there are steps in that direction. also, it's necessary to cut off the flow o of arms, as much asas possible, to everyone. that means to the vicious and brutal assad regime, primarily russia and iran, to the monstrous isis, which has been getting support tacitly through turkey, through -- to the al-nusra front, which is hardly different, has just the -- the al-qaedada affiliate, technicaly broke from it, butut actually te al-qaeda affiliate, which is now planning its own -- some sort of emirate, getting arms from our allies, qatar and saudi arabia. our own -- the cia is arming them. we don't know at what level. it is clandestine. as much as possible, cut back the flow of arms, the level of violence, try to save people from destruction. there should be

i was born and raised in syria.e fact that many people do not expect is that we had a very normal life. we used to go out to restaurants, we used to go to the beach, we used to do everything that you guys to hear. we used to go to universities, form friendships, have girlfriends, everything that you can imagine. it is not the country that some people would imagine, the backwards country -- the image hat isis tries to reflect. i consider myself as a person who had a wonderful childhood in syria and all of the great memories that i have are of a very beautiful country that i love and i appreciate and enjoy t. however, when things started to happen in 2011, everything changed. this change that we had as individuals and young people is huge. youth from a safe country where you have everything you wanted -- a lot of shortcomings and concerns -- but you turned into a war, you are now living in a war. on a daily basis, your experiences, the feelings of fear. on a daily basis, i remember waiting to see if someone we know ha

there are 4 million refugees outside of syria, living primarily in jordan and lebanon and turkey.and so there's an enormous need for international organizations like care and the larger global community to help supply support for shelter, for food, for education, the most basic necessities, to allow people to continue and to start to rebuild their lives. >> one of the things i remember when i was in kosovo with care in 1999 and 2001 were huge refugee camps with thousands of people in them. and they were clean, and they were well-organized, and it was a great structure for people who had no place to go. but that is completely different now with this group of refugees. the model is changing. >> the model is changing. there still are camps, and care is active in supporting those camps, but 80% of the refugees are actually living outside of the camps. they're living in local communities. and you can imagine the responsibility that this brings to a country like jordan, where 1 out of every 10 people living in jordan now is a refugee. in lebanon, it's one out of every four. so it would

don't come to syria and iraq, libya. when i was in benghazi with the libyan army forces, they said to me that the snipers and suicide bombers were all for and that they were facing. when we look at countering those on the next day really understand the case by case basis. andr roots are different different places. that requires a tailor-made approach in all of these areas. its reputation is well known. the key thing there is that it ran up against this barrier of an older generation of al qaeda that pushes out. also the tribal element. the very factionalism that allows the islamic state to assert itself into libya is also a buffer. cook -- in benghazi, the islamic state inserted itself into a militant insurgents and flipped many of the anti-sharia entities. it enjoyed support from those social fabrics of neighborhoods under assault. it was bolstered by foreigners coming in from abroad and by boat. insert the main stronghold. the infrastructure proves so critical. iny really played a role flipping the pro-gadhafi tribes t

cnn is live in syria this hour.enior international correspondent fred pleitgen on the ground in da mmascus with me on this complicated situation. >> reporter: complicated is the right word to describe it. a ceasefire is still going on. up in aleppo, it's absolutely falling apart with some heavy fighting going on there. at the same time, the international community's efforts to try and got some sort of peace deal going really hitting a lot of heavy water. what's going on there now is that both sides are trying to negotiate some sort of longer term ceasefire, but the big problem is that the opposition wants bashar al assad to step down. however, the syrian information minister in an interview told me that is absolutely not going to happen. now that alone makes the prospects for any sort of tangible headway in these peace talks very, very difficult. the u.s., of course, is trying to get to all of these sides to agree on a long-termer term ceasefire but also to a political transition process. but there again the big pro

biggest offensive in two years near syria's border with turkey. isis also gained ground today near the northern syrian city of aleppo, fighting rebel forces who oppose syrian president bashar al-assad. various rebel groups are backed by the u.s., turkey, and saudi arabia. more than 160,000 civilians are reportedly trapped in those towns. but in iraq, isis finds itself on the defensive. for the sixth day in a row, iraqi government forces, backed by american airstrikes, battled isis militants in and around fallujah, which is less than 40 miles from baghdad. the iraqi government insisted it is on the verge of launching a sweeping ground campaign to retake the city. isis seized fallujah two years ago and it remains, after mosul, the second-biggest iraqi city still under their control. more than 50,000 residents are said to be trapped by the fighting in that city. the u.s. military sai >> missy, thank you so much for joining us. >> let me start first by asking you, who exactly is involved in this charge to retake fallujah? >> there is a wide array of g

it needed to be said, the number of deaths, the prolonged conflict, and not just in syria -- around syria, init iraq, 3 million displaced persons, and now europe and the challenges there, the risks international law and european law, and what that means for asylum. and the polarization of public opinion in europe and the united states. i guess it is good. because for every critical xenophobia there is somebody that has been positively engaged. but still, the public opinion has become very challenging. and then it becomes personal. and the first refugees resettled to kansas city. when it happened, there was a family that was supposed to go to texas. and they had to stop in new york. they were not sure if they would be safe going to texas. that kind of situation was unheard of. we never had to deal with that. so yes, there has been a failure. there has also been a failure in south sudan, all over. and thethat is funding inability to realize the plans that we have got for individual and community support. for sustained engagement. at the humanitarian level. more could have been done. it crys

but first, we return to the war in syria. most of the country's urban centers have been hammered by bombs, rockets, and bullets. but the heart of the capital, damascus, has been left relatively unscathed, as the war continues on the city' soutskirts. a public palm sunday celebration last week. as the war continues on the city's outskirts. the "new york times'" declan walsh city-- aleppo-- the scene of heavy fighting in recent weeks. he joins me now from cairo, egypt. deck decla declandeclan walsh, e program. you're one of the few western reporters to be inside government-controlled syria during this moment in the civil war. what is it like? >> reporter: well, it's a country that is under tight control from bashar al-assad in those parts of syria that he still controls. and there are military checkposts everywhere. there is the image of the president, bashar al-assad, everywhere you turn, on every major public junction. and, you know, it's a very strange place in many ways, a place of great contrasts. you have in damascus, jus