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Spread into north america and the united states, affected democratic electorates in choosing politicians, who are going to lead their country, this is a more dangerous time than we saw immediately before, immediately after 9/11. how does that jive with what you will occasionally hear from u.s. officials that the territory that isis controls is shrinking. it is. in jeopardy in raqqah. mosul could be on the brink of falling right now. the caliphate, as it were, is shrinking in size. i wouldn t say it s on the brink of falling, the operation to liberate mosul has ground to a halt. nevertheless, they will lose in mosul eventually, but there s some very ominous statistics coming out of iraq. the vanguard fighting force that s trying to retake mosul from isis is known as the golden division. this is iraq s most elite counterterrorism strike force. they ve suffered 50% casualties in the three months since this operation has been underway. if this rate continues, they will be combat in
The u.s. president, french president and elsewhere. michael, i spent a lot of time in iraq as i know you did going back to the u.s. invasion familiar tactic of isis and predecessor in iraq was to retreat but then keep up the attack, blend into the population and carry out ambushes, assaults, et cetera. knowing that pattern, should we assume that something like that is going to follow a tactical victory like this? sure. in fact, there is evidence this week that they have escalated their opportunistic attacks in the province. keep in mind, the isis spokesman has said is going to be one of the most crucial provinces in the country that isis is looking to deteriorate iraqi security forces infrastructure there. i agree with the general. this is a good tactical victory. i ve seen evidence that particularly units like the golden division, which is the special operations task force. counterterrorism task force trained by the u.s.
They managed to take it? it seems they ve behaved more as a professional military than they have been in the last several months of this war. by all accounts, the consortium militia groups have hung back from the main theater of operations. they re corralled in eastern ramadi. when it comes to this intense urban combat situation, they re not there. you have the golden division, some more credible brigades and iraqi divisions leading the fight. you have a few hundred sunni arabs men that were trained by the u.s. ramadi fell in may of this year, almost a year after operation inherent resolve got underway. we lost this battle, this key provincial capital. we ve regained it. the real test is can the iraqi forces hold on to it? the concern of a lot of
City. they re using human shields. they have a certain kind of house bourn ied where they essentially create a bomb that collapses an entire house the minute troops enter it. the one thing i would say, wolf, there is a very credible iraqi military division, it s called the golden division. it s essentially their special ops. what distinguishes them from other army units or interior ministry or other federal police is they re multisectarian. so you ve got christians, jews, sunnis, a lot of guys in the golden division have been targeted by the shia militias which according to the united states, pentagon, have stayed away for at least this part of ramadi. it s true they re in the western districts, but they re not marching into downtown ramadi. also, according to the u.s. there s about 1,200 sunni-arab tribesmen who have joined up in this fight. remember the arab tribes were slaughtered members of the tribes had been slaughtered by isis in that 2014 blitz into mosul. and then months lat
So the pentagon not openly acknowledging it, saying nothing about exactly where they are and how much are there. this effort in syria unfolding as across the border in iraq, the battle for ramadi continues. a short time ago, u.s. official told me today it is very slow going, very methodical work for the iraqi forces in ramadi. they are moving towards the city center, they are encountering road blocks, barricades, ieds, bombs, booby trap, all of it. there are whole houses in ramadi that are wired to blow. so it s very slow going for the iraqi forces. the golden division iraqi special operations forces trained by the u.s. are in the fight, the hope is after months, seven months after ramadi fell to isis, the seven months of u.s. training, u.s. effort to get the iraqis ready hopefully the pentagon believes it will
Time? that s the real difficulty. on the plus side, the most e elite iraqi military division is called the golden division. these guys have been through it all including being kidnapped by militias. their moral does not seem to be flagged. they are gung who about pushing in. the reality difficulty is what is left to hold on to? this is where isis becomes its most brutal. they have a certain kind of ied they install to houses where anybody who steps on a trip wire on the ground sets off a chain reaction that make the house collapse on top of them. so they could be looking to destroy as much infrastructure as possible. you talked about human shields. reuters had a piece where it described ramadi as a
It had been a months long fight. well we have just spoken today to arguably the most powerful sunni politician in iraq the speaker of parliament. he made a very stark allegation that in fact there was a withdrawal of elite special forces that have been trained by the u.s. years ago from ramadi. they re called golden division. and he wasn t sure who had gifbven the order, but he was sure the iraqi prime minister hadn t known about it. let s hear what he had to say. translator: the military commander who was present was speaking about the collapse of morale in the army and made a decision in a clear way to give the order to pull out. after that ramadi fell. even the prime minister and he s the general commander of the armed forces was not aware of the orders dealing with pulling out. that has led to the big question marks for us. who has an interest in a direct
Me earlier. translator: the military command who was present was speaking about a collapse in the army and made a decision in a clear way to give the order to pull out and after that ramadi fell. even the prime minister and the general commander of the armed forces was not aware of the orders dealing with pulling out and that led to big question marks for us. who has an interest in a direct way in the army pulling out and not confronting isis? after that isis entered ramadi and controlled it directly. reporter: who gave that order? translator: who was there in the command is called the golden division. who withdrew and collapse occurred and isis controlled ramadi. reporter: such a vital question for the future of iraq whether the pro-shia government in baghdad somehow let ramadi a