Page 4 - Inside Raqqa News Today

Has drawn the noose yet tighter. these coalition fighters to the west and east are about to move in from the south. then the noose will be complete. the countdown begins to when these distant streets are open for the world to see again. >> analysts pointed out the city as a whole, quite vibrant signs of life amongst the population there. it looks as though when the coalition strikes buildings, its pretty precise. they dont bring the whole building down, just take out certain things they want aro...

Claustrophobic world of living with isis, in streets covered by massive -- this central market to hide isis fighters from drone cameras overhead. another escapee describes how isis fighters differ. >> the foreigners treat presidents very well but the syrian isis members, they are very aggressive with people. >> reporter: isis used their own drone to film damage from coalition strikes prior to the slow net slipping over the city. images of life inside raqqa are rare, by one occasion filming the p...

Were the williams family, and were usaa members for life. so the state department just took down a blog post that touted fabulousness of trumps mar-a-lago resort. that raised the eyebrows of ethics watch dogs. lets bring back our panel, david gregory, a.b. stoddard and mark preston. a.b., how is this okay? >> theres nothing okay about this. republicans on capitol hill should be ashamed of themselves. long before this blog post. because the president never separated himself from his businesses....

Intelligence begun this air campaign with ten wearplanes. >> nick paton walsh has been covering the story. what are you hearing about air strikes tonight? >> reporter: a group of prominent activists inside with sources inside of raqqa are saying that the basic targets have been what they refer to the clinical hospital, the stadium, a political building in the area among other areas too. those names dont signature fi what the buildings that have been hit actually still do as jobs. often isis take...

Open response to make the french people frankly feel like something is being done. hopefully too the french mill incapacity ate parts of raqqa, these are well known to the united states. why werent they hit earlier. but where does it go from here? >> nick is going to stay with me and john shuuto is with me. i want to bring in our terrorism analyst jean charles, significant as nick paton walsh is saying, one night of attacks but overall not something that will change the game. is this just the be...

People who at times may be against them and may be forced to be alongside them. if you bomb them, maybe increasingly close to their point of view, how do you strike that cautious balance and militarily effective. a vitally important part where isis is. it has a lot of military power that they are trying to gather to its north through kurdish forces and weak syrian sunni arab coalition, the syrian democratic face. they want to use special forces to mobilize them to move south towards raqqa. its n...

Sharing all of its intelligence with the french. whats different about this, they are giving them raw intelligence from whats known as the five eyes program, this is just the agency, u.s., uk, canada, australia and new zealand. they had this agreement for years where they share everything. they are welcoming the french into that family. >> what will that be? when you talk about the significance of raw data? what is the raw data we could be talking about as pertains to the strikes in raqqa? >> in...

Blow to france, the terrorist attacks here. im not convinced it will be entirely successful or we can take out raqqa purely with air strikes. >> so two crucial follow-ups to that. when you talk about hospitals being struck as they are saying indeed happened now. those hospitals are often only in name. >> names. >> but as you point out, sometimes and sometimes not. how do you know? >> we dont know actually. we dont know whats going inside raqqa. we have very little information. sometimes they wil...

Administration is being based -- and importantly a lot of foreign fighters especially those from britain and france are based in and around raqqa. it is known that a lot of the executions that were carried out by jihadi john were carried out on the outskirts 67 raqqa. it is full of important targets and does make sense to go for raqqa than for other places. >> and nick paton walsh, you have more information. im just hearing that right now. go ahead. >> no, simply to add, we have to be cautious a...

The middle east editor of "newsweek," lives here in paris, author of an upcoming book on syria. you have spent a lot of time in syria and in recent months and during this conflict. so lets talk about this issue right now, tonight, france with massive air strikes against the stronghold of raqqa. in syria, what is your perception of the civilians and isis and how closely intertwined they are? >> its difficult with air strikes to get precise targets. weve seen this over and over again. i think sinc...