he said several hundreds of thousands of troops and by the way, i would add that later on general mcchrystal said it takes that many troops also takes a decade or more, several decade, but we re not willing to do any of that stuff. we surely could send we could send a brigade of the 82nd in there and take raqqah, but we re going to bring them home afterwards and once we bring them home afterwards the same thing is going to happen again. no, i say what you really need to do is have strategy, not tactics. it s not enough to say we re going to do this or that. you ve got to articulate how you are going to hold the objective after you ve seized it and in every human endeavor it takes more resources to hold on to an objective than it does to take it in the first point. you ve taught strategy at west point. from time to time. jack, stay with us. we ll continue our coverage after this quick break. french air strikes on the city of raqqah in syria. 20 bombs dropped by ten fighter
on the city of raqqah, in syria, the stronghold of isis in syria, and the french president has effectively called isis out, not only isis at large but he has said that there appear to be coordination between these attackers and isis back home. organizations on the ground reporting some 30 air strikes just in the last several hours. it s the early morning hours in raqqah now. and our barbara starr is reporting that the u.s. had provided intelligence to france to help them carry out and target areas inside raqqah following these attacks. these are french air strikes? these include french air strikes as well. it is something as christiane had said, we were looking for what their response would be, and they asked for help in terps of intelligence, and the u.s. offered that help, and that appears to be what we re seeing over raqqah right now. how viable are targets? how easy is it to find targets? that was early on in the bombing campaign, that was one of theish, shoos of i don t ever
to nic robertson in london. reporter: for the moment, we have few precise details of the strike. jihadi john or mohammed emwazi was in a vehicle when it was struck as a result of persistent surveillance. we heard a lot about that over the previous years how drones will maintain surveillance over a particular area for a period of time. the strike took place in the town of raqqah. this is isis headquarters. jihadi john, of course, we know him because he came to prominence in the beheadings of james foley and peter sotloff and also beheadings of others in a brutal fashion. it was,headings that put the un states on the attack over the coalition air strikes in syria.
michigan. and much, much more on a busy friday, first look starts right now. good morning, thanks for being with us. i m shannon mulaire. we start with breaking news overnight. a u.s. airstrike targeted the notorious isis terrorist known as jihadi john. the pentagon says the drone attack happened last night in northern syria, in the isis stronghold of raqqah. jihadi john is a kuwaiti-born british militant seen in a number of isis propaganda videos that show the execution of westerners. right now a senior u.s. counterterrorism official tells nbc news there s, quote, no definitive proof yet that he was killed. nbc seas keir simmons is in london with the very latest on this developing story. reporter: shannon, good morning. u.s. officials saying that they targeted the man known as jihadi john in a drone strike overnight in the city of raqqah. that is isis de facto capital in syria. held by isis for some years now.
224 people on board. the russian aviation industry has not given a reason for the new ban. meantime egypt s aviation civil minister says the voice box will be sent to the country to be able to analyze them. the officials did not identify that country. we continue to await the fate of jihadi john. now the target of a u.s. air strike in syria. iraqi kurds, meantime, are battling to retake the key northern city of raqqah, sinjar. let s get more insight on both of these developments. thank you for joining us today. my pleasure, heather. let s begin with jihadi john. military officials in the u.s. saying, quote, they re reasonably certain or they have 59% certainty that they have