but the investigation does continue. the department of defense releasing new details today on the latest round of coalition air strikes against isis. five strikes were carried out in syria and 12 in iraq, including three near ramadi, where iraqi troops are locked against isis on the ground. garrett tenney has the latest. clearing the way for iraqi security forces in their latest effort to retake ramadi. this week, its forces, with the backing of u.s. air strikes, have retaken much of the city and are now closing in on the last area still under control by isis. where about 100 islamic state fighters are holding out in a former government compound. the latest round of air strikes helped clear the way by destroying several isis vehicles, fighting positions, as well as several houses that the militants have rigged with
2,000-year-old ruins, which ayeisis will likely destroy. the assault on civilization for mow is not stopping no matter how many leaders we take out. mariea maria? eric thank you. more now with congressman michael mccaul. what about the isis fighters right outside of ramadi? how important is that and why is this such an important city for us to be watching for what s ahead? well as we noted, we took out a very significant high-valued target however when you look at what s going on in ramadi, that s the capital of the anbar province probably the most important foothold in iraq. it s where the sunni awakening occurred when we defeated al qaeda in iraq way back when. so it s a very strategic point. my concern is that isis is gaining ground there. the black flags are going up in ramadi. and it demonstrates once again that our policy is one of
withdrawn, the city does appear to be on the verge of falling to the isis fighters. it shouldn t happen. eric we ought to be using our fullest air power to isolate ramadi so they can t get anything in there and take those forces out. if you know we could find abu sayyaf, we could find those forces in ramadi and we should be doing it with intensive air power. we should not let ramadi fall. then there was that audiotape of isis leader al baghdadi reportedly vowing to fight on portraying his cause in global terms, saying quote, islam was never a religion of peace, islam is the religion of fighting. no one should believe that the war that we are waging is the war of the islamic state. it is the war of all muslims, but the islamic state is spearheading it. it is the war of muslims against infidels. isis is also closing in on the iconic world heritage site with
containment, not to destroy and defeat isis. so as i was there last week met with the prime minister of iraq they were moving in on ramadi at the time not too far from baghdad. part of the problem, as i see it is they re bringing the shia militia. this would be a proxy of iran coming into iraq to fight isis, who are sunnis and further enflaming the sunni tribes in iraq. i think this is a prescription for disaster. it will not reconcile the country together both sunni and shia. and it s really playing it out in ramadi as we speak. in no way shape or form can we say we re winning in iraq. what did you learn on your trip to the middle east? tell us who you met with and what the feeling is on the ground in the middle east from our allies based on what they see so far in terms of our performance in this fight. well i think political division within iraq the prime
firefights like this one from april 2006. just a few months later, a portland oregon native would be the first navy s.e.a.l. killed in ramadi trying to protect another s.e.a.l. just last month when general martin dempsey dismissed ramadi as an unimportant symbol. mark s mother wrote an open letter to dempsey. my son and many others gave their future in ramadi ramadi mattered to them. yesterday, debbie lee described the fall as gut-wrenching, and when challenged on that today, on ramadi here is how the white house responded. we have to decide what our approach to these issues is going to be. are we going to light our hair on fire every time that there is a set back in the campaign against isil or are we going to take care of our responsibilities to evaluate