Page 2 - Retake Raqqa News Today

Out. the city is surrounded. from jerusalem, john any idea where this will end and when raqqa will fall? >> erica matts good question. there is no definitive time frame at this time, but if the battle to retake mosul and raqqa is no indication to reap retake raqqa, isis is capital, if not longer, that said, syrian forces, the u.s. backed alliance with kurds have relieved suburbs surrounding raqqa and are now closing in on the roughly 2500 isis fighters that remain. basically held up in the city,...

Affiliate in syria that killed dozens of people in northern damascus. an attack in the heart of the city is rare. today sends a message that series capital remains a major target. the latest attack comes as the fight to retake raqqa from isis in northern syria continue straight on. cease-fire talks arse supposed to start soon to end the long ending and brutal civil war. >> eric: thank you. >> gillian: investigators are searching for clues in the nightclub shooting in arkansas. up next, details o...

Heres another photo from the isis news agency showing the smoke rising. this damn is west of raqqa. its the largest damn in all of syria. they were worried about it for a while. this photo is from april. a u.s.-backed syrian fighter holding weapons near raqqa. jennifer griffin has an update on the latest push. jennifer? >> shep, may not be a coincidence that the allies decided to launch the operation to retake raqqa on the anniversary of d-day. 73 years ago today on june 6, 1944, dwight d. eisen...

Townsend talked about how they encircled the capitol and warned civilian to leaves. we were the first to report that isis moved their leadership out of raqqa down the euphrates river. today captain jeff davis said there were a few isis fighters left in raqqa and many civilians which will make this a long fight, shep. 26,000 syrian kurds are leading the ground force to strike this symbolic blow. no so were clear, this hammer strike in paris in no way related to this raqqa operation. is that right...

The arabs will not tolerate that. and while i understand the attraction to the syrian kurds at a tactical level, i believe its actually a strategic blunder because theres no political end state thats workable when youre using the syrian kurds to take arab land. so we are in something of a donenybrook here, to be frank about it. eric: let me first start with raqqa. what do you think is the most effective way to capture it from the caliphate, from isis, and who should do that, and where does that ...

That the syrian kurds as far as hes concerned -- and they refer to them as the ypg -- he looks at them as part of the kurdish force thats conducting an insurgency to take over his government. you can make a case theyre not as bad of terrorists as the ore group, but from erdogans perspective, thats what matters, because thats his perception. is thats case one. and thats why hes opposed to the kurds going into raqqa on our behalf because he sees it as a land grab that will just enharass the kurds ...

>> greg: it is either good news or bad news that isis isn. fading. jennifer, your story concerns the referendum in turkey.rn please explain. >>re i would say all eyes should be on turkey this sunday. this referendum, it has been waiting until president erdogan had this because they didnt want to go ahead with the efforts to retake raqqa because they are going to require the u.s. to give heavy arms to t kurdish fighters, syrian kurdish fighters who they need to take raqqa. so they have been waiti...

Went ahead and did something and now youre hearing about haslett as one of the potential agents who will do something. is that a potential concern? >> i think that was a factor in terms of military planning. hezbollah is always a factor. of 100,000 iranian troops inside iraq were the u.s. has 6,000 troops. these are all groups and proxies of one another and very close proximity. lets not forget, lets keep our eyes on the prize, the upcoming operation to retake raqqa from isis, that is what the u...

Thank you. >> reporter: our involvement of sending rangers and marines into syria marks a dramatic change in our presence on the ground there. im wondering how much autonomy is the president giving general james mattis to involve u.s. forces on the ground in syria? >> press secretary spicer: u.s. marine artillery unit intime arrangers have recently been positioned in syria to provide combined joint task force operations, the commander the agility to expedite the disruption of isis and raqqa in p...

Would they be able to push it to a finish line or does it signal a deepening of our commitment and that there are more troops falling into syria behind them, what is your best bet? >> recent reports show there are 1,000 troops in kuwait on standby if needed in syria. the general has been speaking publicly about the possibility of sending conventional groups in, so it is a possibility but the enemy always gets a vote, it we cannot predict how the battle is going to go in syria. the best-case scen...