Isis fighters taking shots at syrian kurds positioned over that ridge. The battle has been raging for several hours now. Just a short time ago a resident there told cnn the kurds are short on weapons, running out of ammo and people of the town are nervous that the people of isis will break that line of defense. No air strikes there yet. Isis killed several hundred iraqi troops earlier this week. With us now is jake tapper. Hes joining us from columbus, ohio, and also colonel peter mansour, cnn analyst as well. I want to talk about the battle weve been watching in northern syria. Jim just asked about it over at the pentagon. Heres what happened. Youre aware of the threat faced by syrian kurds in northwestern syria near the Turkish Border, near kobani, and there was a firefight playing out just on cnn a short time ago. They appear to be facing the same genocidal threat. The u. S. Came to others aids, why have they not come to the aid of the syrian kurds from the air . Is that a step youre willing to take . As general dempsey said, we have a rather sophisticated and complete isr picture of all that area including the area that you talk about. So, we are aware of whats going on. We are discussing how and what we can do with our Coalition Partners to help them deal with it. Peter, explain if you would, the significance of this battle in northern turkey, and why wouldnt the coalition be bombing isis right there right now . The kurds are in an existential fight for survival in northern syria. What they need is air support, but they cant get it unless they have Forward Air Controllers on the ground to help direct the strikes. We can do a lot with that very expensive and hightech suite of Intelligence Surveillance and reconnaissance assets that general democracy spoke of, but what we cant do is separate forces on the ground when theyre in close contact. This again shows the limitations o an air strategy absent Forward Air Controllers, special forces or some sort of boots on the ground to direct them. To jake tapper now. Jake, with this fighting on the border with turkey, this war has come to the edge of nato. Why isnt turkey playing a larger role here . Initially turkish leaders said they were concerned about the 49 turkish hostages that isis was ly have been freed in recent days, and there was some opening when erdogan said on tuesday that turkey would be willing to help with logistical and other support in terms of air strikes. Turkey views this conflict very differently than the quite and very differently than iraq. They view assad still as the primary destabilizing force in syria. Remember, theres more than 1 million Syrian Refugees in turkey because of the civil war, not because of isis. Second of all, some of the enemies of isis who are kurds, are enemies of turkey as well. And then third of all there are concerns in the turkish government about how much the west, the United States and others are truly committed to a campaign against isis. For all these reasons, there is a tremendous ambivalence by the turks about how much they should become involved in this campaign of air strikes against isis. Peter, jake just mentioned iraq. Lets talk about iraq. We talked about the strikes west of baghdad today and the capture of the base by isis near fallujah. As we look at that map, could isis be poised to make a move on baghdad . Theyre clearly inching towards baghdad. Its unlikely they would seize the city. They dont have the strength to do it, and they would be met with overwhelming resistance in the urban setting. Theyre moving up, trying to get to the outskirts, trying to get to the south of the city and cut it off. The battle clearly is shifting somewhat from Northern Iraq down to the baghdad region. So, our efforts will end up shifting accordingly. Gentlemen, lets get into the nuts and bolts of this press conference that just happened. Jake, lets talk about khorasan first. Both dempsey and hagel said they have no intel right now that any leader from khorasan has been captured or killed. But then also they said that Ground Troops this is dempsey saying this, Ground Troops will be needed, but they dont have to be american . Where do we go from here . The hope, and its one that a lot of military experts and members of the military dont think is necessarily reliable, the hope is that theres enough syrian moderates, turkish fighters and iraqi fighters, that that will be some sort of ground troop presence. But even jay carney a couple days ago on my show started talking about jay carney, former White House Press secretary, started talking about how he didnt think it was unforeseeable that there would be more american troops sent to the region to embed within these units of iraqi, syrian and kurdish fighters. So i do think there obviously needs to be some sort of according to all military experts at least, some sort of a next phase that will involve more Ground Troops. The question, i guess, is how much will those troops be entirely be from the region and how much will they not . I dont think well be able to see uae, jordanian, saudi troops the way weve seen them participate to a degree in the air campaign. He said they dont have to be. He didnt say they werent going to be. Just they dont have to be. Thank you, appreciate it. Just before hagel and democracy took to the stage, historic moments on cnn. Our cameras caught a dramatic firefight between kurdish fighters and terrorists. You will see how this ended in realtime. And we will take you live to the turkey syria border to see whats happening there. The fbi admits that an al qaeda cell targeted in the air strikes could still have plots in motion here in the United States. Listen up, thunder dragons, its time to get a hotel. Hey, razor. Check this out. We can save big with priceline express deals. Hey you know what man, these guys aint no dragons. Theyre cool. These deals are legit. Yeah, were cool. Shes cool. Were cool. Priceline express deals really are legit. Thousands of people book them everyday. Now its your turn. To download the priceline app text the word deals to 68277 and start saving today. Look saving you money makes us happy. Youre about to see something that most of us have never seen on television. Pay close attention. For weeks we have been speaking of isis brutality and seeing terrorists in action only in the way they want in propaganda videos. Here now, witness isis as you never have before. Live in battle, taking fire and getting hit. Remarkable viewpoint from cnn crews positioned in turkey near the Syrian Border in a town called karoca. A warning, though, what youre about to see is dramatic war violence, including a man getting shot about 13 seconds into the video. The voices you hear, our phil black at the border speaking to john berman just a few hours ago. Cnn photojournalist saw some of those isis fighters take casualties on the top of that hill. Trying to seek shelter. As i speak, theres small arms fire being traded. Im not sure if you can hear it over our microphones. Thats been going on the last few hours. In addition to that, weve been hearing a lot of heavy artillery fire as well. Mortars, one struck not far from that isis position, only about ten minutes ago. Dusk is falling now. Its getting harder to make out precisely whats going on at that distance. I apologize for that. The fighting itself appears to be slowing as well. As it stands at the moment, those isis fighters on the top of that ridge appear to have been stopped or their advance slowed down at that location by the fighting of the coalition opponents. The thing that i think is striking, watching those isis fighters im just told, sorry, that one of those fighters at the top of the hill was just injured. They have taken the casualties at the top of that hill. What i started to touch on earlier, what i think is quite striking, you see those fighters out in the open, on the top of that ridge, theyre not being interfered with at all by any form of air power. Thats a crucial point. The fighters on the ground have made to us, and the many refugees weve been talking to, they all have been asking the question where is this Coalition Fire striking isis positions elsewhere, but not here on the ground where isis is still advancing, still trying to claim new territory, where refugees tell us they still have been killing innocent civilians in villages that they come to and take control of. That is the scene here. An extraordinary scene as dusk is falling on the Syrian Border. Isis fighters in action. We saw tracer fire move across the skyline there. This crowd of turkish kusrds, when they have been seeing a lot of fire coming into that position, they have been cheering their brothers on the other side. Dusk is falling but the fighting is continue. Phil, please stick with me if you can and please be careful while doing that because we have seen tracer on the screen and we can hear the gunfire. This raises several important issues all at once. It shows the enormous range of isis fighters. People out there are cheering as the battle is being taken to isis now. I think the people where phil s these refugees driven out by isis, the human toll. The isis reputation has sent a shockwave of fear through the kurdish villages and towns in that region. Literally people picking up whatever they could carry, moving through the dusty landscape and moving to safety and security and what you have to say is an uncertain future in refugee camps. What they have left behind is a small fighting force of kurdish fighters who say they are armed and prepared to fight very hard to slow down this advance. They say they have managed to do that successfully to some degree. But they have been reporting to us each day that isis has been making progress. A few more miles each day. Just take a look up at that ridge line now. [ cheers and applause ] what you are seeing is tracer fire moving in to that ridge line that is currently occupied by isis forces. And around me the kurdish crowd is cheering. Take a listen. John, its getting dark here so increasingly difficult to make out the figures on the ridgeline itself but we can see from that tracer fire that they are still receiving incoming fire and it is at that position that our photojournalist claudia otto has seen isis fires take casualties, fascinating to watch. Up next, live to that border to see where the fighters are going. Thats next. 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Before the break you saw cnn video of Kurdish Forces battling isis. Phil black is at the border. Phil, its dark where you are. What can you hear . Has that fighting ending . It has largely ending. Were hearing the occasional burst of small arms fire. A short time ago there was a large explosion in the distance. We couldnt work out what that was. For the most part, it is silent. The fight, as intense as it was a few hours ago, has ceased for the night. A few hours ago we saw that intense ongoing firefight between isis fighters at the top of a ridge line and those Syrian Kurdish fighters, so desperately working to hold them off. Do you know, it stopped most people in their tracks when i saw this video and i saw you on the air live earlier. I had to just watch the entire time. We understand that someone living in the syrian town right near this firefight said that people there are waiting for Coalition Air strikes. Is that what youre hearing among the refugees that youre with . Yeah. Very much so. Its been a repeated question. Weve been spending a lot of time talking to the refugees fleeing that fighting or fighting like that that we witnessed. This approaching isis force through this region has triggered a humanitarian crisis, a very large one. We know some 140 to 150,000 refugees crossed into turkey earlier in the week, we are seeing thousands every day as isis gets closer. As they do, as they flee, they have been asking where is or where are these air strikes from this International Coalition . Yesterday the kurdish fighters across the border in syria issued an official statement saying they want to collaborate. They would like to work with this International Coalition. They want to see this air power over this region. Theyre prepared to help provide the sort of targeting information that they think they can provide that would make those air strikes possible. To our knowledge, so far, no response from the International Coalition to that specific request. It is a tough ask. In this sort of fight it requires qualified eyes on the ground to talk the air strikes in to make sure they hit the right target. We know thats one thing that has been missing and is missing from this sustained International Military effort. To see the civilians so close, to see you so close and the civilians watching it, as if its a supporting event, even applauding at times, how are you able to discern the fighters we saw earlier from isis . What were using to discern is the direction theyre fighting and the direction the equipment appears to be traveling. Isis fighters have been advancing through this region towards a main town, kobani, just south of the turkish Syrian Border. It is the center of this predominantly ethnic kurdish region. There are villages surrounding it. Over the last week, isis fighters have been advancing through this region towards kobani. That appears to be the goal. That triggered the refugee exod exodus. Due east of here is kobani. Isis is fighting this town from the east, from the south and from the west from every available direction really, because north of kobani is turkey. They cant do that just yet. We know isis has been fighting to get there. We know that because the refugees have seen them, witnessed fighting. Lost loved ones to it, both small arms fire and artillery. We know from the kurdish fighters on the ground that they are working desperately to slow down that advance. They believe they are underarmed compared to isis fighters and also smaller in number. They fear they cant hold out indefinitely. Thats why they are so keen to have any sort of distance that they can possibly get. Its why they are appealing to this International Coalition to lend air power to this fight. Phil black with an extraordinary position there, being able to watch that. Phil black, be careful, of course. Its very close. Up close and personal with whats going on over there. Up next, will the United Kingdom join in on this war on isis . Just moments ago we got the answer after a fiery debate involving david cameron. My next guest says congress should cut its recess short and do the same thing. And a woman beheaded at work. I said a woman beheaded at work. Investigators are looking into reports that the suspect was trying to convert people to islam. Sea captain theres a narratorstorm cominhe storm narrator that whipped through the turbine which poured. Surplus energy into the plant which generously lowered its price and tipped off the house which used all that energy to stay warm through the storm. Chipmunk theres a bad storm comin narrator the internet of everything is changing how energy works. Is your Network Ready . Hello. You can go ahead and have a nice flight. Re. Music plays music plays traveling can feel like one big mystery. Youre never quite sure what is coming your way. 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