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Militia with iranian weapons fighting to reclaim the city of tikrit. signs of iran's influence everywhere, field commanders review their plans. the pentagon watching iran with a close eye. happy to have the iranians doing the bulk of the ground fighting. but worried it could again open up a cauldron of shia versus sunni violence. >> for the sunni and shia sectarianism that has happened for thousands of years, it could be strategically disastrous. >> reporter: u.s. officials also worry the fragile iraqi government in the long run will become a client state of tehran with the u.s. spending milli...

And the region stabilize what it is that we need to do. you have to back off because right now you've got their leadership are actually acting as sort of field commanders in some of these battles inside of iraq. and the organization we were fighting against when we were in iraq. it is responsible for killing some number of americans in iraq. and now that's the primary organization that's doing the fighting inside of tikrit, members of the corps which is a shi'a dominated military organization and they are vicious. these guys are tough and well organized. they are well led. and they are backed ...

Iran is also flexing its military muscles inside iraq more boldly than ever. let's go to barbara starr. she has new details. >> reporter: there may be some short-term military gain to having iran on the ground fighting in iraq but the pentagon is deeply concerned about some of the long-term implications. the latest u.s. military intelligence assessment most of the fighters here are iranian-backed shia militia with iranian weapons fighting to reclaim the city of tikrit. signs of iran's influence everywhere. iran's language heard here. field commanders review their plans. the pentagon watching i...

High price we paid to get bowe released was in the long term the right thing to do. at the same time we are quite capable of taking the fight back at these guys. a point i would make here is when general mcchrystal or general petraeus, general allen, now general dunford, our field commanders went after the haqqa haqqanis, a deadly group, every time we did so, we were concerned that bowe bergdahl could end up dead. they put out a dvd showing they were killing him. we lived with that. i supported the field commanders every time. we no longer have that concern that they have this pawn that they c...

Dunnford conducts operations against the haqqanis in the back of my mind although i supported those field commanders 100%, i was always concerned that with bowe bergdahl being held by them that they could make a propaganda film showing themselves killing him, because they obey none of the laws of the geneva convention law of war. so with bowe bergdahl no longer held by them, it also makes the haqqanis more vulnerable, i think, in the sense that we have no concern about what they might do to a captive american soldi r soldier, however they got their hands on him. >> finally, general, there is a...