Operation Launching News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Breaking overnight. afghan special forces have reta retaken the city of kunduz. the operation launching late wednesday still ongoing. the cnn international editor nic robertson joins us now. what is keeping the afghans confident they will hold on? >> reporter: boris, the more information we get in today, the more we are learning about the situation on the ground. it still seems to be fluid. they believe that they can hold on at the moment because they come back into the city and they have reinforcements. they outnumber the taliban. the taliban has support in the town. that's why they were able...

Police and potentially also we're hearing now as well maybe hundreds of sunni tribesmen could also be involved in this fighting too. now, the exact makeup of these forces is so key because of the sectarian divide in iraq the sunni-shia tensions that have always been here. fortunately now i think many observers are seeing the name of the this operation that the shia militia announced is called answering the call of hussein. that's very -- many are wondering perhaps the initial signals of this aren't particularly about embracing iraqi nationalism. but we have to see if this violence actually tra...

In isis. >> we are having a hard time establishing communication with nick. the important thing is the iraqi government trying to make the case it is on the offensive in anbar province after losing the city of ramadi one week ago to isis. we do not know if that is a substance operation from the iraqi government. we will check back in with nick. >> the american defense secretary said they lost the will to fight. the operation launching as officials in u.s. and iraq are sniping as each other over the fall of ramadi to isis. president obama used memorial day to talk about the sharp break from wha...