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

>> 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 didn't 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 waiting until april 16th to begin making moves towards raqqa and they're going to thatg the turks get th...

Went ahead and did something and now you're 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. let's not forget, let's keep our eyes on the prize, the upcoming operation to retake raqqa from isis, that is what the u.s. is gearing up for. this is a bit of a distraction for that. yes, those troops, it's going to ...

Thank you. >> reporter: our involvement of sending rangers and marines into syria marks a dramatic change in our presence on the ground there. i'm 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 particular. the exact numbers and locations of the forces are still sensitive in order to protect th...

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 scenario is our special operations advisors and local syrian defense forces with the combat enablers as ...