u.s. training base near the jordanian border. he surprised reporters by saying that there may have been iranians on the ground killed later during the press conference, defense secretary mattis said these were iranian directed shia militias. the purpose of press conference was to outline the president s directive to accelerate the destruction of isis. on that front, defense secretary mattis and chairman of the joint receives and the state department special envoy made a few key points. the new strategy involved surrounding isis inside syria and iraq and killing all of the foreign fighters so that they could not leave syria or iraq. the suggestion was this would no longer be a game of whack-a-mole. first, he delegated authority to the right level to aggressively and in a timely manner move against enemy vulnerabilities. secondly, he directed a tactical shift from shoving isis outof these locations in an attrition fight to surrounding the enemy
isis out of mosul? what s gonna happen when we get isis out of their capital in raqa? nature abhors a vacuum. we need to work with all of our allies to ensure that we re spending money, that we re giving advice and that we re building institutions. this isn t a job for the united states alone. jenna: that s very interesting. as you say that, it reminds me what h.r. mcmaster said. america first does not mean america alone. that s one of the reasons we re really examining some of these partnerships. as we watch air force one about to embark on this long journey. i m speaking a little bit about what s happened this week as well, danielle. not only domestic politics but speaking about what happened in syria. there was a big announcement just about 24 hours ago where the united states bombed pro assad forces. this was for a particular reason as it was explained to us, a protection of force. we were making a very clear statement against the pro assad forces that would not get out of
it s very clear that this sreus i was designed for two reasons. to re-establish the relationship with saudi arabia which, of course, frayed at the end of the obama administration when the obama administration focused so much on the iranian nuclear talks. that threatened the saudis. the saudis are rolling out the red carpet for president trump because they are happy that the u.s. is now once again paying attention to their needs. the president will also be trying to raise among nato allies, they re going to need more forces for afghanistan. it is clear they are going to try to get commitments from those other countries so there won t have to be as many u.s. forces sent to afghanistan. before the press conference at the pentagon began which, by the way, is only the second press conference defense secretary mattis has had in the briefing room since january 20th. i asked whether there were iranians targeted and killed by u.s. warplanes when that u.s. air strike was called in yesterday insi
is the feeling one of optimism, one of nervousness because of the weight of this trip? how would you describe that to our viewers? reporter: i would say there s a very strong sense of optimism and confidence because some of the metrics that have come in in terms of the fight against isis are very positive. now remember, the special envoy and general dunford are both obama holdovers so they have seen this fight since 2014 take place. and they were able to present some incredible metrics in terms of the amount of territory that s been taken back from isis. 55,000kilometers, they say. and also in that sense 2014. that s not since january of this year. but they also say, and this was very important. defense secretary mattis said since it used to be that there were 1500 foreign fighters arriving in syria to fight for the so-called califit every month. that number is down to 100 a month. they are really tightening the
targeted, not directly targeting iranians per se, but pro assad forces that they believe to be iranians on the ground in syria. also the strategy of not allowing isis fighters to flee syria, to go into europe, where they have ease of travel to all over the world, including the united states. but to kill the enemy where they sit as of right now. these are key strategic points that we should really focus on as we watch the president depart for saudi arabia. the first part of his trip is going to be about fighting isis, about fighting radical islamic terrorism. what sort of strategy will he bring to the table? what will that include? how will our priorities be mapped out now that the president is the leader of the free world? i m curious as we watch the president head off, nine day journey. it s going to be long. i m curious about the feeling inside the pentagon.