outgoing u.s. point man for the coalition fighting isis. elise is with us right now. this terror group clearly extending its global reach right now. that s right, wolf. well, you know a year ago president obama tapped the u.s., one of the most u.s. distinguished public servants, a former top commander in iraq and afghanistan for a challenging new mission to build a coalition to defeat isis. back then the enemy was contained to iraq and syria, now isis has morphed into the world s most preeminent global terror organization. and as he prepares to leave the battle, general john allen says the lessons learned will be key if the u.s. ever wants to finish the job. the far left reporter: a stark warning about repeating mistakes of the past. we re fighting with a radicalization in an environment where people can be easily radicalized, become extremist and ultimately join a terrorist group. if we don t get to the left of those symptoms and try to solve these underlying circumstances,
claim they were the ones who brought down that russian airliner with 224 people onboard. isis says they did it. yes. they did bring down a russian airliner, but they also struck at president sisi in egypt because that was a strategic blow against egypt s economy. it cuts off their tourism dollar flow. so what is the real goal of isis right now? they ve got their own problems in sinjar as we just heard from nick paton walsh. they ve got a battle under there with the peshmerga, the kurdish fighters, u.s. special operations forces they re on the ground helping coordinate u.s.-led air strikes against isis. but isis is moving in all sorts of directions even as they fight goes on. that s right. isis is consolidating its grip on the territories it has. it s going to try to prove its ability to hold sinjar, i would presume. it s working against the egyptians in sinai. it s also working against the egyptians through its forces in libya. and so this is a cancer on the
a fierce fight over immigration is rocking the republican race for the white house now. donald trump, ted cruz, marco rubio, jeb bush are engaged in a war of words withthe eventual presidential nominee. athena jones is joining us. this battle seems to be heating up. reporter: hi, wolf, it is and a lot of republicans and democrats believe this fight over illegal immigration will hurt the gop s chances in 2016. still, it doesn t look like it s going to end any time soon. i don t care what donald trump says, talk to the people on the boarder and they will tell you this. it s not compassion et if i m saying i m going to give away your job. reporter: the flight in the republican party over illegal immigration shaking up the race
no way around it. so why are they doing it in sinjar? why is sinjar so important to americans beyond the horror that isis certainly has inflicted on people there, because of the geography. it sits on a highway right between raqqa, isis capital over in syria, and mosul, isis big grip on mosul in iraq. what they want to do, what the u.s. wants to do is break isis grip by cutting the highway where all these cities sit and cutting that supply line from raqqa in syria over to mosul. it s what they hope to achieve. it is why they are there. wolf. critical battle under way right now, thanks very much for that, barbara. i want to go to our senior international correspondent nick paton walsh. he s right near the front lines of this fight to retake sinjar. nick, tell us what you ve been seeing where you are. reporter: concerted push from 9:00 yesterday, wolf, in the
tracks. this is what one did to an isis car, melting this pistol flat. sinjar s urban sprawl too could be flattened if isis choose to fight in it. the first day s bravado taking the kurds far, but not to victory. wolf, look at the bigger picture here. washington very keen to see some sort of success story emerge from their anti-isis operation here. and this perhaps a test case. can they get the peshmerga to rally in sufficient number? we saw the answer to that today was yes. can they put the right number of air strikes in to let them hold the new ground they take? that seems to be the case when it comes to route 47, that vital supply line we saw today. but really can they harness these kind of tactics for the real challenge ahead, the fight for mosul and maybe the fight for raqqa. they re a pipe dream frankly months off from now, but success in sinjar, which we still haven t definitively seen yet that i have still got to fight for urban sprawl in the days ahead. that could be a very we