u.s. troop withdrawal in northern syria. the u.s. in turn asked the kurds not to turn to russia. shortly thereafter the u.s. moved its troops out of the way this week. turkey launched an offensive against kurds in northern syria. turkey considers the kurds a terrorist group but the same kurdish fighters had been helping the u.s. battle isis in the area. we ve got full coverage of this story. barbara starr is at the pentagon, arwa damon is on the border between turkey and syria and colonel cedric leighton also with us. barbara, let s begin with you on your exclusive reporting here. tell us about the conversations, the documents that recognize the verbal sparring over what s at issue here. you are leaving us to be slaughtered. that is the headline here, fredricka. the head of the sdf, the syrian fighters that the u.s. found so valuable to be allied with in
has this created a new opening or an opening for a resurgence or reorganization of isis? i think it has. it all depends on what the russians do at this point. aaron is absolutely right, the russians are the key player here now. everybody has relationships with them. so what the russians do in this regard, can they clamp down on isis or are they going to have to do something else that s perhaps not looked at right now in order to in essence demilitarize that area and demilitarization is a long way off if it ever happens in this part of the world. all right, thank you, gentlemen, appreciate that. we have much more on this breaking news. also straight ahead, in a stunning move, president trump tries to distance himself from his personal attorney after rudy giuliani becomes the face of trump s ukraine scandal in an effort to dig up dirt on joe biden.
the fight against isis now under attack by turkish forces, a nato ally. the u.s. not willing to get in the middle of any of this and continue to support the kurds. so on thursday, there was a meeting between the military leader of the syrian democratic forces and a top state department official. i just want to read you direct quotes. they are stunning, from an internal administration document that summarized the meeting. so first the general says to the state department official, you have given up on us. you are leaving us to be slaughtered. you have nothing for us. you are not willing to protect the people, but you do not want another force to come and protect us. you have sold us. this is immoral. the general goes on, he is furious. he says, and i quote further, i need to know if you are capable of protecting my people, of stopping these bombs falling on
us or not. i need to know because if you are not, i need to make a deal with russia and the regime now and invite their planes to protect this region. bombs are falling on the general s people and he wants them protected. i want to tell you that i traveled to northern syria earlier this year. i have met with general. he is one of the most articulate and passionate defenders of his people, of the kurds in northern syria. even as this is going on,for now at least kurdish fighters are still guarding thousands of isis detainees in syria. isis detainees that the u.s. does not want to see on the loose. but these kurdish fighters will not wait forever. they are going to fight, they are going to move north accounting to all accounts and fight to protect their towns, their villages, their families, fight to protect their people and ally themselves with the
ir iraq. b-1 bombers like this were used to strike the assad regime in april and their 10 hour loiter time overhead will continue to be used against the group. a senior general in the u.s. led coalition said isis presents a very real threat to the long term stability of this region and our mission remains the same. the enduring defeat of isis. british and french forces will be staying in syria to battle isis and it s not immediately clear if those forces will be able to control u.s. aircraft for future strikes against isis, rick? rick: we know there are u.s. forces in iraq over the border and those forces can and will be used against isis in syria as well. they could, rick. in fact, there s over 5,000 american troops in iraq and there s no plans for those troops to leave. american and french artillery units have been positioned along the border and shelling isis targets in syria. the last isis held town in syria is within range of those cannons. a leading democrat on the senate a