Die fighting isis on the ground in iraq. but the administration still contends the u.s. mission in iraq is not a combat one. the general in charge of taking on isis in iraq told reporters, quote, u.s. forces are not in iraq on a combat mission, end quote, do not have boots on the ground. captain benec collins served the tours in afghanistan. we ll get to the politics of this in a minute, ben. first, take us through what you can tell from a trained eye, we saw on that video? leland if you look at the video, you can certainly see the professionalism of our special operations soldiers. especially the individuals in this unit. these guys are the pro bowlers of the special operations community. so it is no surprise that you see, you know, very methodical, precise movements. you also see the same thing in the level professionalism with the kurdish allies, which i think also shows how much work and how much effort our
Ate with come under fire, you are under an obligation. i guarantee those men saw them come under fire and there was no way they were not going to come to their assistance, which tends to happen in a trained advise and assist role. if we say something is noncombat, you got to be careful with that, because if you re going to be in the assist role, you could be very close to these fire fights and have to make the same determination. those delta force operators made that determination. you said the word slippery slope, which is one that has been used in the past to describe what happened in vietnam. it also started as a train, assist and support mission. is that where this is headed. u.s. forces will have to take on this fight against isis? well, look, let s remember president obama first said they were going to do everything they could to degrade and destroy isis. now, fast-forward, we re watching something where we even have the defense secretary say, well, we re not going to expand
Community has put into that relationship because, you know, you re going into an environment like this, you re working at nighttime, working with night vision, it is a very chaotic and complex environment so you have to have the trust of the allies and the trust of the people standing next to you. and watching that video there may be trust of the allies, but the reason that the delta force operators actually went into this mission, we re told, and didn t stay in the helicopters as they had planned to was because the kurds and their peshmerga were being overrun by isis. does that show while they may have good skills, they re not up to the task of leading these kinds of raids? i think we have to assess a standard. we see the same thing in afghanistan. but your question goes to the slippery slope that is trained, advise and assist. there is absolutely no way and i think the spokesperson in iraq said it, there is a moral obligation if you see the individuals you ve trained with and t
The first u.s. soldier to die fighting isis in iraq. elizabeth pram has more. the brand-new video obtained from news station arab 24 appears to be body cam footage showing the intense withdrawal of approximately 70 hostages, u.s. and kurdish troops stormed the prison after a tip the hostages were on the verge of being murdered. there are a couple of different shots you can see. in one of them you can see an isis flag hanging on the wall. another shows the troops clearing a line of men, some in blood-stained are robes with their hands above their heads. another you see a stream of hostages also be hurriedly pushed through a dark hallway barely lit. gun fire can be heard through the entire video. defense secretary ash carter said on friday the raid was not originally intended to include u.s. commandos, but as we know it did. and it took the life of master sergeant joshua wheeler. he had been deployed to iraq and afghanistan 11 times. he was training and advising kurdish forces in fight
news of another knife attack by palestinians in israel comes to light. a new plan hopes video cameras will bring an end to the violence. a deal worked out in the past couple of days by secretary of state john kerry and jordan s king abdullah means new camera systems will look over the old cities most sacred ground. israel says the proposed cameras will prove it is not expanding its presence near the ail aska mosque but some say it will help israelis spy and arrest muslims. two palestinians dressed as ultra orthodox jews stabbed an israeli in west bank today, injuring him before they fled the scene. today we re getting our first glimpse of the joint mission to free dozens of hostages from isis. this video is actually from the raid that rescued 70 people from execution. one american was killed during the fire fight. master sergeant joshua wheeler. he is the first u.s. soldier to