all eyes will be in times square tomorrow night where an estimated one million partygoers will be ringing in the new year. officials say new york city has received no credible security threats. but the nypd is leaving nothing to chance. officials say 6,000 police officers, hundreds of them with long guns, radiation detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs will be on guard. elite counterterrorism cops will also be on hand. rick leventhal joins us from times square. hi, rick. hey, julie. the nypd says this is the best-prepared city to prevent a terror attack. probably the safest place in the world to ring in the new year, right here in times square. believe it or not, where they will have 600 to 800 more police officers than years past. 6,000 total cops assigned to this particular location tomorrow night and that includes that elite counterterrorism unit, the critical response
battle under way for control of ramdy. isis forces trying to retake the city. iraq defense minister sources say they moved into the center of ramdy but they re having trouble because the isis terrorists are using civilians in the city as human shields. let s bring in cnn s robin to tell us more. cnn has just learned the following. according to officials from anbar command, that s what the iraq forces, 20 isis militia have been killed in this morning s assault. as you said, it s an incredibly slow and sensitive assault because isis has forced a number of civilians to stay within the city and act as human shields. in order to minimize casualties, the iraqi forces, special forces, they re a part of the elite counterterrorism unit,
an msnbc military analyst. nice to see you this morning. i want to you explain to all of us the impact this type of news has on the armed forces of this country. well, it s a huge impact. these special operations troops, particularly the so-called army, navy, air force in this elite counterterrorism unit, that level of loss in one blow is a huge impact. now, it won t affect in any significant way our ability to fight going forward. but it clearly was a moral blow in that tight-knit community. for all of us at home this is such a sad reminder for so many of us who are had family and friends who have fought and some we ve lost over the years in the war on terrorism. 15 helicopters have crashed or experienced forced landings in afghanistan this year, only two involved enemy fire. when we talk about this latest incident, does it indicate we