you re in the situation room. there are escalating fears hours after a bomb scare near a crowded concert at the u.s. capitol. f-15 fighter jets directed to an air france flight. cnn has learned that law enforcement officials have been investigating ten threats against airline ersrs. also breaking, iraqi forces say they re standing by for zero hour to go into ramadi and fight isis terrorists who have seized and ravaged the city. cnn has powerful new video of ramadi s fall as the war of words plays out over who is to blame for the defeat. defense secretary ashton carter telling cnn in an exclusive interview the iraqis, quote, showed no will to fight. first we go to cnn s tom foreman. he has more on the security threats. reporter: brianna, two air
abadi hit back in a bbc interview. i m surprised he said that. he was very supportive of iraq. i m sure he was fed the wrong information. reporter: and the head of iran s elite qods force saying it was the u.s. that quote, has no will to fight isis. iraqi forces along with sunni tribal fighters and shia militias many backed by iran launched a counter offensive east of ramadi. the blame game aside, the situation remains dire. nearly 55,000 people have fled ramadi since isis captured it. and in the ancient city of palmyra, they have executed more than 200 people in the last ten days according to a human rights group. u.s. air strikes inside syria and iraq will continue but will never be enough carter told cnn. air strikes are effective but
that they re actually getting a paycheck. that s a problem when you re fighting a group like isis which is all about ideology. that s right. this is one of the reasons you re seeing shia militia move in. we ve got a shia led government backed by the iranians across the border. we re thousands of miles away and want the iraqis to look at the world through our perspective. they re closer to the iranians including the iranian generals sitting in baghdad saying bring it to the sunnis don t trust them and be careful bringing them into the government people like the sunni tribes. who will you listen to in baghdad? listen to the iranianers your backers across the border bring the shia militias into ramadi or the american the take the art of the long view and practice democracy and make friends with your enemies. tough scene? if they re getting mixed messages you don t know what to do. coming up the senate is heading towards what could be a weekend showdown over nsa surveillance of america
hour. i want to bring in correspondent arwa damon. she is there. she has an exclusive look in the new attacks. arwa. reporter: hi christine. actually significant developments in the last 24 hours. early yesterday morning, isis advancing into ramadi from the east. they had already taken over portions of the northern part of the city. this advance into the east sent thousands of refugees ss fleeing that we saw according to the deputy province council. these were having to ride in metal carts and sobbing. we saw elderly, children belongings piled in the metal carts as the refugees tried to cross the privilege frombridge from
itself. places to say to its followers, maybe there s another area we can have some success. this is not necessarily a sign that isis is on a role. it s a sign they are looking for geographic areas where the military is weak. you buy that? it s a good analysis. why they are focusing on ramadi is the question. this is where the tribal movement began against al qaeda in iraq. in 2007 started reaching out to the sunni tribes to fight al qaeda in iraq. it s a significance to al qaeda and the united states. this is really where al qaeda began to face its first big defeat. you know it s an awful situation. one final question to you, phil about this gyrocopter incident here. what kind of damage potentially, god forbid we don t want to it happen. say this was a bad guy, not a mailman seeking to change