full of kirkuk. kirkuk was actually a very friendly area during the iraq war. i remember flying in a number of times to the air base in tekirk and it s very sympathetic. that said, isis, as they re losing ground in mosul and syria and elsewhere, they re trying to send the point mainly to think potential recruits and to their people they re still on the offensive. i think that s what this stems from it. i m not overly worried about the fall of kirkuk, basically, but i do think we have to be aware that they are going to lash out s that could include, by the way, lashing out in europe, lashing out in the united states, or other places in the middle east. it s very likely. i know there s great fear that the isis terrorists, they can launch attacks against the oil fields, blow up oil fields, blow up a dam, if you will, cause enormous, enormous grief for the people of iraq. let s talk politics for a moment while i have you, congressman. mark meadows, congressman from north carolina. he s a
offensive to help a campaign in a presidential election. i don t ascribe that to anybody. i have major disagreements with president obama, but i also don t think he would do an offensive just simply to help in a presidential race. and i don t frankly see how this does help hillary clinton. i don t see how it helps donald trump either. this is part of what needs to happen to liberate mosul, and so i don t put a lot of stock in it. i highly doud mosul will be liberated within two week was, anyway. it s going to be a while and now that these isis terrorists thoir own counteroffensive against kirkuk, an oil-rich area. a lot of iraq s oil is in kirkuk, i remember when i was there, i was in mosul. if the isis forces could take kirkuk that would be an enormous loss for the iraqi government. i don t know if that s realistic, but they launched and assault there. how worried about you about that? i m worried in that obviously loss of life perceived instability, things along that line. i m re
keep in mind, the united states, who s better at this than anybody, it took us a while to pacify mosul. this could be a long road, indeed. let s not forget when the isis terrorists took mosul more than two years ago they captured a lot of sophisticated u.s. military equipment, armored vehicles, among others. so they do have weapons. they do have capabilities. there s no doubt about that. you heard donald trump at the presidential debate with hillary clinton the other night say, this, the timing of this iraqi/kurdish military offensive right now was designed to try to help hillary clinton s campaign. do you believe that? no. no, not at all. i mean, you know, look, i ve been extremely critical of president obama and some of the civilian leaders we have in terms of timing. in terms why it s taken so long, and things along that line, but no. that s a pretty dbig charge to say somebody is doing a military
nick pateing walsh, as i always say, be careful over there. talking more about the iraqi military offense on mosul. joining us from chicago, illinois, republican congressman add ang kinsberg, remains a major in the u.s. air national guard, former member of the house arms services committee. congressman, what are you hearing about the progress in this battle to liberate mosul? well, seems like the front end of this battle has gone pretty well. scene in mind, what you have right now is outskirts. it s not the main part of the city. the second biggest city in iraq, which you can compare to, you know, milwaukee or something like that in terms of size. the real question s going to be, does isis decide to stay and fight to the end? in which case, you have a block to block fight. looking for boobytraps, ieds and it will be very slow going, or does it at some point isis make a stand and decide to melt away and go to, you know, spiritual center of raqqah? that s the real question.
around mosul, the second largest city in iraq. a key tart get in the fight for iraq. nick paton walsh joins us. what s the latest? what are you seeing from the ground where you are? reporter: this attack on kirkuk, very much a typical tactic of hitting an unexpected area. kirkuk held by the peshmerga launching many of the attacks against mosul at the moment trying to take the plains around that key city off isis. the kirkuk attack, coming at dawn, used a number of different assets positito attack that cit still ongoing. able to get pictures on live kurdish television giving people the idea isis can strike at will. still not upsetting the applecart of the main campaign, that continues to push ahead. finding stuff resistance. we ourselves saw how drone used to spot peshmerga positions,