isis control. u.s. air power is there, u.s. special military operations helping to coordinate some of those air strikes. would more u.s. troops be needed though if this military offensive against isis in sinjar is going to be successful? potentially, yes, wolf. and we ve said this from the very beginning and i know all the military commanders have said when other forces in the area, when the indigenous forces step up and when the government is not sectarian and they start applying forces across the board, then we will step up with them. we ve seen a gradual increases in that. it s not mission creep, it s just, hey, they have done these things, we will help them. we ve said that from the very beginning. so, yes, i think as either the peshmerga or the iraqi security forces improve and continue on with different attacks in areas, we may see more u.s. forces involved certainly. phil, how long could this offensive last? i think longer than we want to be comfortable with.
missiles appear to have struck areas that are outside of isis control. you re watching cnn newsroom. still to come this hour, families of those killed at an oregon community college get a condolence visit from the u.s. president even as shootings break out at two more u.s. campuses. details ahead. plus, the u.s. republican party is in a frenzy trying to fill the third most-powerful position in american politics. now all eyes are on this man. (charge music) you wouldn t hire an organist without hearing them first. charge! so why would you invest without checking brokercheck? check your broker with brokercheck.
government, bashar assad. those purple dots right there, those are the russia positions inside syria. they are only where assad is. yes, they re where they re exposed the least to any kind of outside danger from isis or even from the rebels. they re not really in forward positions. which i suppose makes sense if you re basically not committing any serious ground troops, if all you re going to do is bomb the rebel positions, then you want to be bombing them from a safe distance. so yes, the pink stuff is where the assad continues to rule. this is all mostly isis controlled or isis influenced territory. no russians over there. when you look, the red all under isis control and isis influence. then you look at where the blasts are. those are where the russian air strikes have been over the past two days. that really is not coordinated at all where isis is or where isis is under control.
he tells us in one of his friends also tells us that a 12-year-old was used as a suicide bomber in iraq recently, a 10-year-old boy also had his hand amputated. so it is a really very disturbing story that might not have gotten as much coverage as the coverage that has been given to the fate of girls under isis control. richard, what can be done to combat this aside from having some sort of ground troops there or something that provides an alternative to isis because it seems that wherever they are entrenched and in power it s their rules regardless of air strikes are hitting them? the air strikes are having an impact but not weakeni ining is. in fact, isis is growing in a very fast rate, particularly in areas outside of syria and iraq. the isis branches are growing rapidly. and there s an effort under way
going to great lengths to protect its priceless history. fred pleitgen tells us about the measures they have taken to save it. reporter: the ancient castle of palmyra now under isis control. it s one of many historic and archaeological sites threatened by syria s ongoing civil war and weighing heavily on the head of syria s antiquities and museums. i am each day i receive new message from destruction of the city. reporter: but he vowed to put up a fight. wanting a massive operation to evacuate artifacts and bring them to damascus for cataloging and storage in secret locations. we are saving objects like this from syrian sites.