administration line is it is still holding and doing the job and reduced violence to some degree but all eyes are on a meeting tomorrow in sochi between turkey and russia s president to see if they could hammer out a deal here. russia is backing the syrian regime who very quickly taken the place of the united states as the ally of the syrian kurds and now the united states has pulled out. but wolf, it is baffling to see these two weeks the u.s. gone from the central power broker here keeping the peace to now having moved troops into iraq to continue the isis fight. they re not going home. they re just having the same mission from a significantly worse tactical position leaving 200 or so in the south with much worse supply lines. wolf. clearly the kurds feel betrayed by the united states. nick paton walsh in syria for us. and ted dutsch of florida is joining us, a member of the judiciary and foreign affairs committee. congressman, thank you for joining us. your reaction first to see
the kurds or guard isis prisoners, hundreds of whom have escaped, but their mission will be to protect oil fields. barbara starr joins us now from the pentagon. barbara, i think folks at home will be confused by this pendulum swing. they re in, they re out. now some of them are staying in. this is purely about the oil fields? i don t think that s exactly the whole picture right now. where we are is this. most many of the u.s. troops have come out of the northern syria area along the turkish border. what we re now talking about are the troops that are in the eastern oil fields of syria. u.s. troops had been in that area for many, many, many months, working on the isis fight there. what secretary mark esper said in afghanistan earlier today is that they are not yet scheduled to come out anyhow, so as they stay for now, they will work on ensuring the oil fields are protected. have a listen to a bit of what he had to say?
between the two sides. now, here s the problem. president erdogan thinks that the sdf, the kurdish militias, are terrorists, and he says he absolutely will not negotiate with terrorists. david? all right, ian, thank you. and what about those u.s. troops now caught in the region? the pentagon is now trying to get them out safely. and then, of course, news of this call for a cease-fire tonight. let s get right to abc s chief global affairs correspondent martha raddatz. and martha, the president says even after u.s. forces get out of syria, they will remain in the region to monitor the situation to try to prevent a resurgence of isis, with news that so many of these isis fighters have escaped. reporter: that s right, david. there will be a very small contingent of american troops in southern syria, but they re not really near the isis fight. the rest of the american troops, about 1,000, will go to iraq and be available for anti-isis and counterterrorism missions. but without america
the isis fight. you talk to people. go back to 2014 when isis was on a tear. these were the first team to hand isis a battlefield defeat. and so, so many of the young women i talked to who were really at the front lines of that fight, and that s the work i ve been doing the past two years, poppy. you and i have talked about for this next book is about the young women who were on the front lines of that fight really pushing for so much change in their own society while fighting isis. a force which enslaved and raped women as a matter of course. and so now you see folks who are trying to figure out what to do. there s no place to go. and this is a battlefield partner that really did take bullets for the united states as the ground force while americans provided air power. and they are now facing a turkish offensive. 11,000 died have died as a result of this. fighting alongside u.s. soldiers in the fight against isis. for those women and children that you have interviewed extensively,
have spoken with the commander of the u.s.-backed syrian democratic forces. what did they tell you? they don t want war. they would have done anything the americans had asked to stave this off. but if they are forced to protect their families, that means they can no longer like watch and care for all the families of the 60,000 women and children from isis families they had been caring for since the end of the isis fight. plus, they now have custody of more than 10,000 isis prisoners that no one else wants to take back. gail, thank you very much for your expertise on this. great to join you. quick break. we ll be right back. biopharmaceutical researchers.