special forces in mosul, but fighting still rages with just a few hundred isis fighters left. cnn senior international correspondent nick paton walsh takes us to the front lines. reporter: winning here comes only with dust and ruin. this was a day iraqi special forces were meant to take back the symbolic al nuri mosque of mosul s old city but ended up their leaders declared victory while they were bitterly fighting. literally to the side of the mosque is where isis have been. the aim was to encircle the sacred area isis themselves destroyed. [ gunfire ] yet they ve lost so many to isis. they moved carefully against an enemy even with high-tech help they rarely see.
iraq and syria and launching multiple terror attacks. what russians are saying this morning is that they believe that their strike in syria killed 330 isis fighters on may 28th and they are still checking whether as they are suggesting the isis leader was among them. well, if al baghdadi is, in fact, dead what could it mean for the future of isis? well, there are mixed views about that as well. some people think that make the point that these jihadi groups, remember that isis is the result of a split from al qaeda. they morph and they move and they select new leaders, so removing the leader may not be as big a blow as others are suggesting because, of course, he is a very, very strong figure. he appeared there in mosulle preaching and calling calling for a caliphate back in 2014, so
the majority of isis fighters who haven t been killed have fled out of mosul, back into syria, towards raqqah. and actually, the onslaught on raqqah, which started in the last few weeks, has been far more effective than we might have assumed. isis appears to have been fairly effectively routed from the city, and they re being pushed south. so, it certainly is in its final stages with quite a few of the top isis leadership killed. but that growth was, you know, of isis as a terrorist force and as a force that was able to occupy a substantial amount of land, that was all baghdadi s doing, so he is a major, major figure, the most wanted terrorist in the world, if you will. and if he was killed, that is, of course, a very big deal. and the brutality of his methods have been well documented torture, rape, public executions, crucifixions, i mean, paraded in front of the cameras, broadcast on social
afghan comrades. we have given them total authorization. frankly, that s why they ve been so successful. the largest non-nuclear bomb targeting isis fighters. 16 years after 9/11, we are still fighting a war in afghanistan. we have more threats right now than ever before. we need a strategy. mounting concerns that north christine romans could conduct its sixth nuclear test. it s entirely plausible he might consider using chemical weapons. it s a touch-and-go situation that could escalate into an all-out conflict. north korea is a problem. the problem will be taken care of. announcer: this is new day with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. good morning, everyone. welcome to your new day. chris is off this morning and john berman joins me. happy friday. great to have you here. good to be here. breaking news. the pentagon releasing new video of that massive bomb that hit and killed dozens of tunnels and caving in eastern afghanistan. the u.s. commanding general
it is not related to any other outside efforts. other than da ish. reporter: there are up to 600 isis fighters and da ish fighters in afghanistan u.s. operation forces are going against. in washington, donald trump was asked did he know about the mission? did he authorize this extraordinary event? listen to what he had to say. did you authorize it, sir? everybody knows exactly what happened. and what i do is i authorize my military. we have the greatest military in the world and they have done a job as usual. we have given them total authorization. that s what they re doing. frankly, that s why they have been so successful lately. reporter: total authorization. critical to understand what the president may be saying here. that doesn t mean he didn t know about it.