recaptured the excess city of mosul, democratic forces who are primarily parish are advancing on another isis stronghold. in battle for a syrian city is intensifying. significantly smaller in size then most will, the fight for raqqa is still a major military challenge. isis has had months to dig in and are using many of the same tactics that they did in neighboring mosul, including using some of the 50,000 remaining civilians as shields against advancing troops. militants also regularly send suicide bombers and armed drones against anti-isis troops. coalition forces are also backed by american air power, which has launched hundreds of air strikes on isis positions in recent months. also among those fighting with the spf, dozens of foreign volunteers, including kevin howard. a former military contractor from california. i fought in iraq in
recaptured the excess city of mosul, democratic forces who are primarily parish are advancing on another isis stronghold. in battle for a syrian city is intensifying. significantly smaller in size then most will, the fight for raqqa is still a major military challenge. isis has had months to dig in and are using many of the same tactics that they did in neighboring mosul, including using some of the 50,000 remaining civilians as shields against advancing troops. militants also regularly send suicide bombers and armed drones against anti-isis troops. coalition forces are also backed by american air power, which has launched hundreds of air strikes on isis positions in recent months. also among those fighting with the spf, dozens of foreign volunteers, including kevin howard. a former military contractor from california. i fought in iraq in
to tackle. the two agreed on a cease-fire in southwest syria which takes effect in less than 24 hours. u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson who attended the trump/putin meeting said, quote, this is our first indication of the u.s. and russia being able to work together in syria, end quote. and new details in mosul, iraq, where an isis stronghold is on the verge of collapse. cnn s nick paton walsh is reporting the iraqi army is increasingly confident they are nearing the, quote, final stage of the final stage of kicking isis out of the old city of mosul. iraqi television showing pictures of destruction with plumes of smoke rising over the city. a spokesman for the iraqi army saying iraqi forces are, quote, continuing their advance to liberate the remaining parts of the old city of mosul. only a few tens of meters are left for our troops to reach the western bank of the river and establish full control over the city of mosul. fighting is still ongoing and
how big of a development is this in the coalition s war against isis? i think we need to be careful in talking to this in terms of es c es claer to measure. this was done in defense of syrian democratic forces that the coalition was supporting and has been supporting on the ground. that is a commitment that coalition made a long time ago when we agreed to help the syrian democratic forces on the ground. we made it very clear publicly not just to them, but publicly that if they came under fire, if they come under attack, we would come to their defense. so this was a long-standing understanding between the coalition and the regime. two, i think you can look at this as potentially a deterrent attack. in other words, they had to do this but maybe it will have a deterrent effect on the regime. i don t see this as escalatory. how far up the chain of command would that decision have gone? i don t know since i am not
mahomes. welcome back, everyone. the pentagon announced yesterday two military service members were killed fighting isis in afghanistan wednesday night. it happened the very same region where the military dropped the mother of all bombs two weeks ago. nbc s hans nichols has more. reporter: the fierce fire fight happening overnight. u.s. special operations forces joined by the afghan army attacking isis insurgents, killing around 40. but in the battle, two u.s. special operators were wounded, medevaced out alive but later died. a third was grazed by a bullet, staying on the battlefield. all happening in the same isis stronghold in eastern afghanistan, where the u.s. dropped a 21,000-pound