neighborhoods inside of ramadi. when you look at isis territory lost in iraq and syria over the past year, you re talking about 40% of their territory lost. is isis on its heels? is it caliphate shrinking? isil is in a defensive crouch now. their caliphate is shrinking. you ve said it. they ve lost 40% of the territory they once held here in iraq. that s significant. isil depends on holing territories. that s what s different about them. they re not just terrorists. they want to hold ground. that s also vulnerability and something we ve been attacking. what about in syria? well, in syria, too, we have less of a relationship with the ground forces there in syria. so they ve lost, the estimates vary somewhere between 10% and 20% of the territory they once held in syria. but the estimates are a little bit tougher to get our hands around. we re starring to build
preparing the trip, every night i felt a knife on my throat. i felt it. physically. jurgen todenhofer is a german journalist. last year he crossed the border into isis territory. i think you must know your enemy if you want to defeat it. he went to mosul, an iraqi city about the size of philadelphia. population around 1.5 million. it s the biggest prize isis has captured. this extraordinary video gives us a rare look into everyday life under isis. it brings to mind a writer s concept, the banality of evil. isis has its own license plates and traffic cops who give parking tickets. and there are friendly shopkeepers. completely brainwashed.
have done that. it s arguable. one retired military general says the obama administration should collaborate with russia in the fight against isis. it seems to me the right answer is to partner with russia to attack isis. because at the end of the day, the power in place, what we have to worry about most in syria is not the syrian rebels, not assad, but isis. with setbacks for isis, they report that the terrorist , promise his followers to remain faithful. . t the. and reductions in isis territory. the commitments, they say, stig still fauchl short. john kerry called it a
at how to disrupt isis and by attacking isis over in iraq and disrupting their capabilities pb. in terms of disrupting isis overseas and the ultimate impact back here become here we see isis territory has dropped since january. how important is that in when you re attacking isis in iraq and in syria, the ability of that organization to recruit here in the united states is very different. we re not talking about people coming here those that are already established in the u.s., who might be able to take up arms against the united states here domestically, what we saw
we begin with an extraordinary chance to look into the islamic state. not a single reporter has dared to venture there. since the gruesome beheadings of journalists began last year. imagine seeing this. i m john cantlie, the british citizen abandoned by my own government. and this. these could be my last hours in this world. and then heading straight into the heart of darkness. but that is precisely what this man did. during the months i was preparing the trip, every night i felt a knife on my throat. i felt it physically. jurgen todenhofer is a german journalist. last year he crossed the border into isis territory.