has been able to flourish, taking advantage of the security vacuum that has been created during the war. right now it s uncertain exactly what affect these air strikes will have on al qaeda. to give you a bit of comparison in 2016, according to monitoring groups, the united states carried out 38 such strikes. well, we re only a few months into 2017 and it looks like they re about at that number, martin. ian lee, i m sorry for the pause there. joining us now from cairo. thank you very much. a dozen civilians may have been hit by a chemical weapons attack in mosul, iraq, this week. this is believed to be the first time they ve been used in the city since the start of the mosul offensive. iraqi forces are still fighting isis, of course, for control of that city. cnn senior international correspondent ben wedeman has just returned from the hospital. he joins us live from erbil,
every day iraqi forces are freeing me neighborhoods from the fear of living under isis. but even as they are beating back the terrorists they continue to kill iraqi civilians. and their families, from a distance. isis now lobbing mortars into crowded neighborhoods. in all the world health organization says 40,000 civilians will need treatment for trauma injuries they received in the mosul offensive. cnn international correspondent phil black is live in erbil, iraq, this morning. hi, phil. hi, carol. the citizens inside mosul have been warned by iraqi authorities to stay in their homes, and hunker down. to not try and leave the city. the iraqi military forces that are moving through say they re being very careful not to harm those civilians. they re not using heavy weapons. they re not calling in air strikes. we ve been inside mosul and
one of the big international challenges awaiting donald trump is the battle to retake the iraqi city of mosul, a battle that s been raging for about a month now. isis or more accurately isil is fighting back planning to launch more suicide attacks in retaliation. throughout the presidential campaign trump planned to knock the hell out of isil. joining me now is our london-based foreign correspondent matt bradley. thanks so much for joining me. thanks for having me. let s talk about the conspiracy theory element. during the third debate back on october 19th this is what donald trump said about the mosul initiative, mosul offensive, take a look. you know who the big winner in mosul after we eventually get it and the only reason they did
reportedly used wooden decoy tanks to trick the coalition airplanes from not attacking those areas. so a lot of tricky maneuvers there and a lot of those civilians have not been able to get out. hallie? let s talk a little about donald trump, the president-elect will obviously inherit this u.s.-backed operation in mosul. are people in iraq concerned? how do you think that will affect the operation? reporter: look, if you re talking about generals and politicians, i think there is some concern because it s not really clear which way the donald trump administration is going to go. on one hand, he s criticized the mosul offensive, he s criticized the obama administration for missing out of that element of surprise. on the other hand, he s talked about bombing the heck out of isis in some areas. so, people don t really know what to expect. when it comes to civilians, quite frankly, they re not tuned into the details of the u.s. election. they re just concerned about getting out alive a
in mosul. to mobilize and rise up eventually against the islamic state. reporter: once government centers are under iraqi control it is more likely u.s. forces would move in to advise directly. as the mosul offensive moves forward, in syria, planning is under way for military operations against isis s declared capital raqqah. we know because raqqah holds such importance to them and the citizens there, those that remain are in every day in great danger. we know that something is going to have to be done about their presence in raqqah. for anti-isis fighters like these we visited in northern syria, getting to raqqah and holding on may be tough and there is no agreement who would govern if isis is defeated. and what is the cost of all this now? $9.5 billion since the war against isis began in tow 14.