pinning their hopes on a counteroffensive by the same iraqi troops against the islamic state. conner powell, those iraqi troops had any success so far? we understand pro government iraqi forces launched a counterattack against isis near ramadi. primarily compromised of sunni tribal fighters and also irani-backed shiite militias and in the past 24 hours or so they re beginning to have some success, but a week after losing the major iraqi city of ramadi these gains today are really sort of small towns and villages around the major city of ramadi progress but hardly a game changer needed against isis. the expectation that the shiite militias these irani backed shiite militias will have an impact iraqi tv is also reporting that reinforcements are being sent these are
tom, appreciate you being here. from the defense secretary about our own partners quote, no will to fight. stunning. yeah. good to be with you. look the problem here is that the administration is trying to push the blame on to anyone else. we have seen the iraqi military collapsing. there is an absence of will to fight. but the answer to that cannot be that we simply restrain our own involvement because it does affect us the politization of sectarianism why did isis take ramadi so all sunnis in iraq are appropriated under the banner of isil and they the choice isil is trying to save you yield to us and join our cause, or you yield to the shia militias which in the collapse iranian backed who are friendly toward the they like power drilling. that s their tradition and sunnis know it. you mean taking a power drill and going into unbelieve atrocities on both sides.
i want to put up a quote from the central command spokesperson where he says momentum is on our side. we are confident that we have the right strategy. that s from the colonel there, the spokesperson for central command here. it is one thing to have a bad policy count on the iraqi troops who embarrassed them receives in ramadi ran away from their fighting positions, red isis in a significant way. it is another thing to seem to be delusional and say, momentum is on our side when our partners on the ground are losing every day. right. look and people can go and judge for themselves they just if you go and google look at a map of isis control they control they connect up to their resorts on the border with syria, in iraq across to ramadi and baghdad. they control the lines of communication. that s proof, forensic proof the strategy is not working and the problem is with our position at the moment the only thing moderate iraqis can do is to rely on iran and the iranian
in iraq, security forces continue their counterattack against isis near ramadi. the dole to push the terror group away from a key military base and baghdad. good morning. thank you so much for spending some time with us this morning. i m joe johns. i m in for victor blackwell and you re christi paul. thank you. i miss that part of it. it s a little early for all of us here, i guess! glad to have you with us, joe. cleveland s mayor is urging the people of the city to show the world that peaceful demonstrations and dialogue is, indeed the way forward. protesters you see them here walking through the streets overnight after a judge acquitted a police officer in the shooting deaths of timothy russell and melissa williams. most were peaceful but some
thank you for giving us an update sir. thank you, ma am. what apparently happened was that the iraqi forces just showed no will to fight. they he were not outnumbered. in fact they vastly outnumbered the opposing force. and yet they failed to fight, they withdrew from the fight, and that says to me and i think to most of us that we have an issue with the will of the iraqis to fight isil and defend themselves. what you just heard is the harshest assessment yet of iraqi fighters from a high ranking obama administration official ash carter saying that isis take over of ramadi is evidence that iraqi forces are at best unreliable. now the administration is