punish them he said. russia started that by about bombing its capital in syria, the city of raqqa. the city of raqqa is now the target of the russian air strikes. entrance has carried another round of its own on the city. this latest wave of attacks comes as france makes an unprecedented demand for european allies to support the country s military action against isis. an. as for the u.s. it has been bombing raqqa for months. american-led air strikes are being credited with helping push them out of sinjar. joining me now by phone frommer be, iraq, sophia jones who has been reporting on the ysatis people in sinjar. you were in sinjar right after isis had been pushed out. what was the scene like there. ing. > i was there just two days
we knew one of the victims, ibrahim. we interviewed in turkey almost a year ago and asked him about the threats on his life. he didn t flinch of course there is danger, but we are the sons of our country. if we don t show the crimes of isis to the whole world, who will? ibrahim was proud of his work with a group of citizen journalists who call themselves raqqah is being slaughtered silent silently. they showed bread lines in raqqah, contrary to the claims that the islamic state is thriving. they put a ransom on my head, they told us, for anyone who killed me. we told him we hope he stayed safe. i m taking precautions, he told us. i rarely leave my apartment. so how did isis manage to reach and murder ibrahim.
129 in paris on friday. 12 planes took off from bases in the uae and jordan. they attacked the city of raqqa in northern syria, which is the self-proclaimed capital of daesh, the islamic state, as they call themselves. the fighter planes dropped 20 bombs. the french defense ministry says all of the targets were destroyed. meanwhile, in france police are conducting some anti-terror raids in multiple cities across the country. now, whether or not this will actually yield results directly connected to the friday attacks is another question. but they re working overtime. calais in the north, grenoble, toulouse in the south as well. unclear what has emerged from those particular operations. now, we know more about some of these suicide bombers who detonated explosives at the stade de france. the first of them, we understand, was carrying a counterfeit passport, some sort
me on. in addition that these air strikes have been taking place with oural ply france on the city of raqqa. we also are getting these reports of some sort of stepped-up cooperation between the united states and france in e terms of intelligence sharing. what is this next step as isis appears all the more imminent. it s been a weekend of grief for those in paris and it is an opportunity for a new dawn in the approach to removing isis from this earth. these attacks by the french on raqqa, that s one step, but i think it also presents now the opportunity for the u.s., the french and most importantly our middle east allies to really come together and take isis seriously and recognize there s no headquarters of isis. they don t wear uniforms and they root themselves in small and large cities and they are all over the world and to defeat them it will take a strategy.
identified that most of the air strike have taken place in the eastern part of the city of raqqa. among the targets that they are saying that have been hit include a training site as well as what they believe to be a command center for isis in the city of raqqa. now keep in mind that raqqa is the defacto capital, if you will, of the so-called islamic state. it is where many of the major strong holds in terms of its command and control infrastructure exist and they have been tweeting out that over the past two and a half hours they have been able to confirm the sound of fighter jets above the raqqa and 30 air strikes as of now hitting most of the targets and mostly concentrated in the eastern part of the city. aim an mohyeldin, thank you, appreciate it. a member of the house permanent select committee on intelligence. congressman, thanks very much for joining us. thank you, chris, for having