we ve seen indicators that they are feeding that information, you have more targets to strike. remember, early on in the war, there was a human cry about only one-fourth of the planes were dropping their bombs and three-quarters of them were coming back. that s changed radically over the last couple months as we ve gained more intelligence. and yes, it s not only a physical factor of dropping a lot of weapons, but it s also a psychological factor of continued pounding of these fighters in syria and iraq. so it s not the case i mean, we re hearing that that drumbeat from a lot of folks who are critical of the air campaigns so far who say, look, that pilots are returning with, you know, with bombs that have been fired, with munitions that haven t been used and that the gloves need to come off. you re saying essentially that s not the case? it s not the case anymore. when we were flying early on from the uae, you re talking about several hours of flight time against a preplanned
17 months. look this is just an example where if we got to look at achieving the effects we want militarily we have to identify the target, constrain and take out and destroy the command and control t logistic, the financing capable. but it is not just a military operation. the headquarters is in iraq and syria. but the fact they feel they have taken on american air power and they are winning is allowing them co-tonight to recruit this a very sophisticated social media campaign. over 200,000 estimated positive tweets on social media a day from isis and they are inspiring and directing individuals to either travel to iraq and syria. we know of 30,000 individuals from a hundred countries that we know of that have traveled over there to join the caliphate, train and potentially come back. 4500 from western countries. these are waiver countries. those that could just come into america. and 250 americans that we know. but the more immediate threat is really inspiring those in place,
anything like that. the described it as sound lookic a war zone. we do know at least two were killed. at least seven arrested. but no clues yet as to who was arrested and whether they are any closer to finding the alleged ring leader of friday s paris attacks. anderson? clarissa, the idea that this guy, this so called ring leader or planner of friday s attacks could actually be in france is really startling. we know according to authorities that previously he was in syria. he had been involved in previous attempts. there was the attempt on the train that was thwarted by several american military personnel who subdued the attacker. but the idea that he would have been able to go from syria and reenter france is extraordinary. it is.
earlier this year, belgian authorities had questioned him when they suspected that he and his older brother, ibrahim, wanted to go to be jihadi volunteer fighters in syria. the french authorities let him go. he has since been missing. but the car that he was driving in was later found here in this brussels neighborhood of molenbeek. let me set the scene what s going on right now. in the main square here which was full of journalists yesterday talking about how this neighborhood has been a recruiting ground for a disturbing number of violent jihadis, right now you have a gathering of residents of this community that are trying to show their support and commemoration for the victims in paris and also to kind of just make a show of peace. and according to a communique released by the organizers here, they also want to declare that repression should not be a response to the terrorism acts
they say this group was ready to attack and could have launched a second wave of terror an the city at any moment. the alleged target this time was a business district in paris. another chilling twist. the target of the raid police believe and this is the big news we ve learned in the last several hours. police believe the suspected ring leader of friday s horrific attacks was actually hiding here in paris. if you had talked to authorities yesterday they would have said that he was most likely still in syria. now they believe he may be in paris. and he was a target of this raid. at this moment it is not yet clear if he s among those killed or captured. but france s president says that a state of emergency blankets his nation. these actions confirm to us once again that we are at war.