from fighters you ve been spending time with? do they feel that, i wouldn t say stalled would be a word for the isis forces right now but do they feel the momentum has stabilized or slowed? well, if you look at a lot of front lines that around the controlled areas, they are not as active as they are moving further south towards the capitol of baghdad. what we re seeing up here is isis units testing the resolve. they will launch quick attacks, clashes that will last for a few hours at times, mortar rounds but no real direct confrontat n confrontation. the front line holding up to a certain degree. what is interesting to the capabilities of the iraqi security forces speaking with the governor of there, he said iraqi security forces are great
some u.s. lawmakers are blunter saying point blank he is got to go. christiane amanpour joins me now and covering iraq for a lot of years for time magazine. christiane, there seems to be no support for nuri al-maliki and clearly the white house believes there needs to be change. the president made that pretty clear going to say it s not up to the united states to choose who is the government of iraq but nonetheless, they have lost faith in nuri-al maliki, even hillary clinton basically told me iraqis need to get rid of maliki. who would be alternatives? we are hearing names floated, a sunni name and a shiite being floated. if you remember, he was the name associated most with helping to pull the u.s. into that war. so see how far things have come,
people don t quite know who to get into power. but one of the things i m being told, also, is that the shiites are genuinely terrified still. they are very afraid what will happen now is that the sunnis might think they can again take over. bobby, i mean, you ve worked in iraq for a long, long time and known maliki for a long time. do you have belief he s the leader that can reach out to sunnis and reach out to kurds. no, anderson. he s had plenty of opportunities to do that and he s doing none of it. he hasn t been doing it in the last 7 two hours when the pressure is great to do so. when it s clear his policies aren t succeeding, he s not shown flexibilities. i ve known him for a long time. i met him before he was considered prime minister candidate and even back then, he was very much a shiite partisan and his policies in government have remained consistently
the same time, while this is a cautious move to send in military advisors, anderson, senior administration officials explained they are going to be going in advisors and teams of 12 or so when they go out with iraqi forces to advice them and consult with them. that does potentially open them up to some danger and that is why senior administration officials were saying today that these advisors have been granted immunity unlike the situation that occurred between the u.s. and iraq back in 2011 and that if they need to, they can fire back in self-defense, anderson. arwa damon, as you know, the shia lead government wanted air strikes by the united states to help military on the battle field. i m wondering what the response up north was to the president s comments today and the idea of sending in advisors. well, the kurds are viewing
headquarters of the iraqi battalions where they will be based. as to when the air strikes are launched, the white house is not going to say when they will do that but you are right, and we ve been hearing this, i ve been hearing this from intelligence officials all week, as you say, that they felt that baghdad and the shia dominated areas were not as vulnerable because of the shiite populations there and shiite militia more loyal to the iraqi government and that does give them some time. the trouble is, i m told, by the same officials, without a comprehensive counter offensive from iraqi forces now with u.s. help, it s going to be very difficult and take time to rest back control of those areas in the north and west that have been taken over by isis and their sunni allies. very difficult, if not impossible, at least at this point to say the least. arwa damon, what are you hearing