coordination, the risk of a crash or some other incident including firing on each other could definitely occur, and that is one of the biggest issues that we would have flying over syria. reporter: raqqah is very much in the u.s. cross hairs. the working theory is that al baghdadi the leader of isis may be nearby. cnn is also told they are trying to affirm a top leader of an al qaeda affiliate was recently killed. the u.s. has been heavily involved in that war plan for ramadi iraq. getting ramadi back is a must-win for the iraqis but there is a very long road ahead. barbara starr, cnn the pentagon. still ahead on cnn newsroom, new york city settles the racially charged death of
if it works the plan calls for iraqi forces to move west. but two months after iraqi forces ran from ramadi, isis threatens their ability to get it back. first and foremost, vehicle explosive devices are basically car bombs and truck bombs, and those could wreak huge havoc on forces that would go into a place like ramadi. reporter: and in the not so friendly skies over raqqah syria, the u.s. coalition found it had unwelcome company. on saturday, for the first time the coe liis says syrian war planes condubed airstrikes over raqqah at the same time coalition airstrikes were bombing bridges four miles away. worry the air campaign got even more dangerous. since there s no
the working theory is abu bakr al baghdadi mayic nearby. three are also trying to confirm a top leader of an al qaeda affiliate was killed in a recent strike in syria. behind the scenes the u.s. has been very heavily involved in that war plan for ramadi, iraq. u.s. officials say getting ramadi back is a must-win for the iraqis, but there is a very long road ahead. barbara starr, cnn, the pentagon. nigeria s president has shoeken up his country s military with boko haram carrying out other attacks. he replaced all the military chiefs from the previous sprags and appointed new ones. the president campaigned on promises to improve security and fight the terror group. in the last since weeks more than 500 people have been killed
fight. the kurds have the will to fight. iraqi special forces. iraqi special forces didn t even work for the government of iraq for almost a decade. they worked for us. they are very good at takings the fight to isis. but isis is a combined force of all of the former regime loyalists, all of the al qaeda in iraq people and all of the foreign fighters coming from syria. they re just in more places than you can get the most effective fighting forces. we need to sit down with the iraqis and sharpen this force and another thing, we re fighting this linear battle against them fighting on their terms, we need to be just as adaptive as they are. get into the isis rear. why are we not going out behind isis lines and cutting off their lines of communication. they want to call themselves a state we can knock them down as a state going out as far as raqqah syria, tell afar and cutting off their lines of communications instead of these set battles where we just clash heads using militias land few
we re dark and heaven forbid we ve got a problem where we could have prevented a terrorist attack or apprehended someone who was engaged in dangerous activity but we didn t do so because of inaction in the senate. well the senate will return from recess to hold a rare sunday session in an attempt to reach a compromise before the midnight dead aline but that may not be easy. senator rand paul in a statement today said tomorrow i will force the expiration of the nsa illegal spy program. on tuesday, secretary kerry will meet in paris with his international counterparts for the latest meeting of the global coalition against isis. it comes at what can only be described as a low point in the u.s. led mission with isis seizing major territory in iraq and syria nearly unopposed by the forces on the ground. joining me is a career counter terrorism officer in the u.s. navy and intelligence agencies and one of the foremost experts on al qaeda and its affiliates