the first gulf war and second gulf war and fought in the u.s. occupation as well. obviously this offensive to retake mosul is something the united states is very interested in because it is involved in it. more than 5,000 u.s. military personnel on the ground assisting iraqi forces in the offensive to drive isis out of mosul. the u.s. led coalition aircraft playing a key role in hitting isis targets within the city. also, given that secretary mattis is well familiar with the sensitivity on the ground, before arriving, he stressed that the united states unlike what we heard from president trump during the campaign and after his inauguration, is not interested in iraq s oil. all of us in america have generally paid for our gas and oil all along. i m sure we will continue to do so in the future.
we re not in iraq to seize anybody s oil. reporter: of course, this aven offensive is expected to take time. it took more than three months to take the eastern part of the city. in the west, the challenges are more serious in terms of the weaponry isis is using. they are now using a lot of armed drones. they dug tunnels and other means of defense. there are about 2,000 to 3,000 isis fighters within the city. it is expected to be a long and bloody battle. and civilians receiving pamphlets dropped and taking shelter. ben wedeman, thank you. ana, it is almost that time of morning. let s see what is coming up on new day. the chris cuomo joins us. good to see you. happy monday. i hope you got special time with the family over presidents weekend. we will take on the president