out. the city is surrounded. from jerusalem, john any idea where this will end and when raqqa will fall? erica matt s good question. there is no definitive time frame at this time, but if the battle to retake mosul and raqqa is no indication to reap retake raqqa, isis is capital, if not longer, that said, syrian forces, the u.s. backed alliance with kurds have relieved suburbs surrounding raqqa and are now closing in on the roughly 2500 isis fighters that remain. basically held up in the city, taking that last stand. the u.s. backed forces entered raqqa to the south on sunday, and basically have already cut out isis s supply lines and escape routes to the west and to
affiliate in syria that killed dozens of people in northern damascus. an attack in the heart of the city is rare. today sends a message that series capital remains a major target. the latest attack comes as the fight to retake raqqa from isis in northern syria continue straight on. cease-fire talks arse supposed to start soon to end the long ending and brutal civil war. eric: thank you. gillian: investigators are searching for clues in the nightclub shooting in arkansas. up next, details on someone who is in the middle of that scene. eric: plus majority leader mitch mitch mcconnell is working behind the scenes. will he have to look beyond capitol hill to do a? we will discuss why some say governors may be the key in making that will happen. work with us democrats were willing to meet you in the middle. who have always been willing to
here s another photo from the isis news agency showing the smoke rising. this damn is west of raqqa. it s the largest damn in all of syria. they were worried about it for a while. this photo is from april. a u.s.-backed syrian fighter holding weapons near raqqa. jennifer griffin has an update on the latest push. jennifer? shep, may not be a coincidence that the allies decided to launch the operation to retake raqqa on the anniversary of d-day. 73 years ago today on june 6, 1944, dwight d. eisenhower over saw the effort to preserve liberty and freedom. it s hard to convince new recruits that isis a winning cause when they just lost their twin capitols in iraq and syria. and that statement was released by centcom this morning.
townsend talked about how they encircled the capitol and warned civilian to leaves. we were the first to report that isis moved their leadership out of raqqa down the euphrates river. today captain jeff davis said there were a few isis fighters left in raqqa and many civilians which will make this a long fight, shep. 26,000 syrian kurds are leading the ground force to strike this symbolic blow. no so we re clear, this hammer strike in paris in no way related to this raqqa operation. is that right? well, i don t know that we can say that. the pentagon spokesman would not make a direct link. the french interior minister said the notre dame attacker shouted this is for syria before striking. in the meantime, u.s. officials fear as the isis capitol falls,
the arabs will not tolerate that. and while i understand the attraction to the syrian kurds at a tactical level, i believe it s actually a strategic blunder because there s no political end state that s workable when you re using the syrian kurds to take arab land. so we are in something of a donenybrook here, to be frank about it. eric: let me first start with raqqa. what do you think is the most effective way to capture it from the caliphate, from isis, and who should do that, and where does that leave the syrian kurds? yeah, our problem has always been these lands are syrian-arab lands, but most of them are fighting assad in the we were part of syria to try to in the western part of syria to try to take back their government. and i ve believed for some time that the answer to take the territory away from isis lieses with the arabs in the region assisted by united states conventional forces. now, that means we ve got boots on the ground, that means we re