by any stretch of the imagination. as we ve seen in iraq, often a foreign military force is a lightning rod for insurgent activity and focuses minds against the outsiders. there are no good military strategies here. it looks like a focus now of different nations trying to use air power. perhaps getting turkey to seal that border more effectively. frankly, without crossing that porous border, isis are in a much tighter spot. that can begin to turn things around. while it s ridiculous, frankly, to say isis is contained, there s untruth that the territory around syria and iraq has gotten smaller. we were in sinjar has peshmerga take that down. they re in afghanistan, increasingly in libya. they re not a global phenomenon shrinking. you saw firsthand in iraq as you saw them retake sinjar. colonel, i want to get your take on what you heard from the two world leaders.
don t start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. joint pain and damage. can go side by side. ask how enbrel can help relieve joint pain and help stop joint damage. enbrel, the number one rheumatologist-prescribed biologic. let s return to the developments we re following in the war against isis. the masked men may now be dead. the pentagon is still trying to determine if a drone strike took jihady john out. in iraq a victory for kurdish forces backed by u.s. air power. they forced militants out of sinjar. joining us to discuss this is colonel rick francona and
two they would already be inside the city itself. most people put that down to one thing, that s coalition air power. it s moved in and flattened anything can resembles an isis firing position or vehicle. an intense fight, though, has been had here this morning. it may still be under way. and the question is, are isis waiting in the town along with their explosive devices for the pa pashmerga to head in? that s what we ll know in the hours ahead. i ll ask you one other question. we do hear the gun fire in the background. you tell us when you need to move on. but this other question to you, if you can, just to explain the significance of these fighters to retake sinjar to our viewers around the world. . reporter: this is a city so much in the global spotlight when isis moved in last year. the atrocities inflected on the
democratic congresswoman and president of the woodrow wilson international center sfr scholars jayne harmon. the kill iing of jihady john, t victory in sinjar, those are significant developments, but i don t think we have to go overboard and say it s turning the tide. i agree, it s too early to put the banner that says mission accomplished on top of the aircraft carrier. and in sinjar they have to hold it. they with respearen t the domin fighters. it was the peshmerga that won the battle with our air cover. i don t know where this goes. we still have to get raqqa, ramadi and continue the raids. there s a lot of other stuff going on. sinjar is important because it s on that road from raqqa, the so-called capital of the islamic state. which they still control the second largest city in iraq.
a a major face of isis and out there carrying out the horrific executions. the cutting off of the heads is just absolutely horrible, and so it is important symbolically and psychologically, and going to hurt isis in the short run as far as recruiting and takes away the image of themming being invincible, and so it is significant and i give the military a lot of credit, because we have very little if any intelligence on the ground from syria, and for them to find him and track him and kill him, if that is the case, it is an extraordinary achievement. and the coalition air strikes led by the u.s., and back up the kurdish and peshmerga operation, it seems that things are moving in the right direction, based on the nick paton walsh report that you saw. is the united states taking a more aggressive approach not only on the ground, but in the air, and some special forces were near sinjar call manage the air strikes? wolf, i hope. so i hope that the president