decision has left a vacuum syrian government forces have moved into the area as part of their deal with the kurds to thwart the turkish led assault and syria s ally russia it is also moving to fill that void that was left by those departing u.s. troops. the syrian town of reza pounded by texas at tillery across the border. a week into takis offensive a new than syria fighting still rages here to push back syrian militias seen here at battling kurdish fighters who are counterattacking to retake the town. the turkish onslaught has left the kurdish autonomous administration in northern syria little choice but to turn to the assad regime for help. all syrian government troops have pushed forward to stop the turkish advance. they have
there in syria fighting. this is the view of congressional republicans and in favor of someone in turkey who, frankly, hasn t been a great ally of the united states. guys? hans, thank you very much. hans nichols for us at the white house. let me go on with this conversation with some of the words used to describe what president trump has done. used t president trump has done trump s sunddden decision. this move which came after a phone call between president trump and aturkey s leade eer p the way for a military operation near the syrian border. now cukurdish fighters have bee america s most reliable partner in the fight against isis. the president defended his move saying it fulfills his promise
the state department unless what was ordered ends up happening. i don t think that s the case here. it s scary for people, i think, to imagine a strong person like secretary mattis leaving the pentagon, but if he has so little influence in the 11th hour to talk the president out of this mistake, you wonder what s the difference. but i ve rarely incurred so much unified protest that in this instance everybody is against it. steve, you have general mattis in the pentagon, which we ve applauded from day one. but right now, you have three times as many people on the american border fighting as admiral sevitis said, an imaginary foe, as you do in syria fighting holding off in an extraordinary manner russia, iran s aggression, which really does hurt israel if left
high-end nightclub right with a lot of foreign tourists? reporter: very possible, frankly. as you know, andrea, we ve been talking about this for a long time. turkey has been the main conduit for foreign fighters entering in syria and coming out of syria. turkey has done more recently to tighten up its border, but for years, isis used this country as something like a home base, a safe territory, and there was a little bit of a don t disturb the country where you have an operation base sort of agreement. you saw isis transitioning through here for years and not counting out very many attacks, carrying out very many attacks. nowsirkish troops are inside syria fighting, according to the turkish military they claim they have killed more than 1,000 fighters from isis in their military campaign in syria, so
found a place where they can operate in total secrecy as well as have access ways to the european black market. so they chose that. and they actually have one of the largest number of per capita members of isis in syria fighting right now, larger than the french per capita. that s why they chose that. and they have the same language in the southern part. meantime it s an al qaeda linked group, not isis, that s claimed responsibility for yesterday s attack in mali. do you think two totally separate attacks? or is there any reason to think that al qaeda was emboldened by isis high profile attack? well, the way the terrorists, you know, team leaders actually have to plan these missions, it s very hard to go on a moment s notice and just drop what you re doing, get your weapons, go out to a target. they may have had these targets surveilled for a long period of time. and they may have been emboldened. they might have thought this is