the word. thank you very much for joining us. we ll let you get back to the very important tasks ahead. god bless. alisyn. okay. more breaking news this morning. a major operation now under way in iraq as forces look to take back territory under the control of isis. iraqi forces surrounding key areas in anbar province including ramadi. cnn has complete coverage starting with senior international correspondent nick paton walsh. he s live for us in baghdad. what s happening there, nick? reporter: alisyn we re at the station trying to see these announcements by a number of iraqi officials translates into hard action on the ground. first of all we heard the major announcement from the shia militia backed by iran who gave a press conference saying they will be moving into anbar to push isis out but also going through a supply route north of anbar which isis use there as well. that was subsequently backed up by statements on state television read out by the prime minister and defense
police and potentially also we re hearing now as well maybe hundreds of sunni tribesmen could also be involved in this fighting too. now, the exact makeup of these forces is so key because of the sectarian divide in iraq the sunni-shia tensions that have always been here. fortunately now i think many observers are seeing the name of the this operation that the shia militia announced is called answering the call of hussein. that s very many are wondering perhaps the initial signals of this aren t particularly about embracing iraqi nationalism. but we have to see if this violence actually translates announcement translates into progress on the ground. we are hearing from those shia militia at this stage they don t think they need coalition assistance. they might be able to do it on their own. a tough fight ahead though michaela. certainly there will be. all right, nick thank you. this operation launching just as the u.s. and iraq get into a war of words over isis following harsh co
uncoordinated action which we ve seen them have difficulty with in the past but they re going to have a whole lot of mass. they will defeat isis. i will predict that today. given good odds for the iraqis to win back the city. general, you think they will get ramadi back? you take this seriously enough what s happening on the ground there that you believe that they will in short order get ramadi? i said that last week alisyn. they can t let ramadi say in the hands of isis. they have to get it back. but it s not going to be pretty. this is going to be an ugly fight. michael, do you see it this way? yeah i think they ll eventually get it back. but there s a lot of propaganda and public relations going into this campaign. much of it is i think is self-defeating. the operation called at your service hussein, which is a shia war cry or rallying cry. this would be like going into ramallah shouting next year in jerusalem and hope the majority supports you.
exclusively told cnn that he had doubts about the iraqis will to fight. let s bring in lieu tenant former commanding general of u.s. army europe and michael weiss our cnn contributor and co-author of isis inside the army of terror. gentlemen, great to have you here this morning to explain what we re seeing happen in iraq. gentlemen, we had you just on yesterday to talk about ash carter s comments about iraqis lacking the will to fight. how do you explain what s happening this morning? they had already planned an operation in ramadi alisyn. i think this is just a quickening of the tempo associated with that operation. but you re going to see a combined force of both iraqi security forces both army and police. you re going to see several elements of different shia militias going out to anbar province. and you re going to see some effects of sunni tribesmen. it s going to be somewhat of an
the obama administration now claims carter was only talking about that one battle and was not issuing a sweeping indictment of their will to fight. here s how one senior administration official is putting it and put it up on screen for you. it says iraqis have suffered setbacks before and were able to retake territory from isil. the united states will continue to support these efforts and do all we can to help the brave iraqi forces including the tribes of anbar to secure this province from isil terrorists. but these comments from the administration all but previewed this operation that is getting under way. but, alisyn certainly it seems defense secretary carter he was saying what people were thinking here in washington but it is very apparent now that these sides need each other. they re going to have to put this war of words aside for the moment. right. in washington sometimes people don t always say publicly what they re thinking. meanwhile, more breaking news to tell you about